Howard deflects praise, too
SALVADOR, Brazil – Sometimes, you gain your most meaningful praise not from your allies, but from opponents. And to a man on Tuesday, the Belgians came out of the locker room and said they had never seen a goalkeeping show like the one by Tim Howard on Tuesday.
“He was amazing,” defender Toby Alderweireld said. “Just a great performance. We couldn’t get it past him.”
Vincent Kompany, the great Man City defender who so superbly choreographed his own back line, was so impressed by the performance, he went straight to his Twitter account.
“Two words,” Kompany tweeted. “Tim Howard.”
Howard made 16 saves, some of them off the tip of his fingers, another with his foot. He was in the zone, aggressive, made himself large whenever necessary, turned back striker Divock Origi twice on tight, hard shots. Then in the 76th minute, he made a kick save on Kevin Mirallas that was just ridiculous.
“None of that matters for me,” Howard insisted afterward. “That’s what I signed up to do, put my face in front of balls. That’s my job. Doesn’t mean any more or less.”
It was an awkward scene all around after the loss, Howard accepting his Man of the Match award from FIFA for 16 saves that were the most in a World Cup game since the federation started keeping these stats in 1966. He alone kept this match scoreless for 93 minutes, more than long enough for the Americans to help him out on the other end, score just one goal and steal a match they really didn’t deserve.
“The longer he keeps you in the game, the more you hope, ‘Let’s create our own chances,’ ” coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “On the back of Tim, we were getting back in the game. Those games are decided by little, little things. Thanks to Tim we had that possibility, because he kept us in there for 120 minutes.”
Star of the game was a loser in the World Cup. Only the latter mattered to Howard, though. He has always made a point of not getting too high or too low over his own performance. In this instance, he deemed it entirely irrelevant.
Howard is 35 years old, and some wonder if he will be back for Russia in four years, or whether he’ll cede his starting spot to Brad Guzan. Howard says he hopes he’ll be there in 2018, and keepers generally have long shelf lives.
“We dreamed and again we fell short of our dream,” Howard said. “We did get out of the group of death, played well, went up against a Belgian side that is very talented. Credit to them.”
The Belgians gave him credit right back.