BERLIN (AP) — Jürgen Klopp watched with a broad smile as Leipzig defeated Werder Bremen 4-2 to reclaim fourth place in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Klopp, the former Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz coach, took over his new duties as Red Bull’s head of global soccer on Jan. 1 and he took the first opportunity to see the energy drinks manufacturer’s German representative in competitive action.
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Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic, left, and Augsburg's Chrislain Matsima in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Stuttgart's Atakan Karazor, left, and Augsburg's Samuel Essende in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Stuttgart's Deniz Undav, center, celebrates scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Managing Director Sport, Jürgen Klopp, center, watches the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Lois Openda controls the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Lukas Klostermann, right and Werder's Marvin Ducksch vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Antonio Nusa, right and Werder's Derrick Köhn vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Antonio Nusa, left and Werder's Derrick Köhn vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates after scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates after scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Klopp can have had few complaints as he watched the 21-year-old Xavi Simons open the scoring and then cancel Mitchell Weiser’s response, before Benjamin Šeško, also 21, made it 3-1 with a brilliant strike from distance after the break.
Both Xavi and Šeško fit the profile of highly talented young players that Klopp will be expected to develop and attract to the growing Red Bull stable of clubs.
Leipzig substitute Christoph Baumgartner scored in the final minute before Bremen's Oliver Burke scored in stoppage time.
Klopp was in Paris on Saturday to see second-tier Paris FC beat Amiens 1-0. Among his tasks there is turning the club into one of France’s best under the ownership of the country’s richest family, the Arnaults of luxury empire LVMH. The family’s takeover of the second-tier club includes bringing Red Bull on board as a minority stakeholder.
Leipzig has struggled so far this season, losing all its games in the Champions League and dropping points in seven of its 16 games in the Bundesliga.
Germany forward Deniz Undav returned from injury to lead Stuttgart to a 1-0 win at Augsburg in the late game.
Undav had been out since Nov. 6 with a hamstring injury and then another muscular injury sustained in training. He went on as a substitute in the 61st minute in Augsburg and scored just four minutes later after being sent through by Angelo Stiller.
The win lifted Stuttgart – last season’s runner-up – to seventh in the 18-team division, one point above Borussia Dortmund.
Noahkai Banks, an 18-year-old American defender, made his Bundesliga debut for Augsburg when he replaced injured defender Maximilian Bauer in the 29th minute.
Bayern Munich leads defending champion Bayer Leverkusen by four points after 16 rounds, meaning it can’t be caught at the halfway stage, giving the Bavarian powerhouse the unofficial title of “Herbstmeister” or autumn champion.
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Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic, left, and Augsburg's Chrislain Matsima in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Stuttgart's Atakan Karazor, left, and Augsburg's Samuel Essende in action during the Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Stuttgart's Deniz Undav, center, celebrates scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart at WWK-Arena, Augsburg, Germany, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Managing Director Sport, Jürgen Klopp, center, watches the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Lois Openda controls the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Lukas Klostermann, right and Werder's Marvin Ducksch vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Antonio Nusa, right and Werder's Derrick Köhn vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Antonio Nusa, left and Werder's Derrick Köhn vie for the ball, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates after scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Leipzig's Xavi Simons celebrates after scoring a goal, during the German Bundesliga soccer match between RB Leipzig and SV Werder Bremen, in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
The two friends had hiked New Hampshire's challenging Mount Washington trail a month ago. They returned and did it again Sunday after trekking through neighboring peaks in the White Mountains. Both veteran hikers, the women were an hour behind schedule on their descent and losing daylight, but they had warm clothing, headlamps and other gear.
Then the wind kicked in. The temperature dropped. They were in waist-deep snow and whiteout conditions. They were lost on the tallest mountain in the Northeast, known for its extreme, changeable weather.
“That snow has nothing to stick to,” said Amy Cotter, a weather observer and education specialist with the Mount Washington Observatory at the peak at 6,288 feet (1,916 meters). “That snow gets whipped up very easily.”
One of Kathyrn McKee's snowshoes became stuck in a “spruce trap,” a hole created in the snow underneath trees.
“It took like 20 minutes to get out of that,” she recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. “And that kept happening. And so we got to a point where we were literally, like crawling on our bellies to try to get to the next point and just struggling so much that it wasn't working.”
After about an hour of trying to rescue themselves, McKee, 51, of Southborough, Massachusetts, and Beata LeLacheur, 54, of Westborough, Massachusetts, called 911. They reached New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officers, who plotted their GPS coordinates and directed them toward the trail — just 34 feet (10 meters) away.
It didn't work.
“They ended up on the trail several times but could not follow it as it had been completely erased by wind and snow,” said Sgt. Matthew Holmes of the Fish and Game Department. After multiple attempts trying to locate the trail and several phone calls starting around 6 p.m., “the two needed to huddle up in the snow to keep warm and await assistance,” he said.
The temperature at the summit was 2 degrees below zero (minus 19 Celsius), with sustained winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 96 kph) at the time, Holmes said.
McKee and LeLacheur were stuck at an elevation of about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).
McKee said she was wearing gloves with liners, but still lost the use of her hands due to the cold.
“I went into my first aid kid to grab the emergency blanket and extra hand warmers,” she said. “I couldn't open the chest because my hands were frozen."
The two sat there with the wind blowing on them for about six hours.
“I was terrified that my friend may pass away in front of me and, you know, or I might pass away, “ McKee said. ”And how did we get here? So, you do think about that, but you can't stay in that thought process because that's not going to get you out. So we just kept focusing on what is the next thing we can do.”
McKee said they grabbed a bag and used it as a wind guard. She was wrapped in a covering used over sleeping mats and bags.
“I was buried in snow at that point, so it was basically an insulator. So that kind of helped. But it also meant that I was immobile, I wasn't really moving," she said.
By late Sunday, the Mount Washington State Park snowcat, a ski resort groomer-type vehicle, started up the mountain’s auto road with nine rescuers and arrived at the summit just before midnight. Crews snowshoed their way through the wind-blown snow toward the trail. They approached the hikers' last known location at 1:20 a.m. Monday, but had not yet made contact.
“The only way to locate the trail was through GPS navigation, and the going was slow due to the tremendous effort required to break trail in the deep snow,” Holmes said.
McKee and LeLacheur were found a half-hour later. They had suffered frostbite, mostly to their hands.
Crews set up emergency shelters for them, and by 3 a.m. Monday, they were able to move on their own. By 4:15 a.m., the rescuers and hikers trekked down to the base station of the Cog Railway, a locomotive-led train that climbs to the mountain peak.
Holmes said both women were prepared for a winter hike, had emergency gear and had winter hiking experience. But they didn't expect they would lose the trail. McKee and LeLacheur had received training on hikes from the Appalachian Mountain Club's chapter in Worcester, Massachusetts.
“We feel really awful about having to make that (911) call, but it did save our lives, and we're eternally grateful,” McKee said of their rescuers.
Both said they'd go out hiking again in the White Mountains and add a small pop-up tent to their gear in case they need to seek shelter.
“You either get back on the horse, or you don't,” McKee said. “I'm not going to have a problem to get back on the horse. I'm going to do it as safe as I can. But I recognize there are risks in what we do.”
This image provided by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department shows rescue hikers along the cog railway during a rescue mission, on Mount Washington, N.H., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (New Hampshire Fish and Game Department photo via AP)
This image provided by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department shows rescue hikers leaving on foot from the summit, on Mount Washington, N.H., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (New Hampshire Fish and Game Department photo via AP)
This image provided by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department shows a snow cat heading out on a rescue mission, on Mount Washington, N.H., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (New Hampshire Fish and Game Department photo via AP)
FILE - The summit of New Hampshire's Mount Washington, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)