DOHA, Qatar — The education of Gregg Berhalter began at an elite boarding school in New Jersey and continued at the University of North Carolina. And while that book learning was fine and all, neither school taught Berhalter the subject he really wanted to study, which was soccer.
So he left college a year short of a degree for a kind of study-abroad program in the Netherlands. He didn't get a degree there either, but what he learned changed his life and may have altered the direction of U.S. Soccer for the better.
Whether it works out as well for the Dutch will be determined Saturday when Berhalter, now coach of the U.S. national team, applies what he absorbed against the Netherlands in a World Cup knockout game.
