Compare the legacies of the US goalkeepers in the Premier League over the last 25 years

Looking at some individual awards first...

- Friedel was in the EPL's 2002-03 Best XI for his play with Blackburn. Howard would go on to win it the next year while playing for ManU.
- Guzan won Aston Villa's POTY 2012-13 for helping avoid relegation. Probably his personal best as far as run of play.
- Transfermarkt has Keller winning Leicester's POTY in 1997. Howard won Everton's in 2008 and 2014, apparently.

A while back I got some graphs from goalimpact on American gks. Basically an Elo-style way to rate players based on how their team did when they were on the field. Unfortunately never got Marcus Hahnemann's from him for some reason : /

• Howard
• Friedel
• Keller
• Guzan

I believe the lighter red line is the player's overall rating, while the heavier red line is their current form. It was supposed to be for an article but the whole thing kinda fell apart.

It's hard to really rate them in any specific order. People will downplay Friedel's records because he was playing for weaker teams but he was good enough to start for Tottenham when he was 40. So he's always been my number one. But Howard and Keller certainly did well, although Keller's club career was a little more erratic. And honestly I'd put Hahnemann over Guzan. Guzan had a handful of really good years but that was it. Really took a dip after that.

What say you?

 

Looks like that's saying Keller was Player of the Year at three separate clubs (Leicester, Rayo Vallacano, and Borussia Monchengladbach).

 

Friedel was Blackburn's Player of the Year for the 02-03 season. Blackburn was 4th in the Premiership in goals allowed that year, despite the fact that their defense was fairly pedestrian. I would consider that the strongest individual performance by a Yank keeper in the PL, though you could make strong arguments for Keller and Howard as well.

 

I wouldn't trust transfermarket.

Pretty sure that Keller didn't win player of the year at Leicester.

 

I think sometimes we overlook Marcus Hahnemann's contribution in the same era.

He played over 350 games in England between Fulham, Rochdale, Reading, and Wolves. And of course he led Reading to promotion (along with Bobby Convey) in 05-06.

His resume is dwarfed by Howard, Friedel, Keller......................but he was a really good keeper. One could have a legitimate debate of Guzan versus Hahnemann for 4th in my mind.

 

I have no doubt that if we had an in-prime Hahnemann last cycle, he would have been our starting keeper, and probably still would be today. He had the misfortune of playing for the USMNT during a period when we had anywhere from two to four other keepers starting in the top leagues at any given point in time.

 

Hahnemann was very unlucky to be playing in the Friedel/Keller era. For my money, he was better than Guzan.

 

Crazy to think he only won nine caps.

 

He was picked up by Everton after he left Wolves. Just never played a game for them.......................

He came back to MLS at the right time. He started his career with the Sounders and ended his career with the Sounders.

He had fewer caps than Juergen Sommer. Sommer is probably a completely unknown to many newer fans. He was a really solid keeper who played for Luton. When people think of Luton now, they think of nothingness. But Jurgen Sommer played for Luton when they were in the old 1st division..............or the pre-Premier League top division in England. Unfortunately, he was there for the Luton decline. [Roy Wegerle played for them too, but I'm not sure they overlapped.] Also played a whole lot for QPR [As did, come to think of it, Roy Wegerle.]

Juergen Sommer was actually a member of two World Cup teams (94 and 98). I was a big fan of the team back then, and even I can't remember a single one of his USMNT games.

He had a bunch of knee problems when he moved back to MLS (actually moved to the Crew when Friedel left for Liverpool). His time as a USMNT candidate effectively ended.

 

All of those guys had Euro passports. So did Marcus Hahnemann.

I think it was actually Sommer who was the first US-born keeper to play in the Premier League itself. I think that was 1995 with QPR. Could be wrong about that.

It took a while for the keepers without Euro passports to make an inroads. Brad Friedel was denied a work permit on four occasions (trying to sign for Newcastle, Forest, Sunderland, and Liverpool)!!!! After first being denied a work permit to go to Liverpool, he finally got one on appeal. And off he went.

Brad Friedel, like a number of our players in that pre-MLS 1990-1995 era, was actually under contract with the USSF for a while instead of a club. He basically played exclusively for the USMNT until the 94 World Cup.

 

Sommer was great. He was kind of the leading edge of our first wave of quality keepers.