photo by Jim Brown/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
WASHINGTON — Tim Howard might be back in the picture, but Brad Guzan will man the pipes for the U.S. Men’s National Team. This month and the next.
U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced on Wednesday that Guzan will not only be the starting goalkeeper for the upcoming friendlies against Peru and Brazil, but also the Confederations Cup playoff vs. Mexico on Oct. 10.
There had been speculation as to whether Howard could reclaim the starting spot he relinquished by taking a year break from international play following the 2014 World Cup. Klinsmann put to rest any notion the goalkeeper position was up for grabs ahead of the crucial clash vs. Mexico, citing a lack of time to reintegrate Howard back into the picture.
“Since we are so short away from that clash with Mexico, we are not there making changes right now,” said Klinsmann. “Brad is the No. 1, Tim is the No. 2. Tim accepted that because he was gone for more than a year from the team.”
Long an understudy of Howard, the 30-year-old Guzan has started the majority of the U.S.’s matches since Howard, 36, made a record 15 saves in the Americans’ 2-1 Round of 16 loss to Belgium at the World Cup in July 2014.
Guzan started in goal for the U.S. throughout the recent CONCACAF Gold Cup, and won the tournament’s Golden Glove award despite making a mistake that proved costly in a 2-1 semifinals loss to Jamaica. Overall, Guzan’s time as the U.S. starter has been solid, though not enough to shake questions of whether Howard should still be the starter.
Howard will have to wait until after the vital match with Mexico to have a shot at earning back the starter spot he held so tightly from 2007 to 2014.
“Once we get the Mexico, hopefully successfully, out of the way then we can think about how we can split maybe some time,” said Klinsmann. “Now it’s about getting consistency with the players, and getting the job done in October.”
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What do you think about Guzan being named the USMNT starter for the friendlies and CONCACAF Cup? Think it is a mistake and that Klinsmann should make it an open competition? Do you see Howard eventually winning back the No. 1 spot or will Guzan be in between the pipes for the foreseeable future?
Share your thoughts below.
wow, so much for an open competition. If I was Howard, I’m on a plane this morning. It might be better for Howard though. We have a strong chance of going 0-3 in these games and Im not sure I want to be the goalie if that were to happen.
And yes, he is being Landoned
Nah, Brazil will be tough but Peru and Mexico are certainly beatable, even with JK as head coach. Let’s leave that inferiority complex aside for a while.
Polar Bear mits!
Howard vs Guzan. Is this my generation’s Keller vs Friedel?
1 committed himself to the NT for several years too long while the other ducked off but added years to his playing career
What explains Howards poor form for Everton last year and Guzans poor form for the NT this yea can they both rebound?
On their best day was there ever a US goalkeeper who was world class? As in top 5 of his position. Howard? KELLER? FRIEDEL? Guzan? What about Hahnemann?
“On their best day was there ever a US goalkeeper who was world class?”
Here are a couple of dates for you. You can Google what happened and then kill yourself.
-Feb 10, 1998
-July 1, 2015
There are countless others. Learn your history.
Based on how Tim Howard is a clutch ‘save machine’, how he commands the back line, and what also exceeds Brad Guzan’s skills is his distribution! Tim should be the guy necessary to face El Tri. The stakes are too high to have to trust Guzan, who, basically blew the Gold Cup with that egregious hand ball gaff! Who struggles with distribution and who is not the physical presence between the pipes that Timmy is!
To quote JK ““Now it’s about getting consistency with the players, and getting the job done”… SAT WHAT? I appreciate the effort and much of Juergen’s successes in reviving our national team, but come on JK, your team/roster/gameday selections have left the soccer world scratching their heads. Your break neck pace of switcheroo with players is astounding. None of our players are able to gain any type of consistency thanks to your helter skelter lineups. We just don’t yet have the depth to simply plug a player in at your whim. Have you ever thought of creating a CB tandem and actually leaving them in there to grow with each other? If you’re going to preach consistency, then practice it! This is the first in about a half dozen matches with Mexico that I do not feel comfortable or confident about.
If you are so adamant and excited about teaching our players to perform in the spotlight, before massive crowds etc.. how about putting your job on the line for the Mexico match?!!!
Ok I am assuming some of you here must be in the official US Soccer supporters group or know someone that is. If so, you probably got an email today with a presale code for tickets to the Concacaf Cup. If you aren’t planning to go to the game (you don’t live in the L.A. area), perhaps you can send me your code?
I’m now firmly in the fire JK camp. Naming Guzan the starter over Timmy is just ridiculous.
Welcome aboard – unfortunately we won’t get what we are looking for until after Russia.
The number one priority of the US is talent pool development, and Klinsmann has been the best US coach at this, ever, both by giving opportunities for places and by mentoring players with their club careers, including being a great partner for the clubs themselves.
Secondly, he continues to define a US national style of play (fast, aggressive offense with a blend of two touch possession and risk reward balls that if successful lead to chances) and address technical deficiencies in a way that is simply better than his predecessors.
I suppose I have really have never understood how much the Donovan decision was hated by some people. I didn’t agree with it either, but it doesn’t deserve such permanent animosity.
JK values commitment, just as any good boss does. Brad has served his time and then some. He has earned his shot. If Tim remains a good leader as the backup, and if the next couple months don’t go well for Guzan, then the spot is up for grabs. Simple as that.
Klinsmann’s endorsement doesn’t really mean much. I wonder if he kissed Brad on the lips after naming him starter.
The SBI reaction to this is more interesting than JK’s actual announcement which was pro forma..
Guzan has done a fine job as the number one since Timmy left. He is not the reason the US had a bad Gold Cup. He deserves a chance to fix the US’ situation in the playoff game.
The team has been in camp now for at least a few days. Have any of you been at the camp? I haven’t but I expect both Timmy and Brad are in top form and ready to go.
Y’all wonder about the timing?
That’s easy. If Brad does well vs. Peru and Brazil, then fine, it is proceed as announced and it is smooth sailing.
If he does poorly then JK has his out and can say:
” I know what i said but, as we have seen in these games, right now Brad is just a little bit behind Timmy so, we are lucky to have such experience to turn to in this case” .
Perfect. All the pressure is on Brad to play his best in all three games. If he fails he has no one to blame but himself. I think that is how he wants it and he will be fine.
That is the best way to handle it when you have two Number 1 keepers who both need to pushed 24/7/365.
Timmy had no pressure on him going into the 2010 World Cup and was garbage. Going into the 2014 World Cup Timmy was under pressure at Everton and with the US and he responded beautifully in both cases..
I think you nailed it on the timing. This announcement doesn’t lock JK in to Guzan, really…. Just gives Guzan a bit of confidence and settles an issues that was bound to become a distraction over the next 6 weeks.
We play Brazil on Tuesday and unless Guzan goes Kasey Keller on them, history suggests we will probably concede goals. That gives JK his “out” if he gets cold feet and wants Timmy back in net.
And yes, you probably nailed the JK quote verbatim.
Your first paragraph is spot on. And I think its good managing from JK.
Agree with GW, except remember Howard was playing with a bad rib after being Hesky’d against England in 2010. Don’t think it was pressure, it was being less than 100%. (I still wince at the extra time Ghana goal memory)
I honestly think there’s little to choose between them, it’s whatever occasional mistake an observer remembers the most which makes them gravitate toward the other guy.
I can tell you from personal experience that nobody remembers little mistakes.
Mark from LA,
I’ve heard that about Timmy’s injury.
If that is true then BB has to blamed for letting a less than 100% capable keeper play. Guzan was relatively inexperienced but he had kept a clean sheet in that vital Egypt game in the 2009 Confederations Cup where they HAD to win 4-0 or be out.
So it wasn’t like Guzan was a raw rookie. Besides if you didn’t trust him to play a World Cup game why was he on the roster?
Like playing Jozy game in and out gives him confidence. Ho’w that confidence builder working?
If you go to my first post near the top, you will see that I predicted the nonsense to follow. However, I must say it is even worse than I expected. So many of these posts are ignorant, biased, or unrealistic, sometimes a combination of all three. You are one of the few who looks at the situation analytically and realistically. As i pointed out earlier, they are both very good GK’s and the situation is analagous to Keller vs. Friedel.
Typical JK fanboy response – you disagree with JK? How dare you – are you in camp every day? No, fans are not in camp every day but they have the right to an opinion and to express it on sites like this. It’d be pretty dull if everyone just said “who am I to question JK?”
Typical slowleftarm response. You must keep these on word and just cut and paste them.
And who is denying you and other fans the right to your responses and your feelings?
Certainly not the SBI moderation feature.
You can certainly dish it out but you can’t take it.
You should continue using the expression “JK Fanboys”. In addition to being awesome and original, it really moves the dialogue forward.
Right decision. Get on with it it Goozy. Do us proud.
IDK, show me a coach who never contradicts himself or changes his mind and I’ll show you a losing coach. The demand for total consistency is childish.
“Once we get the Mexico, hopefully successfully, out of the way then we can think about how we can split maybe some time,” said Klinsmann. “Now it’s about getting consistency with the players, and getting the job done in October.”
So…now he cares about consistency?????
Howard left so his spot is up for grabs. Guzan has beem good but he has not locked dow n the spot.
Maybe both Guzan and Howard need the threat of the other to bring out the best in them.
Has Guzan been good? Seems to me he singlehandedly gave up the goal that knocked the US out of the gold cup. Hand ball outside the box 100% his fault. He was the only one with a chance to stop the resulting free kick, missed that too. When you knock your team out of a tournament you should win, you job should not be 100% locked in stone. JK at it again, caring more about punishing players that he perceives having turned their backs on him, than actually winning.
Man that’s a good point Jesse D, Im a J/K fanboy but I think this goal keeper stance is a little foolish.
Does a clean sheet against Mexico end Howard’s chances at ever being the no. 1 again? Interesting to consider.
Does two grossly terrible outings by Guzan have JK backtracking on his Howard statement? What ifs are everywhere.
“Since we are so short away from that clash with Mexico, we are not there making changes right now.”
Yet this applies to no other position as Klinsmann tells everyone else to prove they belong.
What a crock. Tryouts should be over by now. Play your XI to prepare for Mexico.
And terrible decision not to go with Howard. Klinsmann’s nonsense is unbelievable.
You’re exactly right. JK’s rhetoric is full of hypocrisy.
One could easily say the same about the rhetoric of Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Belicheck, Phil Jackson, and plenty of top-class managers with boatloads of hardware.
There is really very little to be learned in studying the truthfulness of what a manager tells the media.
I don’t disagree with anything you wrote. However, this about JK specifically. Jürgen’s approach to the media is to always change the narrative, instead of owning up to his bad team selections, subpar tactical acumen, etc. Not once has JK went out and told the media that he, himself got it wrong. In Jürgen’s world he is always right.
I have seen what I needed to see out of both Guzan and Howard in the last year. Klinsmann is wrong on both counts. Bill Hamid should be our keeper from here on out. Guzan is average at best and Howard cant outrun Father Time. Start Hamid and dont look back.
Hamid has been tearing it up.
Third GK called is Yarbrough.
Hamid does have a nice, low sub-1.0 GAA.
No matter what position you play and what kind of stats you put up, the MLS is always going to be the second best to JK, even when he begin to start players from Lower Elbonia, because they are from Europe.
If Hamid is so wonderful, why hasn’t he gotten an offer to play in Europe? Do you really think that MLS play is equal to the Premier League? Boy, what have you people been smoking? Also, how much international experience does Hamid have? How much has he played with the rest of the US defense? You people are delusional. Hamid has a lot of potential, but we already know what the other GK’s are capable of.
bottlcaps,
Guzan has been in a few really vital games for the US like the Snow Bowl and the 2009 Confed Cup game vs Egypt where they needed a 4-0 result and got it. And in his time at Villa has faced more than a few relegation do or die games where he has gotten a result.
Timmy’s resume is well known.
When has Hamid played a really, really big game where he had to get a result?
Glad to see I’m not the only one who has been having these thoughts. The other guys might be a little ahead of him still simply based on top-class experience, but I would really like to see Hamid phased in in the near future. Guy is starting to look really excellent on a consistent basis.
Let’s be real, anyone off that U23 side that couldn’t even hold ES is suspect. But he more than Johnson has found his legs.
I was not a believer until this season. He has really stepped his game up, in my view.
“simply based on top-class experience,”
Top class experience, especially for a keeper, is just so overrated..
You are officially nitpicking, GW.
Diego,
nitpicking? How so?
Every time I read an interview with a top class keeper on the art of goalkeeping there are a few consistent themes.
1. A whole bunch of spectacular saves are usually the result of some basic flaw in positioning in the first place.
2. The game is far more mental than physical. Which explains why there are so many top class keepers who play on into their late 30’s and even their 40’s. It also explains why a vertically challenged guy like Nicky Rimando is such a good keeper.
Hamid is coming along fine but unfortunately for him teams only get to play one keeper at a time and right now he isn’t better than Guzan and Howard and they may not go away any time soon.
Replacing Brad/Ho is about as far down the list of priorities for the USMNT as is possible so it is up to Hamid to become impossible to ignore.
I don’t discount the value of experience. Maybe I should’ve used the word “obviously” instead of “simply”. I just meant to say that Hamid has now gotten to a level where experience is the biggest remaining difference between him and Guzan/Howard. I wouldn’t have said anything like that 2 years ago.
This is a pretty needless argument, as I think we are pretty much saying the same thing.
This is not to discount Hamid, but what big games has he played in? MLS Cup, CCL final, what? He has not been under anything near the pressure that both Howard and Guzan have faced or face every week. To say Hamid has looked great in MLS games every week is not exactly the highest praise possible. It’s not just the amount of experience, but also the type of experience.
I agree with all of this. He does not have the top-level experience that Howard/Guzan have and that’s why he is behind right now. I’m not sure where the disagreement is here.
Making a bunch of spectacular saves is also a sign of your defense being ripped apart by the other team. Two cases in point–US vs. Belgium in the 2014 WC, and Kasey Keller vs. Brazil some years ago in a friendly which the US won 1-0.
Yes and no.
A goal keeper part of the defense. He is not separate from it.
Guzan and Howard have to take some of the responsibility for the crap defenses they have played with at Villa and Everton.
A keeper is like a catcher in baseball. He is the only guy who has the entire game always in front of him. And while there are limits, that is why he is the best placed person to organize the defense.
Watch Buffon carefully. He’s a great keeper not because he might occasionally make the odd circus save but because he almost always does the other 99.9% of the keeper’s job, mostly flawlessly, i.e. positioning defenders on set pieces and in other defensive situations, handling his distribution duties well, handling back passes and routine saves perfectly. etc. etc.
My goalkeeping coach once told me that if you make the saves you should make then making the “circus saves” is just gravy on top of that.
A keeper like Buffon breeds confidence in his defense which eventually spreads throughout the entire team.
A shaky keeper on the other hand can completely shatter the confidence of the defense and eventually the entire team.
Timmy could always make the circus save. SAF fired him because of his basic errors.
He went on to become a great keeper when he finally learned how to make the rest of his game more consistent.
De Gea and Courtois are both young keepers (about 24) who are great keepers so I don’t hold Hamid’s age, per se, against him.
What I would like to see from him is to consistently play and produce under a lot more pressure than he has done to date.
I’m a RBNY fan but even I think Hamid should be higher up the pecking order. Fortunately he should leave DC this winter which means he will improve in JK’s eyes.
What I find odd about this is that Klinsmann’s background was in being a striker. Yet, here he is wheeling the team around the Goalkeeper. It almost seems to have a fatalistic air about it, that you’re showing you’re more worried about Mexico’s attack than your own.
I personally would feel more comfortable with Howard in a big game situation as that. He commands that defensive line and his reflexes are better.
I think JK is doing a disservice to the team, you go with the guy that is in form. Howard is off to a fantastic start in the BPL.
Are you serious? The guy is a blunder waiting to happen.
Yes and Howard’s form dictates otherwise.
Everton has allowed one fewer goal. But to me, Guzan is the sort of keeper who is often spectacular in either direction, good or bad.
Howard has faced better competition thus far, IMO. He’s been really outstanding the last 3 weeks.
15 years ago, should the US have played Keller or Friedel more? It’s a similar situation now. We have two very good goal keepers. Some games one might be better than another, but overall, there’s little to choose between them.
+1. They’re both good.
If you want to nitpick, Howard goes to ground a little early, and is 2 years past his peak reaction times, and therefore has to guess a little more often. Howard can have times where he makes great saves that few would stop yet gives up a goal that looks like it could have been stopped.
Guzan is not quite as good in 1 v 1 emergency breakaways and is perhaps more impacted by a bad back four mistake in front of him.
They both routinely make exceptional saves, Howard with his feet and Guzan stopping close range strikes/headers with positioning and not committing too early.
I would go with Guzan because I think his time as #1 this year has made him better than Howard with the US. And also pushed Howard to up his form.
They are both keepers that would be ranked in the top half of any of the top 4 leagues in Europe, and both have experienced periods of form that would put them in the top 10 globally.
Well, that was quick.
I guess for me it all comes down to the CB pairing he goes with. If its Ventura and Brooks with Guzan again, I don’t see the point. I think they both have talent and could be integral down the road, but I think only Howard can take those two and get them to where they need to be by Mexico.
Is JK pretty much showing his hand? Even though he said that most positions are up for grabs, is that true? If it is, I would say that he has shown his hand that he was not that excited about the CB paring during the Gold Cup, with bringing in so many CBs.
I think after the Boca Debacle, he has learned that when he is Landoning a player, announce it early. Having your kid send ridiculing tweets is optional.
Guzan’s performance is mixed and so I think it’s a suboptimal decision. The defense has been leaky enough that we need all the help we can get. I take it to be sending a message and the problem is, selection choices can be subjective enough that short of an injury forcing the hand, it’s hard to say what amount of quality and effort convinces.
You’d think he’d see how the friendlies go before naming someone starter for next month……
If JK had it his way, Guzan would have locked the job down during the GC and JK could have told Howard to spend more time with his kids. But Guzan couldn’t, not behind our shambolic defense, and so JK is left in this position.
Why he feels the need to put this out there 5 weeks before the game is odd, except to let everyone know that he’s Mr. Bossy Pants and he doesn’t like when players put family or mental health above soccer. I’ve been mostly supportive of JK’s work to rebuild the program up from the bottom up, but his attempts to be unpredictable have become fairly predictable at this point, and not necessarily for the best of USMNT…
I’m with you in a sense. I still support JK but I think it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he never really stopped to contemplate the scenario in which we did not win the Gold Cup, and were forced to play a high-pressure game in October of this year. Now he is finding himself with a number of awkward selection problems and not much time to address them.
Big game…
I think the awkward selection problems come from having a number of players like Bradley, Dempsey, Altidore, Beasley, Fabian Johnson, Chandler, and Evans unavailable. It should be obvious from his call ups and what he has said that he would like to be going with pretty much the same roster as in the WC, with the exception of Zardes for Green and Alvarado instead of Davis..
Wow, I didn’t know that telling people which goalie is #1 is giving away secrets. Now I’ve heard everything.
I didn’t say anything about “giving away secrets”. I’m talking about team chemistry and healthy competition for the goalkeeper position. What is the purpose of telling the world that Guzan will be the starter for the next 3 games, except to tell people “I won’t have my hand forced to put Howard back on the field, even if he was amazing against Belgium and has been our #1 keeper for the past 7 years?” Very reminiscent of how he approached Donovan.
Yeah you would think so, but we’re dealing with Klinsmann here. It’s obvious that Klinsmann would rather think he’s doing a favor to to the fans the team and start the second best goalkeeper, only because the best decided he needed some time away from Klinsmann.
I think we may have an outside chance of a result against Peru, but fed to the wolves against Brazil. With no chance of a result against Mexico, unless we start Howard and have Dempsey back. If there is any good to come out of this, the pairing of Besler and Gonzales on the backline with Yedlin may help the cause. But I’m expecting Klinsmann to give us Brooks and Alverdo and another loss or two.
Wow, I’m no JK fan but “outside chance of a result against Peru”? Peru stinks – they got all of 1 point away from home in world cup qualifying (a draw in Bolivia). Anything can happen in a one off game but the USMNT is a heavy favorite at home against Peru.
We must be pretty good if we are the heavy favorite over a team that just finished third at Copa America (away from home). Using results from 2012 and 2013 as evidence of each team’s quality might not be the best idea.
Slow only has an understanding (and a limited one at that) of MLS/US soccer.
Peru is a really good team, I watched them this summer at the copa a, talent wise I would say they have us beat.
Peru is not a good team. They beat Venezuela and Bolivia, the two worst teams in South America, and those were their only wins in the Copa America.
The CONMEBOL WC qualifying is a far better indicator of their quality because it’s 18 games. BTW, they finished third at 2011 Copa and that didn’t stop them stinking up the joint in WC qualifying.
Disagree if you want, but saying I only follow US soccer is silly. If we are underdogs at home against Peru, we have some big problems.
Let’s use your logic.
How do you suppose the USMNT would do if they had to qualify for the World Cup in CONMEBOL?
Would they better Peru’s performance?
Absolutely. They may not have qualified but they certainly would have done better than Peru. The logic seems to be “Peru is in South America, therefore they are better than us.” Sure, several South American teams are better than us – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay maybe Ecuador. But Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela? No way.
Without reading any of the other posts, I can assure you that whatever he does, a bunch of people will say he is wrong and doesn’t know what he is doing while some will say the opposite, and some, like me, will say only time will tell. A week or two ago a bunch of posters were complaining that the problem is Klinsmann lack of consistency is selecting a defense. A lot of people complain because he doesn’t announce his roster or the starters until right before matches. I’m sure we will now see a lot of those same people say things like how can he keep the same defenders and why is he naming Guzan the starter so soon. then you will have people saying things like why doesn’t he pick player A instead of player B, ignoring the fact that player B has played a lot more for the national team than player A or that one player has been clearly superior to the other. We saw this the other day with Spector vs. Lichaj. The main thing we learn from these posts are the biases of the posters, not the competence of Klinsmann.
“is Klinsmann’s lack of consistency in selecting a defense.”
Imagine that – football supporters having opinions about the national team manager.
Although I wanted Bob Bradley to stay over JK, I was still very supportive of him. But after Landon-Gate, and now this, it’s obvious JK is more interested in his own ego than with with winning. There is no other way to explain selecting Guzan over Howard. Did he see Guzan at the Gold Cup? Has he watched their games this season in the EPL? Howard is in much better form. So he took a year off, BFD. Mental health is an important issue that doesn’t get the respect is deserves. T-Ho should be applauded for his choice to give his mind a rest and his decision to reconnect with his kids. Not punished for it. That’s all this is…JK trying to make a point. It’s time for him to go. It just is.
Absolutely, all of this nonsense, and his obsession with playing players out of position is all about ego. Let’s get someone else in. Won’t happen until after Russia but we can hope.
As I said above, this is about team chemistry and healthy competition for the goalkeeper position. What is the purpose of telling the world that Guzan will be the starter for the next 3 games, except to tell people “I won’t have my hand forced to put Howard back on the field, even if he was amazing against Belgium and has been our #1 keeper for the past 7 years?” Very reminiscent of how he approached Donovan.
TFRENCH1,
“What is the purpose of telling the world that Guzan will be the starter for the next 3 games,”
How well do you knowTimmy? JK seems to know him pretty well.
I’ve followed him his whole career and one thing about Timmy is you don’t hand him things you make him fight for them., Other wise you get the “entitled Timmy” who had a crap 2010 World Cup.
You want the 2014 WC Timmy who spent a lot of the run up to the Cup fighting off Brad Guzan for the US and fighting for his job at Everton.
Timmy is on his last legs now and the more red meat you throw at him, the more incentive you give him, the more likely it is that you will get the great Timmy.
Besides if Guzan f++ks up vs Peru and Brazil then JK will have plenty of room to back track.
And oh by the way Guzan is another one who thrives when pushed.
That is why you announce this now to get it out of the way and give yourself room to change keepers if needed.
This team has got bigger problems to address rather than a non existent keeper controversy..