Spoiled With Goalkeepers

The question is simple enough: who should be the #2 goalkeeper for the USMNT in South Africa?  It's been batted about over the past couple of months as Marcus Hahnemann has continued to shine in Wolves' relegation battle and Brad Guzan has received only the occasional start.  But the bigger question is, how lucky are we that we are even having that debate?

Too often, the goalkeeper isn't factored into the discussion of the USMNT's ability, or it's passively ignored, as the focus lies primarily on the 10 field players instead.  But that last line of defense is pretty darn important, and history reflects that.  Consider these factual tidbits that Match Fit USA's Keith Hickey tucked into a humorous look at FIFA:

"In twelve of the eighteen World Cups that have been played, the team with the best goalkeeper in the tournament has advanced to the final. And only once since 1938 has the team with the best keeper failed to make the semifinals. Even great teams make mistakes, but the best have a goalkeeper who can save their skins. So fire up that cloning machine, and get to digging up Lev Yashin's corpse."

Clearly, the goalkeeper plays a huge role in a team's success in a tournament that last just a handful of weeks.  Much like a NHL team riding a hot goalie all the way to the Stanley Cup finals (which seems to be the case every single year), a national team's World Cup run can be largely due to a sustained level of high performance by the guy with the gloves.  

So why aren't we at least a little more confident about our team heading into South Africa?  After all, we have two goalkeepers starting and playing very well in the EPL (Howard and Hahnemann) and one who could start on a number of EPL teams (Guzan).  As if that wasn't good enough, we have two keepers who are retired from international competition but are still more than capable of playing at that level, in Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller.  Not a bad pair of emergency policies, eh?  For well over a decade now, we've had a wealth of talent between the posts, making even some of the big boys of international football a little green with envy. 

But this is often only acknowledged in passing, as the conversation quickly shifts back to how weak we are in terms of left backs/strikers/coaches/etc.  It's the nature of a fan base that is in the awkward stage between years as a pushover and becoming one of the world's elite; insecurities and pessimism dominate, with only the flashy stuff (read: strikers and attacking midfielders) changing that into excitement.  Along the way, though, it's that steady, solid stuff that gets lost in the mix.  Everyone of us reads up on how Jozy Altidore and Landon Donovan played, as meticulous recaps of their performances flood the internet.  But how often have we heard anything about Steve Cherundolo during his decade-plus at Hannover, or about Michael Bradley, who is in the midst of another solid season in a top-5 UEFA league at just 22 years of age?  And how often do we really stop to discuss how fortunate we are in terms of goalkeeping?  I don't know how many pieces I've read that have called center midfield our deepest position (I've probably made that remark, too), but really, doesn't that title have to go to our goalkeeping corps?

Let's not be so spoiled that we completely take for granted all of the great things we have going for us as a national team.  I don't mean to say this in a "shame on you" sense (because I'm guilty of it too); rather, it's a "hey, ain't that something?" reminder that, despite the doom and gloom that is so vociferously voiced with regards to our team's growth, our nation's player development, and all of that, we've been very blessed by the soccer gods in a few areas, especially goalkeeping.  We've gone seamlessly from the likes of Friedel and Keller to Howard and Guzan, and we still have exciting prospects like Earl Edwards on the horizon for years down the road. 

Despite all of our shortcomings, we've somehow managed to continue to improve on the international stage.  And why is that?  Because we have fantastic players between the posts to help bail us out.  We might have some issues at LB in South Africa, and we might not have the strongest center midfield pairing of the 32 teams, but regardless of who gets the start, we will have a talented pair of hands patrolling the area to help balance it out. 

I still worry about how we'll do in June, but the fact that we have so much going for us at the unrepresented end of the 4-4-2 gives me a little more confidence that we'll be able to make a good run despite some imperfections and miscues along the way. 

I just hope some others take the time to appreciate that, too.  After all, nobody likes a spoiled complainer.