'KEEPER LANE EXPLAINS FRIEDEL ASSIST Michael Adubato - Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Cercle Brugge
Lane in preseason
During the transfer window, Cercle Brugge of the Belgian Eerste Klasse added a third goalkeeper to their roster by signing unknown American Patrick Lane, who got a big assist from US legend Brad Friedel.
The Californian, who played his college ball for Loyola Marymount University, is obviously happy to get his professional soccer career started.
"Things are going well," Lane told Yanks Abroad after Cercle Brugge's game against Greg Dalby's ex-team, Charleroi on Sunday evening.
"On a personal level I'm putting in some good work and training really hard so I'm excited to get a chance to get my career started."
The young keeper, who's father Michael played for Leeds United in the early 1980s, knows that he must bide his time in the world of professional soccer.
"Everybody at home is saying how excited they are for me and I'm proud that they are of course but for me, I'm just starting. I haven't done anything yet."
"I haven't even played in a reserve game yet although last week we played a friendly against NAC Breda and I played in that one. Jo Coppens (Cercle's 18-year-old 'keeper) has been playing the reserve games."
The 20-year-old Lane would like to get in some reserve games but in the Jupiler Pro League system, this is not always possible.
"I'll play what reserve games I can play and will be on the bench for the first team, but the games are usually back-to-back on the night, so I can't really take part in both games because one is at home and one is away. This makes it really hard to travel with the team like this."
Lane first stopped off in England to meet up with Brad Friedel and Cercle while both were in Blackburn.
"I have contacts with Brad Friedel's Academy back home," the Cercle keeper continued. "Blackburn has an affiliation with Cercle Brugge and Brad wanted me to get started somewhere [with my professional career]."
"Cercle had their preseason week at the Blackburn training facilities, at the time he was still with Blackburn," Lane continued. "He spoke to Glen [De Boeck, head coach of Cercle] and said that 'this kid could fly over at his own expense, so you can have a look at him.'"
"I was there with them a week and I did pretty good at the Blackburn training facility, so they invited me to Belgium for 14 days. After seven days and the two games I played for them, they wanted me to sign."
The young man admitted that a move to Belgium wasn't what he was expecting in the beginning.
"Actually at first I thought I would be going to Norwich City. I was a bit sceptical because I didn't know anything about the place. But they made it really easy for me, starting with the training at Blackburn. Everybody on the team speaks English so it was easier to make the transition."
Lane is now the third American playing for a top Belgian team, joining Oguchi Onyewu with the Belgian champions Standard Liege, and 18-year-old Jared Jeffrey with Club Brugge.
"We play Liege on October 5th and my parents will be visiting then, so I'm looking forward to that game."
In the meantime, the Californian will hope to make it off the bench at some point, perhaps even this weekend when the Green and Black plays host to Beerschot at the Jan Breydel Stadium.
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