DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are trying to bounce back from bruising losses in the Champions League quarterfinals when Bundesliga action resumes.
With a six-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern will secure the title with three wins from the last five games and give Harry Kane the first major trophy of his career, barring a huge swing on goal difference. Bayern needs to recover quick from its Champions League exit at Inter Milan.
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Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz reacts disappointed during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Dortmund's Niklas Suele, right, and Dortmund's Pascal Gross react at the end of the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Bayern's head coach Vincent Kompany reacts during the Uefa Champions League soccer match between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich at San Siro Stadium in Milan, North Italy, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)
Bayern's Harry Kane, left, reacts at the end of the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Even if it wasn't enough to reach the semifinals, Dortmund's 3-1 second-leg win over Barcelona showed the sort of fighting spirit it needs in the final Bundesliga games just to qualify for next season's Champions League. A win on Sunday against a local rival is crucial.
— Bayern must avoid a repeat of a notorious collapse when it visits Heidenheim on Saturday. The last time Bayern played there 12 months ago, it gave up a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 in a heavy blow to its already-floundering title defense.
— Leverkusen needs to rack up wins and hope for Bayern mistakes. The next step is a win Sunday over St. Pauli.
— Dortmund is eighth and Champions League qualification is a long shot. Beating seventh-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday is vital. Other teams above Dortmund have less challenging games, such as Leipzig's against Holstein Kiel on Saturday.
— Florian Wirtz returned for Leverkusen last week as a substitute after more than a month out injured, but couldn't stop the team dropping points in a 0-0 draw with Union Berlin. Coach Xabi Alonso says Wirtz could start Sunday's game.
— Serhou Guirassy scored a hat trick as Dortmund threatened to defy the odds against Barcelona.
— Midfielder Nadiem Amiri has had a big role in Mainz's bid to qualify for the Champions League. He returns from suspension when it plays Wolfsburg on Saturday.
— Bayern's injury problems deepened as midfielder Leon Goretzka was ruled out of Saturday's game. The club said on Friday he has a “knock to his calf.” Longer-term injury absentees include goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, defenders Dayot Upamecano and Alphonso Davies and attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala.
— Dortmund captain Emre Can and midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka remain doubtful after they were ruled out just before Tuesday's game against Barcelona, though the team coped well.
— Mainz top scorer and captain Jonny Burkardt was ruled out with illness last week. It's not clear whether he'll return against Wolfsburg.
— Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso says “it is not a good moment to talk a lot about the future”, amid speculation linking him with Carlo Ancelotti's job at Real Madrid.
— Eintracht Frankfurt confirmed on Wednesday that Denmark right back Rasmus Kristensen's loan move from Leeds has been made permanent. Third-placed Frankfurt plays Augsburg on Sunday.
— “We shouldn’t let it spoil the season. We have the chance to regain the title in the Bundesliga." — Harry Kane reacts to Bayern's Champions League elimination.
— “It’s not easy, but if we still have a bit of hope, we want to try.” — Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso.
— “If we play with this intensity, in this way, we'll win a lot more games. We want to be playing internationally next season, too, and for that we definitely have to win Sunday against Gladbach.” — Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl after Tuesday's game against Barcelona.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz reacts disappointed during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Dortmund's Niklas Suele, right, and Dortmund's Pascal Gross react at the end of the Champions League quarterfinals second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, at the Signa-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Bayern's head coach Vincent Kompany reacts during the Uefa Champions League soccer match between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich at San Siro Stadium in Milan, North Italy, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)
Bayern's Harry Kane, left, reacts at the end of the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
