Last spring, Tim Howard was the goalkeeper for the MetroStars, wondering if he’d get a chance to prove his skills on a bigger stage. Nearly a year later, he’s done just that.
Last night, the 25-year-old Howard returned from England as the best keeper in the world’s best league (the Premiership), a starter on the world’s biggest club (Manchester United), and the first American ever to hoist the FA Cup. Consider his skills proven.
Manchester United won the FA Cup last Saturday in Wales, with Howard blanking first-division Millwall for a 3-0 win that salvaged some silverware out of a tumultuous season for the Red Devils.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Howard said at last night’s TSANJ dinner at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. “I’ve played in big games. That’s going to help me in World Cup qualifying. Playing away in Honduras is tough, in Mexico is tough. For me to walk out in front of 70,000 people doesn’t bother me now. Every single game for Manchester United was important, vital.”
The native of North Brunswick, N.J., went to Manchester United last July hoping to make the Squad. As it turned out, he supplanted World Cup champ Fabien Barthez of France as the starter.
Manchester United finished a disappointing third in the Premiership and lost in the Champions League when Howard failed to stop a free kick against eventual champ Porto and allowed a late equalizer to end their title hopes.
But he overcame the negative tabloid press about his Tourette’s Syndrome and Manchester United’s late-season slide to be selected as the keeper on the Premiership Team of the Year.
“I don’t suffer from Tourette’s,” he says, “I deal with it and excel with it, but not suffer.”
Howard also became only the second American ever to play in the FA Cup final. Kearny, N.J., native John Harkes played for Sheffield Wednesday in a 2-1 loss to Arsenal in 1993.
“[The Champions League[ was a low point, but in the end things went well,” Howard said last night.
“We ended up winning the FA Cup. That would have been a real tough summer if we didn’t. We needed that. We had to win. If [we didn’t], we’d hear about it all summer how terrible the season was. But we got it and I’m happy.”
Howard’s happy and refreshed, back stateside. Next week he’ll join the U.S. national team in preparing for World Cup qualifiers, and he’ll do it with a sudden wealth of experience – more experience than he ever thought possible.