Michael Zorc: "We have taken another step forward"

It´s your 12th season as Borussia Dortmund´s sports manager or sports director, respectively. Has the summer break been comparatively quiet?
Michael Zorc: "We have clear structure in the club. The persons in charge harmonize well and work constructively together

So from the outside it might have looked pretty quiet, particularly compared to other clubs where key changes were made on the coaching and management level. We still did our homework during this time, worked hard and completed some transfers."

A football team is a living entity that changes constantly and Borussia Dortmund are still subject to financial constraints. With this in mind, how close is the current team to your ideal?
Zorc: "We are satisfied with the rebuilding of the team in the last couple of years. But we are also affected by the current financial crisis and we had to reduce our budget compared to last season. We still believe we have taken a step forward regarding substance and quality of the squad"

With Dimitar Rangelov, Markus Feulner and Lucas Barrios, BVB signed three experienced players, and with Yasin Öztekin and Kevin Großkreutz two youngsters made quite an impression in the pre-season. They were also part of the squad for the cup tie in Weiden - and so in a way put some pressure on the established players.
Zorc: "We are not capable of doing transfers in the double-digit million euro range. Therefore it´s our prime goal to get young, hungry players, develop them and then increase the competition in the squad, have backup players, also as temporary cover for injuries and suspensions."

What´s behind the project "Nachwuchs-Akademie" [Youth Academy] that BVB introduced and that will soon be realised on the training ground in Brackel?
Zorc: "Our strategy is to work with highly talented players, develop them, form them and introduce them to the professional level. Recent history has shown that this is a worthwhile goal. The step from the U19 to the professional level is a big one. We want to challenge and support the young people of our academy.

We want them to live and breathe football to be better prepared for the next step as a professional player. And our fans can also identify themselves a lot more with players from our youth system. And with Jürgen Klopp we have a coach who´s very good in this kind of work."

Last season the team finished sixth in the league, the season before 13th. Of course it´s impossible to continue at this pace. What do you expect from the team - regardless of their position in the standings?
Zorc: "If you see what´s been happening around us, how much money Hamburg SV invested or VfB Stuttgart and Werder Bremen, who have millions at their disposal from the transfers of Mario Gomez and Diego, respectively, if you see just how much Hoffenheim improved their squad, then we will have our hands full to confirm sixth place this season. But it´s our goal to get better. We have signed new players who give the team even more substance."

How do you see BVB´s position at the start?
Zorc: "We start from a higher level than in August 2008. For example, in footballing terms, the current squad has more substance. Due to the one-year collaboration with Jürgen Klopp, our level of performance is a lot higher than 12 months ago."

In their first competitive match, BVB registered a 3-1 win at SpVgg. Weiden in the DFB Cup. Your say on the team´s performance.
Zorc: "We won the game 3-1 and reached the next round, did what we had to do. Our game was similar to most of the other 31 first-round ties: most of the favourites went through, but there were very few blowouts. We also have plenty of room to improve our performance."

BVB open the new season at the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK against Cologne, one of the clubs who made headlines during the summer with spectacular transfers. How difficult of a task will this be?
Zorc: "For us it´s important to win this first home game. The stadium will be sold out - the fans of both clubs are riding on a wave of euphoria. We are the favourites in this game and it would be nice if we could start the season with a win."

The fans can look forward to a mouthwatering fixture list at the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Sandwiched between the "West derby" against Cologne and the derby against Schalke are the games against VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, last season´s third- and second-placed teams, respectively.
Zorc: "We had a similar tough fixture list at the start of last season. I like it, because we will know where we are at. But as a fan I rather would have liked that the two home games against Bayern Munich and Schalke 04, our highlights of the season, are not played back to back."

You can almost touch the euphoria this summer...
Zorc: "I think it´s remarkable that our fans have bought more season tickets than ever before in times of financial uncertainty. With 50.675 we have topped our record from the 2007/2008 season by around 200 and so set a new Bundesliga record. Our fans are fantastic. That was also the case when I played, and you can´t really thank them enough."

In 11 days, on 19 August, there will be another highlight for the team and fans, when Real Madrid are coming to Dortmund. What´s the significance of this game.
Zorc: "For Real it´s the last pre-season game before the start of the season in Spain. So the game has a special meaning for our opponents. Thanks to our marketing agency SPORTFIVE, who organises this event, we were able to realise this game. Names like Kaka or Cristiano Ronaldo are crowd-pullers, which can also be seen in the advanced ticket sales: we have already sold more than 65.000 tickets. The game against Real is an absolute highlight. It´s only adequate to play the world´s biggest club on our 100th birthday."

Do you fear that the team could also regard this game as an absolute highlight and that winning a tackle against Kaka or nutmegging Ronaldo becomes more important than focusing on the next league game against Stuttgart only three days later.
Zorc: "The coaching staff will make sure in telling the team where to put their focus."

The winter break has been shortened by two weeks this season. The second part of the season already starts in mid-January - at a time when most clubs used to be training under the southern sun. Is this the end of winter training camps?
Zorc: "No, we will still have a training camp, but travel there earlier, probably on 3 January 2010. The break is shorter for the players, but that could also be of advantage, because they don´t have to do so much endurance training. It´s then possible to focus more an tactical things. On our own training ground we also now have excellent conditions, but we can´t influence the weather. If you want to work intensively with such a big group, it´s important that the conditions are right."