What is it with the United States and its ability to produce a conveyor belt of talented and bald or shaven-headed goalkeepers?
Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahnemann, Zach Thornton, Matt Reis. It’s almost as if they were made in a lab.
Of course the most famous (but not the most bald – sorry Kasey) is Tim Howard, who racked up more than 350 Premier League appearances during his time with Manchester United and Everton.
Howard is still going at the ripe old age of 37, and is back in Major League Soccer.
The veteran began his career with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, long before they became the Red Bulls, and is now back stateside with the Colorado Rapids.
NEWS: #Rapids96 acquire U.S. International Tim Howard as a Designated Player. #WelcomeTim https://t.co/Pz67YfWb5R pic.twitter.com/b1PflqiHeh
— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) March 20, 2016
While Everton fans (and former manager Roberto Martinez) might have lost faith in Howard’s abilities, he’s shown that he’s not quite finished yet.
During last night’s MLS meeting with Real Salt Lake, he kept out this Javier Morales penalty with one of the best penalty stops we’ve seen at any level.
Normally all you need to do from the spot is find the top corner, and this effort would have been out of reach for most goalkeepers. Most, not all.
This Tim Howard penalty save is defintely worth seeing again! #MLS #RSLvCOL pic.twitter.com/ItiZt8zMbF
— MLSGB (@MLSGB_) August 27, 2016
Unfortunately for Howard it wasn’t enough to prevent defeat for the Rapids, with Shkelzen Gashi’s opener cancelled out by two Yura Movsisyan goals for the 2009 MLS Cup champions.
RSL actually contrived to miss two penalties over the course of 90 minutes, with Movsisyan putting an earlier effort wide of the post.
Defeat sees the Rapids slip to third in the Western Conference, level on points with Real Salt Lake who climb to second.
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