Apparently Greg is planning to get certified to coach in Germany, and then eventually return to the US to coach. http://www.soccer365.com/us_news/story_71108170911.php
Our boy LoewenBoy mentioned there might be a chance Gregg will be offered a job within the highly respected youth program of 1860 when he retires. I think Gregg would make a great coach. He has a plethora of experience and could certainly pass his knowledge on to others. As we progress forward players with experience like Gregg's will be needed to coach. He's had a good, solid career with limited abilities. Gregg's a leader and has been with nearly every club he's played for. He's found a way to be successful and sometimes those attributes translate to being a good coach down the road.
So what's the Over/Under on how long it takes someone to start a "Replace Bradley with Berhalter" thread in the USMNT News & Analysis board? Three minutes? Four?
I'd said for years that Beerholder would try to get into the coaching game. He fits the profile. A career journeyman, has a university background (though, off Wiki, he had left NC after his junior year), been around a number of coaches, made some money but not enough to retire in style, has international pedigree and four nations soccer (US, England, Holland, Germany) experience to draw from, captained his pro sides, has a Euro passport. I assume Claudio Reyna and Brian McBride, who have similar experiences on the whole, will follow suit soon.
I'd say his abilities were actually quite good...perhaps it's better to say he had limited athleticism. He was actually quite adept with his left foot on set pieces, and often was his teams penalty taker. Quite easy to forget that he was actually the US teams first choice centerback for most of 2005, before quickly losing form and only making the 2006 roster as a replacement for Cory Gibbs. Over the course of the next 10 years or so, you're going to see a lot of the Americans who played abroad start to swell the coaching ranks. Very positive thing.
I'm glad you pointed this out. It's my belief that Gregg Berhalter is one of the more under-appreciated Yanks from the last 8 years or so. He arguably should've been a first choice center back in our starting XI alongside Eddie Pope in 2002, and did finally get his chance in the knockout rounds of the World Cup. And he seemed to be Arena's first choice in several of our important matches in 2005, as you said. At that time, I actually thought Berhalter would be a shoe-in for our starting XI in the 2006 World Cup. As you mention, he lost form a bit, and particularly, he was a casualty of the 4-1 debacle against Germany in March 2006. Jimmy Conrad emerged in his place, and the rest is history.
This is the article from the 1860 website where I, and Loewenboy, first saw the information that Gregg is looking towards being a coach. The article was a retrospective piece and here are so highlights, including what he had to say about his different stops: http://www.tsv1860.de/de/aktuell/news/2008/news_2008-10-28_int_berhalter.php Gregg Berhalter: "You have to work for everything" 15 years consumate professional and World Cup quarterfinal 2002 against Germany as the highlight of his NT career. With the score 0-1 Gregg almost had a goal, but Torsten Frings stopped the ball with his hand. (translator's note: ) The 35-year old is not nostalgic though. He is all about the here and now and knows the secret to success in soccer. Sorry, Gregg! When somebody is 35 and playing his 15th year of professioal soccer, you have to ask: how are you? GB: Age doesn't decide performance, at least not yet. There are only good players and bad players. I feel good and believe that my age is not an issue, but is instead something positive because of my experience. I know what it means to be a professional. Now I just have to be careful, live healthy and prepare well. That is important. Are you different now than you were earlier? GB: No, I was always this way. I have always worked hard and prepared myself well. My parents always taught me that you have to work for everything you get. That is just the way it is. Why do you work so hard and put in so many extra hours? GB: I know that you can't play soccer forever. So, I am trying to get as much out of myself as possible. I always want to be sharp, and that only happnes with hard work. I don't want to say after practice or after a game that I could have given more. I don't want to have any regrets. Seven teams in four countries. What has stayed with you? GB: I receieved a good foundation in the Netherlands. Technical details and tactics are highly valued. The first few years as a professional were very important to me and I am glad I started there. In England I learned the "fight" in soccer. In my first year, I got stitches three times and broke my jaw. That is what happened. It was crazy! But you have never been a finesse defender? GB: That's right but it is on a different level there. I never played in the Premiership, just in the First Division. They play fast, with long balls and not a lot of soccer. The forwards are fighters. That was an eye-opener for me. I knew afterwards how things are (in soccer). Four countries, many coaches.... GB: Yes, that's right. I learned something from each coach and tried to always take small things with me and hold onto them. After 8 years in Germany, is it your home? GB: A little bit, but the USA will always be my real home. I like it here. It is a great country and Munich is wonderful. People are nice and the mentality is similar to mine. As a player, you are hard-nosed. Will you be that way as a coach? GB: I am not sure. I think, as a trainer, you have to find your own path. I have to see how things will be. So, I can't say yet. Your contracht goes till the end of the season - where do you want to end your career? GB: We will have to see. I have always said that I want to finish my career in America, but in Germany soccer is much more respected - it is just fun. I have played for the last 15 years where soccer is the no. 1 sport and I think it will be difficult to go to a country where it is not on top. I am always thinking what the best thing for me is. Right now I feel good, want to continue playing and will see what happens.
And, I'll add one more thing - the guy is multi-lingual. If you need your US coach to go to Europe to hob-nob with some club managers, Gregg is your man. Send Bob to Germany and it's, "Mein Sohn ist ein 'Gladbacher" ... and then nada.
Not that that is really an issue considering most managers speak English, and beyond that nearly everyone in places like Germany, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, etc. speaks passable to excellent English. Nice try on the cheap shot at Bradley. He went to Princeton. How about you?
Perhaps he was referring to the fact that you tried to paint him as an unsophisticated American rube.
It is exciting to see Gregg embark upon his coaching journey. Das ist wahr, sogar zu einem Possenreißer.
I've often thought it will take someone like Gregg, a long time respected pro player, to break into the actual-yank-as-overseas-manager (as opposed to Earnie Stewart/Tom Dooley 'technical' yanks), one of the remaining frontiers for Americans in the sport, and a big one, as coaching is the biggest USA weakness. Not saying GB would be a great manager, but Im not saying he won't either.
i've never looked into it, but is there any consensus and/or statistical analysis of whether a player's position is correlated to success in coaching? I would assume that midfielders would be the most successful coaches, but is purely speculative.
I don't know but I'd be willing to best there is. It seems like there's a study for any and everything. Years ago when I discussed my interest in exploring coaching with my college coach he told me defenders tend to make the best coaches. Even though I was a defender, I lighthearted questioned this. My first thought, too was that midfielders would be best. But my coach told me something that stuck with me, "Defenders see everything, midfielders and forwards miss what's happening behind them". That made sense to me because as a defender you see how things develop organizationally and tactically. It literally happens right in front of your eyes. You miss nothing. I did some some quick little research to test my theory on the managers in the Premeir League. Here's how it broke down: Defenders Wenger (Arsenal) Scolari (Chelsea) Moyes (Everton) Brown (Hull) Southgate (Middlesbrough) Kinnear (Newcastle) Adams (Portsmouth) Pulis (Stoke) Mowbray (West Brom) Hodgson (Fulham) Bruce (Wigan) Midfielders O'Neill (Aston Villa) Ince (Blackburn) Megson (Bolton) Benetiz (Liverpool) Keane (Sunderland) Redknapp (Tottenham) Strikers Hughes (Man City) Ferguson (Man U)
Think about American football and what players seem to be the best coaches. Midfielders correlate to QBs and there aren't many coaches out there who played QB. However there are tons of Safeties and Linebackers (kinda the QB of defense). I think one attribute that gets overlooked with Midfielders is that a lot of them are fairly vain and tend to want to be the center of everything. I don't think this translates well to coaching. Defenders are rarely praised and learn to use team success as a barometer of personal success. Yes I know this is all generalization but whatever.
Then where are the goalkeepers? Granted, there are fewer of them in the game, but you'd think they'd be better represented in the ranks of coaches. Unless, of course, you ascribe to the theory that 'keepers are a couple of clicks to the right (or left) of "normal," so they wouldn't make good coaches...
I know. It is kind of astonishing you don't see more GK's in the manager role. Off the top of my head I can only think of a few like Bruce Arena, Walter Zenga, Dino Zoff, Ricardo Lavolpe, Michel Preud'homme, and Jacky Mathijssen (current manager at Club Brugge). They do obviously go into coaching as every team has a goalkeeping coaching but it is mysterious few go on to become managers. The only reason I can think of is that they have a different mentality than field players because they aren't necessarily involved in every touch of the ball. Maybe they are like pitchers in baseball, few of the them actually become managers but then you look around and there are many former catchers as managers. And do I ascribe to the theory 'keepers are whack jobs? YES!!! All I have to do is look at my brother and then my best friend. Both goalkeepers are both have some of the weirdest tendencies on and off the pitch!!!
Personally, I don't subscribe to theories regarding goalkeepers being wackos. Goalkeepers are different types in that they play a position entirely different from any other position that requires a different set of skills (and some of the same) to be sure. Often they prefer their own company. I have seen wacky some for sure, but have seen more forwards behaving unusually than gks. Excellent judgment and decisionmaking ability are critical for good goalkeeping. Keller, Friedel, Howard are three of the most thoughtful people you might ever meet. There are many goalkeepers who have gone on to coaching greatness although none currently active in the EPL, currently. Remember, there are ordinarily 3-4x as many forwards, midfielders and backs on a team as keepers so they are much more likely to show up as coaches. Goalkeepers often get a different type of training than field players or may be are pigeonholed early as GK coaches. Then again, they may just be too smart to get into coaching.