Where do you place Guzan among the top keepers in NT history?

Gonna have to report you sir

 

friedel/howard/keller are 1-3 (in that order for me).

meola/hahnemann would be a tier.

i think i would put guzan in between those two (groups), so 4th. actually i would absolutely put him 4th in terms of club play, but we never got him in his prime internationally due to that top tier.

i think steffen could take that fourth spot- honestly he could break into the top 3 but we, as a fanbase, romanticize those guys too much so i doubt he ever gets the recognition, even if he does get to that level.

to simplify, imo

1 friedel
2 howard
3 keller
4 guzan
5 steffen
6 meola
7 hahnemann

i also think horvath could get close to, and possibly surpass, guzan level.

 

BEEP BEEP THIS IS NOT NEWS AND ANALYSIS BEEP BEEP

 

1. Howard
2. Friedel
3. Keller
-
4. Guzan
5. Hahnemann
6. Steffen
-
7. Meola

 

Not as good as the "golden gen" of U.S. keepers.

But if the NT played a competitive game tomorrow I'd start him.

 

I'd pretty much agree with this, but I have a hard time putting Meola last. I think he's less talented than Guzan, Hahnemann, and Steffen, but Meola made an enormous contribution to the USMNT whereas those didn't or haven't yet (in the case of Steffen). So, if the question is more about who actually had the greater impact on USMNT team history and not just who was more talented, I'd put Meola 4th. Hanhemann only ever had 9 caps, and Guzan has piled up a bunch of caps, but never played in a WC game.

 

1a. Friedel
1b. Keller
3. Howard
4. Guzan

Maybe change the title to the Brad Guzan USMNT thread and let's keep it here. Like someone else said, if we had an important game today, he'd be my choice.

 

I think I may want Guzan gone almost as much as @yurch10 wants bradley gone.

 

Jurgen Sommer should get a shout.

I think Matt Reis is probably the most underrated.

 

Unlucky in being too close in age to Howard (and the 2018 nightmare) to have had a big career for the national team. Pretty great shot stopper, but probably lacking in a lot of the rest of the skills to be truly elite. Certainly no higher than 4th, they're a chasm between Howard/Keller and Guzan, but among the more talented for sure.

 

Depends if we're talking USMNT or club soccer.
Let's not forget that Guzan's won more games for the USMNT than Friedel.
Brad was in goal for surprisingly few USMNT wins; it just so happens that a group of those were at the 2002 World Cup.

Guzan played 200 Premier League games, which is nothing to sneeze at. Now he's come back to MLS and won an MLS Cup and US Open Cup. If he'd come back and been poor, I'd put Meola over him. But he's been a leader on a winning team. And let's not forget that at ChivasUSA at around 2007, he was comfortably the best keeper in the league

The Clint Eastwood index............
[In other words USMNT plus club soccer plus my own subjective opinion of talent level.]

1) Friedel
2) Howard
3) Keller
4) Guzan
5) Meola
6) Hahnemann
7) Rimando
8) Steffen
9) Mausser
10) Sommer

By the way.....................Friedel versus Howard is REALLY close. Howard's performance at the 2014WC was every bit as good as Friedel's in 2002. Howard played 500 games in England for ManU/Everton in his own right. Its very close, but I just think Friedel edges it on talent level.

Both Friedel and Howard have finished in the top 10 in the IHHFS Goalkeeper of the Year awards. So both were considered top 10 in the world at one point (by international soccer journalists anyway).

Steffen has a chance to move rapidly up the rankings. He's the only active keeper I can see breaking into the top 5. I'm not as impressed by Horvath as others, and there's not much coming in the U23s.

 

Guzan isn't among the top keepers period. It's obvious who is better than him, not obvious who is worse. Is he better than Meola or Hanneman? Doubt it. Steffen? Probably for now. Sommer, Mausser? No clue.
As MLS keeper was he better than Reis/Hartman/Cannon? Rimando?

 

Hes in the Reis, Cannon, Hartman territory, and that is not a cut down. The aforementioned were very good underrated keepers.

 

im not big on league comparison arguments, but a comparing a starter in the prem for almost a decade to mls lifers is ridiculous.

 

Just talking NT performances, I'd put Howard at #1 for his performances in '09 (vs. Spain) and '10 (vs. England and the excellent pass for the Algeria goal) in addition to his excellent '14. I feel Howard has the most and best performances against good competition (though I may be wrong).

Despite his pedigree, Guzan's prime with the NT came during an inauspicious era (post-2014). As a result, he has few difference-making performances against top teams that I can think of, unlike other top GKs. For instance in Copa 16, where Guzan was the starting keeper, did he have a remarkable performance on par with past US keepers in any match?

Guzan also has the misfortune of being part of some historic lows, like losing to Jamaica at home in the GC (part of which was directly his fault). For this reason I could see ranking him below Meola strictly as a US keeper. While I haven't seen Meola's performances in '94 in some time, the general narrative is he's a huge reason the US advanced. Meola, Howard, Keller and Friedel all have those kinds of performances under their belts for the US and I don't think Guzan does.

 

The consensus seems to be that he's #4 and I agree with that. But, I think there's a big gap from the top 3 to him. Hahnemann is a tricky one because he mostly played in the Championship before that league was as good as it is now (was still better than MLS) but he was really good there. He and Meola are a toss up for me. Hahnemann was probably more talented but did less for the NT. Steffen also shouldn't be on any top 5 lists yet. I hope he gets there but I'm not convinced that Horvath or someone else won't take his spot eventually.

 

I think Guzan is someone who should not be the subject of a thread like this.

He was never the first choice for the USMNT, so, he is behind Keller, Friedel, Meola, Steffan, Howard. Put him anywhere with Hahnemann after that. But it is like listing Eddie Lewis's place. Love him, but not near the top and not near the bottom is hardly an important discussion.

 

If we're talking club AND national team career, he's 4th, behind Freidel, Howard and Keller because he started over 150 EPL games and a dozen or so in the Europa League.

But... if it's just national team stuff, he's behind those three plus Meola and Arnie Mausser and will soon be behind Steffen, too.

 

Now that Guzan's national team career is over, having appeared in zero World Cup games (and he gets partial blame for the T&T loss for not being good enough to clearly overtake a 78 year old Tim Howard)... here is live footage of Steffen passing the geriatric arthritic polar bear to become #4 USMNT goalkeeper all time:

 

He is around Marcus Hahnemann for me. While he has more EPL starts than Marcus, he never had a season as good as Marcus's 2007 EPL season.

 

No, Brad didn't play in a World Cup. Neither did Hahnemann.

But Brad started many, many important USMNT wins and games. The Snow Classico against Costa Rica. The Confederations Cup win against Egypt. The WCQing draw at the Azteca. The list goes on.

Wins for the USMNT (amongst guys that have at least 5):

Howard 62
Keller 53
Meola 37
Guzan 34
Friedel 27
Nick Rimando 10
Zack Steffen 9
Arnie Mauser 7
Troy Perkins 5

 

I can't say as I witnessed it personally...

Wikipedia says he led the EPL in saves and his team missed Europe by one spot.