Gregg Berhalter

Gregg Berhalter ( born August 1, 1973 in Englewood, New Jersey ) is a retired American soccer player who also has an Irish passport because of his Irish ancestors.

Playing career

Youth and College

Berhalter grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey. He attended Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey, where he played together with Claudio Reyna in the school team. After graduating from high school he played college soccer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the period from March 1991 to June 1994, he ran 57 times on, scored 13 goals and was preparing for another ten hit before. During the season break, the college league, he played in 1993 for the Raleigh Flyers in the United States Interregional Soccer League ( USISL ). Berhalter returns as Eagles Flyers face. In: The News & Observer. May 1993.

Professional

After his " juniors " year of college, Berhalter signed in 1994 a contract with the Dutch club FC Zwolle. The next few years he remained loyal to the Dutch football. He played two years for Zwolle, moved to Sparta Rotterdam in 1996 and finally in 1998 to Cambuur Leeuwarden. For Leeuwarden, he scored two goals in two seasons and went up in the 1999/00 season in the second league from. Between February 2001 and the conclusion of the 2001/02 season he played for English club Crystal Palace.

In the summer of 2002, eventually followed by the transfer -free change to Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga 1. In the 2002/03 season he played 23 Bundesliga games for the Lausitz and went up from the end of the season. In the 2nd Bundesliga, he completed up to the end of the season 2005/ 06 88 games for the Cottbus, scoring ten goals. After the re-emergence of the Lusatian in the Bundesliga he left the club immediately.

For the season 2006/ 07 he moved to TSV 1860 Munich. In his first season he was there captain of the team. By 2009, came Berhalter in Munich on 73 missions in which he was able to achieve eight goals. In the spring of 2009, he was held under the new coach Uwe Wolf no more consideration, on April 1 to June 30 be still ongoing contract was finally resolved.

On 3 April 2009 he moved to Los Angeles Galaxy. In the very first season in Major League Soccer, he was a regular fixture in the defense of Californians. His first goal for the team he scored on 14 November 2009 in the Western Conference final against Houston Dynamo. This secured a place in the final of the MLS Cup in 2009.

Even in his second season with the club, Galaxy was able to reduce his goal ratio again, what Berhalter had a large share. In the 2011 season he was next to his player activity, also one of the assistant coach of the team. At the end of the 2011 season, he finished his career as a player.

National

Gregg Berhalter played 44 A- international matches for the USA (August 2007). He has played two games in the Football World Cup 2002 in Japan and South Korea. With the national team of the United States, he had qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany, but was not initially called by coach Bruce Arena for the tournament itself. When, however, Cory Gibbs injured during the preparation of the knee, Berhalter was re-nominated two weeks before the start of the World Cup in the squad.

Coaching career

After Berhalter had 2011 parallel to his final season as a player with the Los Angeles Galaxy their first experience as an assistant coach, he returned at the end of back to Europe to take over the head coaching position at the Swedish second division club Hammarby IF. Since the beginning of November 2013 Berhalter has worked as a head coach and sports director at the MLS club Columbus Crew in Columbus, Ohio, United States.