<p>The Mohawk is gone, but that's the least of the changes for Clint Mathis. The 27-year-old from Conyers, Ga., is living in Germany, thriving with his new team and testing himself as a soccer player like never before.</p><p>"This has been a great experience. I've done better than expected, better than anyone else expected," said Mathis, savoring a latte at a downtown cafe where his teammates hang out.</p><p>"No one could have predicted I would score four goals in my first five games. I definitely needed the change and to see myself at a higher level."</p><p>Two years have passed since the World Cup, when Mathis was expected to break out as the scoring star of American soccer.</p><p>Mathis, wearing his trademark Mohawk hairdo at the time, scored once at the 2002 World Cup, and U.S. coach Bruce Arena said he needed to improve his work habits and get in better shape. Mathis followed with his worst season with the MetroStars, scoring nine goals for a team that lost in the first round of the MLS playoffs.</p><p>Since joining Hannover 96 in January, things have changed. Playing behind two forwards, he has shown a gift for eye-catching goals. One came in a 2-2 tie against league power Bayer Leverkusen in which he started at midfield and dribbled through all the defenders before beating the goalkeeper.</p><p>"Not a lot of players can do that. He's very talented," Hannover 96 sports director Ricardo Moar said. "He's best in the last 30 or 40 meters of the field. That's the players you look for, the ones who are very cool there."</p><p>Mathis's transition to a new culture has been eased by U.S. teammate Steve Cherundolo, a Hannover defender since 1999. Until Mathis found an apartment recently, they roomed together.</p><p>"This guy's definitely helped me a lot," Mathis said. "He knows the places to eat, the people, who to talk to."</p><p>Cherundolo said: "Clint has adjusted very quickly, very quickly. All he needs is the language."</p><p>Mathis has been spared the fans' wrath over the team's slide. The club dropped from eighth to 16th in the 18-team league, where the bottom three are relegated to the second division.</p><p>He's twice been selected to the Bundesliga's team of the week by Kicker magazine, the country's most widely read soccer publication. He has four goals and two assists in eight games, and has become his team's free-kick and corner-kick specialist.</p><p>The blame has been placed on four other newcomers, all washouts, who were signed with Mathis.</p><p>"Mathis is very good," said Dieter-Ludwig Buckandal, a 64-year-old fan who comes to every practice. "If they were all like Mathis I'd be thinking UEFA Cup."</p><p>Cherundolo, however, knows what could happen if Mathis has an eight-game scoring drought, which was how his 2003 season ended in New Jersey. German fans have been known to block the team bus until they get a promise for better play.</p><p>"They will come right up to you and criticize you," Cherundolo said. "It wears you down."</p><p>At the World Cup, Mathis started once in five games. He scored in that one, a 1-1 tie against South Korea, and played as a substitute in two others.</p><p>"Some people say that I didn't have a good World Cup, but I'll take a goal and an assist in three games anytime," Mathis said. "It wasn't me that decided I couldn't play those games."</p><p>Mathis manages to block the criticism, although there hasn't been much lately.</p><p>"I don't worry about what everybody thinks, but I'm only human," he said. "If you hear it again and again and again, you subconsciously put pressure on yourself."</p><p>Mathis arrived in Germany with huge sideburns, then a full beard. Now he is clean shaven. But he insists more essential things are in place.</p><p>"All that makes me successful _ if I changed all those things, I could be worse," he said. "I care more about my friends, my family, my happiness, than soccer. Either you can deal with it or you can't."</p><p>His German teammates welcome his approach.</p><p>"He's a real joker. It's really good to have him around," midfielder Christoph Dabrowski said. "He's just a very strong addition to this team."</p>
