By RYAN TOLMICH
Tim Howard is currently on international hiatus, but that didn’t prevent the goalkeeper from earning recognition from the U.S. Men’s National Team.
U.S. Soccer announced Thursday that Howard had been named 2014 U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year, beating out a field that included Kyle Beckerman, Alejandro Bedoya, Clint Dempsey, Fabian Johnson and Jermaine Jones.
Howard won with 64% of the vote, beating out Jones and Beckerman, who finished in second and third, respectively.
The 35-year-old goalkeeper, who is currently taking leave of absence from the national team, made eight appearances in 2014, with the most memorable coming in a 16 save performance against Belgium.
With the 2014 award, Howard becomes the fifth player to be recognized as Male Athlete of the Year on multiple occasions, joining defender Marcelo Balboa (1992, 1994), goalkeeper Kasey Keller (1997, 1999 and 2005), forward Landon Donovan (2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010) and Dempsey (2007, 2011 and 2012).
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What do you think of Howard’s victory? Who did you think was the USMNT’s best player this year?
Share your thoughts below.
I would’ve gone with Dempsey. He was a better captain than I would’ve ever thought he could be. Led by example, set the tone with his early strike on Ghana and with his toughness after the broken nose.
Jones was our overall best player at the World Cup. Timmy was my #3 pick but a solid choice and I’m happy for him.
Jermaine Jones was spectacular this year. And he has proven to be a great addition to MLS. He would get my vote.
Timmy makes a lot of saves because he is also really good at giving up rebounds. Guzan is #1.
Meh, timmay had some pretty bad blunders against Portugal and Belgium, but whatever I would have gone with JJ.
Yea, that Belgium game was terrible
Congrats to Timmy on this well-deserved recognition.
However, I would really be curious as to who picks the candidates and the winner. Is there any good reason Michael Bradley was not on this list??? He had more assists than any USA player in 2014. In fact he had 1/3 of all assists for the USA this year. Beckerman comes in third in the voting and he had 0 assists, and 0 goals the entire year. Bodoya had 1 goal and 0 assists all year. Ok Bradley didn’t have the World Cup expected of him but he at least had an assist – Beckerman and Bedoya didn’t. And how does Beckerman get more votes than Dempsey???? Howard is a good choice to win but the rest is a load of rubbish.
Bradley doesnt get votes because he had a horrific, borderline worst player on the field every game world cup. Howard was beat near post twice, which should never happen. This 100% should have gone to Jones
why wasn’t Klinsmann named? What does the guy have to do to get some acknowledgment for his unprecendented success? He only plays every position on the field
The most successful run at the World Cup in USMNT history, the first time US got a point in Mexico, got Jermaine Jones and Chandler to commit to USMNT, turned Howard, Bradley and Dempsey into top-notch players…all of which are lies, but hey, he is from a foreign country and has won a World Cup, so just like the 300 other players who have done so, he is one of the best coaches and we lucky to have him
He had it until his reason for losing so badly on Tuesday.
Great choice.
Yep. A distant 2nd is Mix Diskerud’s p0rn0 style 70’s stache.