In ESPN The Magazine's Interview Issue, Tim Howard and Kasey Keller talked about Howard's record-breaking performance against Belgium in the 2014 World Cup. Subscribe today!
KASEY KELLER: When you have one of the best games in U.S. Soccer history -- an astonishing 15 saves against Belgium in the World Cup -- people are gonna ask you about it.
TIM HOWARD: I think you hope, throughout the course of your career, if you do things right often enough, you might get a moment in time that you can do something special.
KK: Before we actually get to the game in hand, let's do a little bit of background -- what was the thought process of yourself, the team, the coaches, as you're coming into the World Cup?
TH: From a personal standpoint, I was in really good rhythm because of the way Everton had played that season. I felt good. I wanted to make sure my training camp was up to speed because I wanted to keep that tempo. As a team? You've been around groups like this yourself, Kasey: It was a young team, and even though we were in the group of death, with that youthful naivete, it just felt like we were going to get out of this group. People were shaking their heads thinking we were crazy, but it was something about this reckless abandon that we were playing with.
KK: So then the group stage is over, you got through. Main goal reached. Now you know who you're playing in the round of 16, and it's Belgium. What was the thought after "OK, now Belgium"?
TH: There's that euphoria of getting through the group stage, as you know. It was excitement, and it was also this kind of bravado. We looked at Belgium and thought, they play a similar style to us. They're strong, they're athletic, they're fast, which we match up well against. Granted, they have some incredibly world-class technical players. But we just felt like if there was a piece of the game that we could get a foothold in, athletically we could match them, and that for us was a huge motivation.
KK: Now it's the morning of game day. And let's go a little bit deeper into your preparation. Was there anything that you did differently that day, or was it just another game? You've obviously been playing for a long time, and you have your routines, but it is a World Cup.
TH: That morning, I woke up, and I was just nervous as hell. I couldn't have been more nervous. When you play, as you and I have, at the highest level, you're always fighting against those nerves. Whether it's a Saturday in the Premier League or a World Cup round of 16, they're there. And they can eat you whole if you let it.
KK: And Tim, that's tremendous. Because so many people tell you, "You can't be nervous, you've done this so many times." I always felt that if I wasn't nervous, something was wrong.
TH: Amen. 100 percent. It's a blessing and a curse. When you get that feeling in your belly, you know you're ready. It's just trying to manage that, and do all the right things -- eat right before the game, talk to the kids back at home and just do things that try to put me at ease, try and calm that storm that's brewing inside. Then, as you drive up to the stadium, your music's on, and you're starting to get pumped, you're ready to run through a wall.
KK: Was there something in warm-ups -- was it an exceptionally good warm-up, you were sharp? Was it a bad warm-up?
TH: No, it was a run-of-the-mill warm-up. Well, except one thing: As I came onto the field, Woodsy [goalkeeping coach Chris Woods] and [Brad] Guzan were to the right-hand side, but I started running left towards [Belgium goalkeepers Thibaut] Courtois and [Simon] Mignolet. I get about halfway down the field before I see these guys are looking at me. So I turn around, and there's Woodsy and Guzan laughing their heads off. I was so caught up in the moment, I didn't even ask which side we were on.
KK: You had to make a save in the first minute -- did that get you off your game, or did it help you relax?
TH: You don't really want to face a shot that early on, but if you do, and you save it, it makes your chest puff out, and you think, OK, now I'm here, now I'm in the game. You always want your first save to be nice and easy and comfortable, and that wasn't easy and comfortable. But once I got it, I felt like, all right, this is good.
KK: Even deep into the second half, you're still making the saves that need to be made, balls are being cleared, the team's hanging in there. Do you start to think, "Can we have that one chance?" You kept the team in it almost single-handedly -- now can we just capitalize on that one opportunity?
TH: Yeah, absolutely. You know, OK, we were trying to make sure the levee didn't break, and it was all hands on deck. But as a U.S. team, we've always felt like our biggest attribute has been our resiliency and the ability to get that one set piece, or have that one play where we can make it count. We didn't need many, we just needed one. And so you're hoping. That's what it is -- it's hope.
KK: And the one chance comes, late in the second half, and it comes gloriously. And I'm not picking on Chris Wondolowski, but the chance comes and goes. As extra time comes, did you feel like, "Wow, we had it"?
TH: Look, I've said it before. Even when you look back, you're thinking, you want that chance to fall to Wondo. You're heartbroken for him because all he wanted to do was bury it. A different story could have been written, but that wasn't the case. Once the game ends and we go into extra time, I think at that point it's just so hard to analyze things and to try to make changes. As a group with the coaching staff, you're just trying to pick quick little bullet points 'cause, as you know, it's only like five minutes, three minutes that you get and then you're back out there. It's just trying to get messages across that you couldn't otherwise do in the run of play.
KK: It didn't work out and, for myself, it was just so much frustration. As they keep pushing, they keep hitting on the counterattack, and you keep making the saves that keep the team in that balance. I said on air afterwards, the game you played deserved a result. And if it's frustrating for me, what's the realization from you?
TH: You've played in enough big games yourself -- there's just that numbness. You've got all these emotions -- you've got anger, you've got sadness, a relief that the game itself is over -- not that you've gone out, but a relief it's over because you put everything into it. But the overriding feeling is just this numbness. And certainly disappointment more than anything, because you don't get opportunities like that every day, you know? You rarely get them every four years. As for my individual performance, I honestly wasn't focused on my saves. I'm thinking about what comes next, trying to read shooters, trying to organize the defense. So all those balls that hit me -- I had no idea. It was only after, when I was in drug testing, that someone mentioned it to me, and even then, 15? It made no sense because I didn't remember making that many saves.
KK: Your first W.C. was 2006, mine was 1990. When the team came home this year, did you see a progression of the fans, of the general public, of the media? It just seemed like it took it to a whole new level in 2014. What were you thinking when you came home?
TH: I had this everlasting smile on my face because everywhere we went we got congratulated and patted on the back. But it wasn't just from soccer moms and soccer players, it was from literally every walk of life. Old, young, men, women, it didn't matter. It seemed like the U.S. stood still and watched the World Cup. And I think for the first time -- usually there's the soccer fan or the casual fan, but this seemed like it gripped everybody, and for me that was cool. I saw it in my Twitter mentions, too -- I got sent quite a lot of them, and I quickly understood how cool it was and how much that game captivated people.
KK: I think they really appreciated your performance as a keeper, too, which shows that continual education of the game. Did you ever count, Tim? It seemed like five or six of the shots were around your body that you either saved with a foot or with a knee or with a leg. And I think now people just understand more that it's not necessarily about tipping a ball over the bar and kicking your legs up over your head and making it look like a tough save. It's about getting your positioning right, standing up, making it difficult for the guy to beat you.
TH: It feels like Americans are starting to get the intricacies of the game. I can remember watching Kasey -- you might say no, but one of the best games of your life was against Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup, against Romario, arguably one of the greatest strikers of all time. At the end of the game, he said it was the best performance by a goalkeeper he'd ever seen. People recognized that performance then, but we're starting to get the masses understanding that there is more to the game than just a 4-0 blowout. As you say, when a goalkeeper has a tremendous save, people stand up and cheer. Or when we can get out of a tough situation out of the back and we can play forward, people begin to cheer. That's all the intricacies of the game that I think the masses are beginning to learn.