Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Moe is Now the Second Greatest American Howard

There's no "I" in team, but if there was, it would be between a "T" and an "M".
In what was the most important men's soccer match in US history, one man stood (and jumped, lunged, kicked and punched) between two posts 8 yards apart and between a demoralizing defeat and what turned out to be a thrilling but heartbreaking extra time loss.
                                            I assure you that in a few smaller World Cup
                                             nations he would win the popular vote based 
                                           on his performance.

Those who aren't on the winning side are not generally remembered. But I don't think anyone who watched the US v Belgium match Tuesday evening will ever forget the mind blowing brilliance of Tim Howard.
Howard was so good he knew when to withdraw his hand and let the crossbar do the job for him so as not to concede another of what seemed to be a clown car parade of corner kicks for the Belgians.
That game could easily have been 5-0 at the end of 90 minutes and bar TVs turned to baseball pre- game shows, but where I watched couples who sauntered into the bar for an after work beer were applauding right along with the Stars and Stripes diehards.
Instead of an embarrassing blowout, the game extended zero-zero into extra time, courtesy of a bearded, gloved acrobat who seemed to magically appear in front of more balls than Jenna Jameson's lower lip.
Howard might have even carried the US to victory had sub Chris Wondolowski not pulled a Scott Norwood late in the match and booted the ball wide right of a nearly vacated Belgian net.
And lest you think I'm being some national side homer trying to find extra change for a 40 ouncer in a pocket full of lint, Belgian captain Vincent Kompany--who won a Premiere league title with Manchester City-- tweeted "Two Words: Tim Howard # Respect" after the match.
                                            Courtesy of Troll Football
Officially, Howard made the most saves by a World Cup goalkeeper since 1966 when they started keeping records (Really, FIFA ? You're historically bad at shit too ??) and more than likely the most ever ( correct me on that if you want, I'm not researching it).
Yes, it's an L, and the Americans don't get a chance to prove themselves against the Best Player of his and many other generations, Lionel Messi. But soccer is known in many places as "The Beautiful Game" and not too many goalkeepers have ever played as beautifully as Tim Howard did last night.