Guzan hopes to create happy memories in Copa America
To be a world-class goalkeeper you need sure hands, good vision and great reflexes.
To that list Brad Guzan would add one more trait: “You have to have a short memory,” he said.
That is especially true of Guzan, who will start for the U.S. in Friday’s Copa America Centenario opener against Colombia less than three weeks after one of the most disappointing seasons of his professional career.
Playing for Aston Villa in the English Premier League, Guzan gave up a league-high 58 goals in 28 games. After pitching a shutout against Bournemouth in the first game, he didn’t win again as Aston Villa was relegated to the second-tier league for the first time in 29 years.
Yet Guzan said he let all that go somewhere over the Atlantic on his way to join the U.S. national team in training last month.
“As soon as I was on the plane headed to Miami for the start of the camp, my focus was only on the summer and being part of this team,” he said.
A good summer could erase a bad winter for the two-time World Cup veteran. And international duty always seems to bring out the best in Guzan, who posted shutouts in 15 of his 37 starts for the U.S. -- including two of the three Copa America tuneup games.
That certainly influenced the decision to make Guzan, 31, the starter. But U.S. Coach Juergen Klinsmann really had no other choice. Tim Howard, the former No. 1, gave that job up when he took a year-long hiatus after the last World Cup, then lost his starting spot at Everton midway through the EPL season. And the team’s third goalkeeper, Ethan Horvath, is just 20 and has yet to make an appearance with the senior national team.
Nor were there many options in Major League Soccer. Real Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando was on the last U.S. World Cup team, but at 36 his best days are behind him. And D.C. United’s Bill Hamid, arguably the league’s top keeper the last two seasons, has played just once this year because of injury.
That may not be the strongest vote of confidence Guzan has ever gotten. But Klinsmann is keeping his fingers crossed and saying all the right things in the hopes that his only choice will prove to be the right choice.
“I know him pretty well. I know who he is. I know [his] strengths, weaknesses and all that stuff,” Klinsmann said of Guzan. “The national team environment is very different from the club environment. And you just hope that once he leaves the club situation behind him that he kind of settles with himself and stays consistent with what he’s been doing with the national team.”
To head off any controversy Klinsmann said he met first with Howard, 37, the winningest keeper in national team history, then with Howard and Guzan together, after the team gathered in Florida last month.
“Tim is handling the situation outstanding[ly],” Klinsmann said. “He’s just a true professional. He said right away ‘Juergen, no worries about me. I’m here to push Brad, to help him when I can.’ ”
As for Guzan, “he looks very confident. He looks very balanced,” Klinsmann said. “He’s also experienced. He’s not a youngster. He deserves to have that spot right now.”
Whether he deserves to keep it will be determined by how he plays. After the game with Colombia, ranked fourth in the world by FIFA, the U.S. meets Costa Rica in Chicago, then finishes group play against Paraguay in Philadelphia. Failing to advance to the second round of the 16-team tournament would be a disaster for the U.S., but Klinsmann has his expectations set even higher, saying he thinks the team can make it to the semifinals.
Guzan would like nothing better than to prove him right.
“It’s a huge tournament, a prestigious tournament to be a part of,” Guzan said. “Because of the teams that are involved and the type of players that they have, that part is exciting.
“We know it’s going to be a test for us in terms of rising to the challenge.”
kevin.baxter@latimes.com
Twitter: @kbaxter11
