A new era kicked off with a beaming grin at 12:08 in the afternoon on 4 June as Thomas Tuchel was unveiled to the public as the new head coach of Borussia Dortmund amid a flurry of camera flashes.

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Tuchel showed great excitement for the task that lay ahead and spoke of his respect for the club, the team, the fans and his predecessor: "I'm ecstatic to be the new BVB coach," began the 41-year-old. He revealed that the very first discussions he had with Hans-Joachim Watzke and Michael Zorc had "made an impression" on him and that he had developed "a real desire" during his year-long sabbatical "to take over the reins at a top club, a club with great tradition and a real challenger". He added: "When I heard of their interest, it was clear that it was the only place for me." He was also looking forward to experiencing the "power" and "energy" of the fans: "I'm a very emotional coach who goes through the motions too."

Borussia Dortmund's U17s became only the second-ever team to successfully defend their title, following up triumphs in 1984, 1993, 1996, 1998 and 2014 with a sixth German B Youth Championship. With 7,196 spectators watching on in Großaspach, BVB recorded a 4-0 (0-0) victory over VfB Stuttgart in the final, though the result did not reflect the balance of play. Stuttgart's talented youngsters were well in the game until ten minutes into the second period. But a triple substitution by coach Hannes Wolf and a three-goal salvo in the space of seven minutes from young guns Fritsch, Serra and Passlack paved the way for BVB's title defence.

The first training day of the 2015/16 season began early in the morning, with the first arrivals coming through the door at 7:30am and the last to leave not departing until the evening. Divided into four groups, the squad started with a performance diagnostic, where all the players were given a complete check-up from their head to their toes. A "spiroergometry" at the Ruhr University Bochum was next on the agenda. This specialist concept refers to an analysis of respiratory gases which has been widespread in endurance sports for years now and is no longer entirely new in football either. Among other things, it determines individual heart rates within training and the aerobic-anaerobic threshold of the players. Here the point is determined at which the load results in the body experiencing an oxygen deficit. Based on this knowledge, the training load can therefore be individually controlled and thus optimised for the individual players. (br)