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| Thursday, March 7, 2002 23:16 EST |
Finding his niche
By Marc Connolly
[ABC Sports Online]
It may have been a meaningless scrimmage between the U.S. National Team and a depleted Chicago Fire squad on Thursday morning at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, but not for Gregg Berhalter.
When you’re trying to make the final 23-man World Cup squad, every opportunity to impress Coach Bruce Arena is to be seized. And due to a bad hamstring, the Tenafly, N.J., native wasn’t able to do that last week in the 4-0 victory over Honduras after he was told he was going to start.
So even after playing just one half in which Arena’s squad played a Fire side that featured U.S. reserves Jeff Cunningham, Brian Maisonneuve and Zach Thornton, Berhalter was quite pleased.
“Yeah, it (the hamstring) was real good,” said the 28-year-old, who noted that the U.S. won “three or four to nothing” over the MLS squad. “Finally, for the first time in about 10 days, I felt pretty good.”
Now that all seems well with Berhalter, he is expected to start in the central defense for the U.S. when it takes on Ecuador this Sunday (ABC, 4 p.m. ET).
While Sunday’s match will give him another chance to prove to Arena and his staff that he belongs on their final roster, he isn’t putting a lot of pressure on himself. Speaking in a casual tone from his hotel room in Birmingham, Berhalter realizes that Arena is probably zeroing in on combinations of players and shaping roles for players more so than deciding on his final cuts.
“At this point, I think Bruce knows what I can do,” he said. “I think it’s just a question of showing him that I’m fit, I’m in shape and I’m helping the team. At this stage, he knows what all the players can do. Maybe there are a couple who are trying to show him (that they belong), but he must know (his roster) by now.”
One of the starting positions that is up for grabs is the spot of central defender next to Jeff Agoos. A whole myriad of players have filled in there and played well in an addition to Berhalter, including Eddie Pope, Carlos Llamosa and Pablo Mastroeni. But if one were to pick out the best individual performance from this list, it would be the job Berhalter did in the 1-0 loss to Italy on February 13 in Catania, Italy.
While marking superstar striker Christian Vieri, a rugged sniper who will pounce on any subtle mistakes a defender makes when guarding him to find the back of the net, it was Berhalter who looked like the world-class player, not the other way around.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound defender played bigger than his size and floated higher in the air than anyone on the pitch in winning several 50-50 balls at midfield and in front of his own 18-yard box. And when Vieri did get his magical cleats on the ball, Berhalter refused to let him turn, and left Vieri appearing stifled as the Italian attack stalled.
Though Italy would prevail in the second half behind the playmaking of Alessandro Del Piero, Berhalter remained steady, and left the field that night after what had to have been his best performance for the U.S. in 21 appearances spread out over eight years.
That’s really what you play for - to play against the best players in the world,” he said. “It was good to have success. It’s part of my game to be aggressive and win my headers and 50-50 balls. That’s one thing, fortunately, that was working for me in that game.”
Berhalter looked like a legitimate starter in that game, rather than just one of many so-called “bubble” players trying to get their ticket punched to the Far East. But for one of the few U.S. players who has trained under Bora Milutinovic, Steve Sampson and Arena, he knows that making this team and finding a niche or role is of the most concern, not trying to win back a starting central defender role that he enjoyed in five of the team’s six World Cup qualifying matches in 2000.
“Part of the whole experience for me is how I’m going to contribute to the team,” said Berhalter. “That’s what I’m trying to set myself up for right now.”
One of the ways Berhalter can aid this squad is through his leadership. After all, outside of Agoos, the U.S. backline has a reputation for playing as though it was in church when it comes to chatter.
“I think I’m a good organizer and I’m vocal,” said Berhalter, who played alongside U.S. captain Claudio Reyna in high school and then with fellow central defender Eddie Pope while at the University of North Carolina. “I think in the back, you need someone like that.”
Indeed, and Berhalter should know, too. Since leaving UNC a year early in 1994, he has played in Germany, Holland and England for the past nine seasons, the bulk of it being in the Dutch Honor Division for Cambuur and Sparta Rotterdam. He’s been playing for Crystal Palace in the English First Division for the past two seasons. While he’s been seeing action throughout the year, he’s not a starting player for Palace. His eye-opening game in Italy didn’t change that, either.
“I could have went to Italy and scored three goals and that wouldn’t have changed anything,” said Berhalter. “I’m not his (manager Trevor Francis) first choice as a defender. He has other guys ahead of me, and I just have to accept that. If they are injured or suspended, I’ll play, but he told me flat-out that I’m not his first-choice player.”
Berhalter will weigh his options after the season and says he’d love to one day play in MLS, but all that’s on his mind now is getting Palace into the playoffs and making the U.S. World Cup roster. Whichever way the ball bends for him over the next two months in securing a spot in the final 23, Berhalter is confident about the team’s defense.
“The key is that it’s everyone working together,” he said. “Everyone said in Italy, ‘Oh, the defense played good,’ but it was everyone who played well. And that helped the defense. That’s what it is -- finding the right mix of the four guys in the back and then working as a team on team defense. Then we’ll be fine, and very solid in the back.”
If Gregg Berhalter, someone who has never seen his name on a World Cup roster, is out there performing as he did against Vieri and the rest of the Azzurri, it’ll be hard to doubt that.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
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