Howard Shines Despite US Heartbreak

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Today is not the day I’m going to bemoan Chris Wondolowski’s missed opportunity in stoppage time to win the game, Clint Dempsey’s poor touch off a well-designed set piece play in extra time that could have tied it, or the fact that Matt Besler pulled some Wonder Twins trick and turned into a human turnstile. No, in the wake of the United States’ 2-1 loss to Belgium in extra time, let’s instead take the time to appreciate Tim Howard and one of the better efforts put forth by a US athlete across any sport.

By now, you’ve all likely seen some version of the ‘Tim Howard saves everything’ theme sweeping the internet, as things tend to do in this viral age of social media. Tim Howard saved my marriage, you can’t follow Tim Howard on Twitter, he’ll block you, the only thing that can stop my tears is Tim Howard. My favorite one was someone revising the official US Secretary of Defense entry on Wikipedia to Tim Howard:

Someone changed the US Secretary of Defence on Wikipedia to Tim Howard. Fantastic. pic.twitter.com/haPrHWPLjx

— Cam (@_camwba) July 1, 2014

For a change, all the accolades heaped on someone across the internet were well-deserved in this instance. Dressed in the all-black kit, Howard reminded me of Neo in the Matrix, with time slowing down for him as he deflected everything the opposition could throw at him. I kept expecting him to dive inside one of the Belgian players and explode him from the inside. When it was all said and done, Howard had set a World Cup record with 16 saves, the most ever compiled since they began documenting such things in 1966, and well ahead of the previous record of 13 set in 1978 by Peru’s Ramon Quiroga.

You can watch all of the Tim Howard’s 16 saves here on ESPN FC. One remarkable trend is Howard’s ability to get down quickly and make himself wide to get a leg on the ball, best illustrated in saves number 1 and 9, similar situations where Origi and Mirallas were going to goal basically unencumbered by the US defense. He also does a fantastic job either swallowing rebounds when needed or re-directing shots into an area where the rebounds will not do any harm. Finally, they don’t show up as saves, but Howard is as good as anyone at reading crosses and corners (of which Belgium had 19) and getting to the ball in the air before any danger can develop.

Ironically, it’s possible, if not likely, Tim Howard’s performance Tuesday represented his final appearance on the World Cup stage. When the US squad heads to Russia in 2018, Howard will be 39 years old, not exactly a spring chicken in soccer terms (Columbia’s Faryd Mondragon became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup this year at age 43). Plus, the US has a worthy successor in Brad Guzan, who is also plying his trade in the Premier League for Aston Villa and at already 29 years of age, is chomping at the bit for his first World Cup opportunity. So aside from the 16 Belgian shots Howard remarkably turned aside, he may have saved one more thing: the best for last.