GREGG BERHALTER.... Kicker introduces eleven new players, one of them is Gregg Berhalter: BERHALTER: NEW CHANCE IN COTTBUS The deal just took two days. “Yes, everything went very fast”, tells Gregg Berhalter. “Head coach Geyer explained that Energie is having problems in the defence and that I can help the team.” The decision was very easy for the US national player with 31 caps. In the English First Division he wasn’t first choice at Crystal Palace. Manager Trevor Francis preferred the Australian national player Toni Popovic. “That was frustrating for me and because of that the offer from Cottbus came at the right time”, says the defender. “The Bundesliga always attracted me, it is one of the four top leagues in the world. Frankie Hejduk told me a lot about it”. In 1994 Berhalter tried to get a contract in the Bundesliga and was on a three week trial at Schalke. But it wasn’t enough back then. His strength are the direct duels and headers. In a national game against Italy he didn’t give Christian Vieri a chance and also his defensive behaviour at the WC in the games against Mexico and Germany seemed to be secure. “I’m gonna prove that in the Bundesliga and I will take my chance”, says the US-pro self-confident. “I want to stay in the Bundesliga with Cottbus”. And the general Cottbus article says: … Sure is that Gregg Berhalter will have his debut in the Bundesliga. The American persistent in direct duels, has the necessary hardness and plays very secure in the game opening. “Above all he’s talking in the defence movement, I’ll support him to go on like that”, praises Geyer the WC starter. “Many of our players are too quiet. Games are decided on the pitch and not under the shower or in a bar.” STEVEN CHERUNDOLO… …didn’t play in a friendly in La Coruna (1-4) due to a slight injury. He’ll be able to play against Cottbus though. OUTLOOK FOR THE MIDWEEK GAMES: SANNEH starts as central defender in the road match in Bremen (Tuesday, 3 pm ET) CHERUNDOLO and BERHALTER meet in Hannover for the bottom duel of the 18th vs the 17th; CASEY remains on the injury list with knee problems (Wednesday, 3 pm ET). GIBBS recovered from his injury and will probably start for St Pauli while THOMAS is expected to start on Braunschweig’s bench (Wednesday, 2 pm ET) DUHANEY and GIBSON are expected to be on the bench in Mainz’ road game in Oberhausen (Wednesday, 2 pm ET)
Thanks for the update, olafgb. Can you tell us how Berhalter did in this appearance, http://www.fcenergie.de/news/news.phtml ? I assume it's a reserve match, but I can't get anything out of it and I haven't seen anyone else discuss it. Thanks!
It was a friendly for the victims of the flood in Dresden's suburb Laubegast. Cottbus played against the D4 team FV Dresden-Laubegast and won 4-3. On Berhalter it just says that he had two chances to score before halftime, but his headers missed narrowly.
That was a charity match for the benefit of the people affected by the flood desaster (I assume you mean this match). The opponent, FV Dresden 06, a 4th division team, comes from a part of Dresden which was particularly damaged during the flood. So it is more important that almost 100.000 € have been secured for this part of Dresden than the match result (Energie-FV Dresden 4-3). Berhalter obviously played the full 90 minutes, the only sentence mentioning him says: "new team member Berhalter missed two header chances after set plays". During the first half there is no chance for the other team mentioned at all, so the defense did a good job/had not much to do anyway. About the 3 goals for Dresden, there is nothing about any involvement of Berhalter, seems to have made no mistakes at least. But there is really not much to get from this report.