Tim Howard, The Hero The United States Deserves

There’s something about watching the World Cup that causes one to become more emotional than watching any other sport. There’s crying and there’s falling on your knees. But the cheers are also that much louder. Stand on the corner of any New York City street—especially when the United States are playing—and you’ll undoubtedly hear all the cheering coming from the bars, cafes, offices and apartments around you. Yesterday’s cheers, however, were more thunderous. So thunderous, in fact, that pedestrians began to poke their heads into some of the bars and cafes.

Why all the cheering? Because Tim Howard, goalkeeper for the United States, finished with the most saves—a whopping sixteen!—by any goalkeeper in a World Cup game ever, which solidified his title as one of, if not, the greatest goalkeeper in history.

This was also a personal victory for Howard who had grown up suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome. Soccer was his saving grace and in turn, he became ours. We may have lost to Belgium, but we also won in so many more ways.

We had a good run, America.

So many thanks to Howard as well as the rest of the United States men’s national soccer team!