(Update: Howard receives phone call from President Barack Obama)
A couple months ago, US National Team (USMNT) goalkeeper Tim Howard signed a two-year contract extension with Everton FC. Howard has been with Everton since 2006 — if you count his loan period from Manchester United, and he’s developed into the best goalkeeper in the English Premier League, the top flight of all top flights.
Today, he showed why he might be the best keeper in the entire world. The United States lost 2-1 to Belgium, but none of the blame falls on Tim Howard. He wasn’t just great; he was transcendent.
Howard had the most saves in a World Cup game in the past 50 years- yes, that’s a half century. Tim Howard had 16 saves Tuesday. The next closest is Ramon Quiroga of Peru who had 13. After that is Faryd Mondragon of Colombia with 12 in 1998. He didn’t just have the best outing of the past 50 years, he had it be miles.
His performance was so special that one hard core USNT fan (probably as hard core as the kid who got this Tim Howard haircut that you see pictured above) changed Howard’s entry on Wikipedia. It made him the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Donald Rumsfeld eat your heart out!
The position is actually currently held by Chuck Hagel. (I made the Rumsfeld joke because he’s the only SecDef that most people have really heard of) The very next day Hagel called Howard to congratulate him on a fine performance. It may not be as cool as the President calling you…oh wait he did receive that as well.
From 1 SecDef to another: Hagel calls @timhowardgk to say thanks for defending USA. We (USA) are proud of @ussoccer! pic.twitter.com/M8nsYdlXFn
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) July 2, 2014
So what did Hagel say to Howard? My good friend Dana Hughes has the scoop. She’s a Foreign Affairs and State Department correspondent for ABC News:
Sec Hagel invites Team USA to Pentagon. Tells Howard “that with some training, he could someday become the real secretary of defense.”
— Dana Hughes (@dana_hughes) July 2, 2014
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)