Howard keeps busy all over the world
Somewhere, perhaps scribbled on a piece of paper and stuck to the refrigerator at his home-away-from-home in England, Tim Howard has to have written a memo to himself.
How else is the U.S. national team’s starting goalkeeper going to remember everything he has to do in the next few weeks?
This is how it might read:
“May 30: Play for Everton against Chelsea in the F.A. Cup final at Wembley. Watch out for Didier Drogba. Also Frank Lampard, John Terry and Michael Essien.
“May 31: Fly to the U.S. and join up with the national team.
“June 3: Figure on shutting out Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifier in San Jose, Costa Rica. Watch out for the Estadio Saprissa fans.
“June 6: All but assure getting to the 2010 World Cup by defeating Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago.
“June 8: Fly with the U.S. team to South Africa to take part in the FIFA Confederations Cup.
“June 15: Take on current world champion Italy at Pretoria, now known as Tshwane. Watch out for whom? Fellow Jersey boy Giuseppe Rossi? Antonio Cassano? Who knows?
“June 18: Play former world champion Brazil, also in Tshwane. Watch out for Kaka, Robinho and the other nine guys in yellow.
“June 21: Finish the first round against Egypt in Rustenburg, still known as Rustenburg. Give Zak Abdel a hard time.”
It’s quite a schedule.
Add in the fact that Howard will be playing for Everton against Major League Soccer’s finest in the July 29 MLS All-Star game in Sandy, Utah, and then for the U.S. against Mexico in a huge World Cup qualifier in Mexico City on Aug. 12 and it’s obvious the shot-stopper has a unique summer in store.
There is not a player on the planet who can match his schedule game for game.
Not that Howard is intimidated by any of this.
Six years into his English Premier League career, the former New York-New Jersey MetroStar is regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in England.
Some of the credit goes to Abdel, the U.S. goalkeeper coach and a former Egyptian national team player. Most of the credit goes to Howard, who has followed superbly in the footsteps of Americans Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel and Marcus Hahnemann, all of whom blazed goalkeeping trails through England.
“He’s definitely one of the top three keepers in the Premier League,” Everton captain Phil Neville, Howard’s former teammate at Manchester United, told the Liverpool Echo.
“When you look at the top three, you’d say Edwin van der Sar, David James and Tim.”
Manchester United’s Van der Sar is the Dutch national team goalkeeper and a two-time European champion. James is England’s No. 1, for better or worse. So Howard is in pretty good company.
At 30, Howard is also rounding into his prime as a goalkeeper, with his best years still to come.
“At the start of the season, when we were leaking goals, he took it personally, like all great goalkeepers” Neville told the Echo. “He gets angry with his back four.
“He is one of the hungriest keepers I’ve ever played with. He’s at the age where keepers start to mature. . . . He gives us all great confidence.
“You can count the number of mistakes he’s made on one hand over the three years he’s been here.”
Howard will be going up against another of the world’s top keepers next Saturday--Chelsea’s Czech international Petr Cech.
But the American standout comes in with a huge psychological edge. Just a few weeks ago, in two games within days of each other, he blanked both Manchester United and Chelsea.
First, he knocked world, European and English champion Manchester United out of the F.A. Cup in the semifinals, saving penalty kicks by England national team defender Rio Ferdinand and $40-million Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov in a shootout at Wembley.
Then, he shut out Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, putting a sizable and ultimately irreparable dent in the Blues’ Premier League title hopes.
Without the financial resources of England’s “Big Four” -- Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal -- Everton, which is fifth going into today’s season finale, gets by on teamwork and self-belief, and Howard fits right in.
“He’s been fantastic,” Everton Coach David Moyes said after Howard had shut out Tottenham Hotspur in London for his club-record 16th “clean sheet” of the season, breaking the Premier League-era mark set by Everton legend Neville Southall. “Tim is a professional who works very hard at his game.”
Now, Howard stands on the brink of helping the Merseyside club win its first trophy since 1995, when he was just a 16-year-old kicking around in North Brunswick, N.J.
“For me, it will be one of the biggest days of my career, to walk out at Wembley representing Everton in an F.A. Cup final,” he said on U.S. Soccer’s website.
“It’ll be tough to put into words. . . . It’s really special.”
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Who is No. 1?
The argument over who is the world’s best goalkeeper is an ongoing one, with legitimate claims being made by several players, not least of all world champion Gianluigi Buffon of Italy and European champion Iker Casillas of Spain. But neither Buffon nor Casillas won a thing this season, so perhaps someone else gets the nod but not an outsider. By common consensus, these half a dozen keepers stand head and shoulders -- in some cases literally -- above the competition:
*--* Name Age Club National team Ht. Gianluigi Buffon 31 Juventus Italy 6-3 Iker Casillas 27 Real Madrid Spain 6-1 Petr Cech 26 Chelsea Czech Rep. 6-5 Julio Cesar 29 Inter Milan Brazil 6-1 Jose “Pepe” Reina 26 Liverpool Spain 6-2 Edwin van der Sar 38 Manchester United Netherlands 6-5 *--*
-- Grahame L. Jones
