he's better than Buffon ainec

Insanity.

You take him ahead of Krul? Mignolet?

Like 6 months ago most of the people itt were saying Guzan>Howard. Did he start taking roids or something? What has lauched him into a big improvement into the world top ten at age 35?

Most people? Lol, not anyone who wasn't an idiot.

welcome to the IKESTOYS IDIOT LIST

Well, only two people. And they're wrong.

Well unless you have Guzan as 11th in the world you should firmly have Noze and tone on your IDIOT LIST for having it be so close.

Howard had a solidly bad last season (enough to where people were justifiably thinking significant age-related decline had taken place) and has been very good this one. Thinking "it's close but Guzan should start" this past summer was clearly fine, Guzan is a very good keeper.

I agree with all this. Still doesn't make him as good as Ikes thinks.

Advancing the conversation a bit, what do you think caused him to have a bad season at 34 and then a very good one at 35?

I was mocking cruizin.

Guzan is a good keeper. Howard is even better.

You guys arent being true PATRIOTS. You GOT to have DEMPS and HOWARDS back. They are our backbone.

huge DEMPS fan here...only player on our squad who could carry us to victory vs. a top side on any given day

Bradley is the better overall player but Dempsey's per-game ceiling is still way higher.

Apparently jurgen pushed back time table to announce our 30-man roster

I could be talking completely out my ass here but...

It seems Everton is more on the front foot this year. Last year I felt Moyes had them defending first and foremost quite often and I'm not sure that plays into Tim's strengths. More importantly, it kind of exacerbates his weaknesses e.g. The occasional mental lapse and making a complete fool of himself on too many set pieces.

Tim is an excellent shot stopper, a good communicator, and a solid leader. When he's on he's fringe top 10 in the world. When he's not he is capable of making really poor mistakes.

My endorsement of Guzan had more to do with his otherworldly performance last year. Let's face it. We aren't going to control possession against Germany or Portugal. Probably not even against Ghana. So a keeper who sees that every week as Guzan does at villa is ideal for this squad. But like I said before, commensurate. I rate them both and think either is fine.

I'm abut concerned that we have some 2010 Australia potential starting such an old roster at key spots though. I hope we don't look back on the 2010 side and consider it our golden generation for a bit but I also wouldn't be shocked by it.

I'm getting more and more excited each day for this. I'm going to the embassy to get my wc visa next week. And I already have match tickets for the first two. Can't wait to experience Manaus.

Timmy is a great goal keeper, but he's not top ten in the world. He's clearly well above average for a strong-euro-league goalkeeper, but he's not mega-ultra-elite. really great shot stopper who has too many mental lapses. Can definitely dominate games when he's on.

Word, Bobbo.

Donovan and Bradley must be added to the USA BACKBONE.

Yeah obv Landy and MB90 are BACKBONE players.

Those 4 are above any and all criticism.

let's discuss something unifying, like our least favorite attributes of Kyle Beckerman's game

for me: given his lack of speed, it's astounding just how bad he is at tactical fouling. vs. the quick outlet ball triggering the counterattack, he's made an art out of getting in the picture (he's defending and keeping our shape!) without ever intercepting the ball, stopping the attacker from turning, or, at a bare minimum, blowing the attack up with a well-timed foul. just constantly running enough to get "involved" in the play without ever taking any relevant defensive action. he's a cone with worse hair.

he plays everything too close to the vest

Howard might be a t10 starting GK in the world cup, but this conveniently forgets stuff like Spain having four GKs better than he is.

He's not in the elite tier, but he is somewhere with Krul, Muslera (who is wildly underrated), Akinfeev, Mignolet.

His hair

This. He's wimmed for us at big times in the past though, definitely feel good about having him.

And this. Timmy not in the top 10 in the world for me, a few too many mistakes on set pieces in particular. He's had a very strong season from what I've seen. I think he's comfortably top 25 though, and to be honest, the difference between 10th best GK and 25th is very small and can fluctuate widely on form from month to month.

Also, Top 25 still makes him super strong for our purposes. We don't have a center back in the top 200 (it's probably an even larger, maybe much larger number tbh, but it's really hard to quantify) in the world. Top 25 with an argument for Top 10-15 is pretty damn good.

And, a top 25 is an elite GK. Also... spanish gks are suuuuuuuuper overrated.

Agreed, I have no desire to quibble over the definition of elite. I think Howard is probably in the 8-22ish range of GKers, which is all very bunched. He's very good, and we're lucky to have him.

I don't know whether spanish gkers as a whole are overrated, I think Casillas and Valdes probably tend to be, but De Gea is so ****ing good. I got him #2 itw, and gonna be #1 before too long.

Who cares about his ranking, he's an American starting in the premier league, so obviously he is a big plus for our side.