As I write this, the United States Men's Soccer Team leads Spain 1-0. The match is in its 64th minute and despite the surprising score two-thirds the way through this, the Americans are getting outclassed by the Spaniards everywhere but on the scoreboard.
ESPN's John Harkes (who was also a member of USMNT until Steve Sampson unceremoniously dumped him from the roster prior to the 1998 World Cup) actually observed that "I haven't seen a U.S. goalkeeper under as much pressure as Tim Howard since Kasey Keller against Brazil in '98." I was thinking Brad Friedel against the South Koreans in '02, but whatever.
Either way, Howard, who currently plays for Everton in the English Premier League, has a fallback plan in case his soccer career doesn't take off: the Harlem Globetrotters.
The U.S. National Team keeper got selected as the Harlem Globetrotters' fifth and final pick in their annual draft Monday. ...That's right, just like ... well, these guys, who were presumably not awful when they played organized basketball that didn't include buckets of confetti and the three-man weave.
He's very proud of that fact his North Brunswick (NJ) High School team beat a St. Joseph's of Metuchen team in the postseason that included future National Player of the Year Jason Williams (not the always-in-trouble Net big man, but the injured ex-Bulls guard). And just in case you think Tim's just talking, he's not. I covered that game, and Howard was pretty good.
Actually, Howard is the latest in a long line of great U.S. goalkeepers, following Friedel and Keller, and, of course, Tony Meola and David Vanole.*
* I'm kidding about Meola, and Vanole was so bad he was good.
** (Also: Holy hell, the U.S. just scored again -- Clint Dempsey, this time -- and, by my unofficial count, that puts the shots on goal at 427 to 2, Spain.)
