It’s getting closer.
Come next Monday evening, Tim Howard will have stepped on the pitch as the newest Colorado Rapid, and Mile High Sports’ Darren Copeland is as excited about Howard’s work ethic as anyone else following the former Everton goalkeeper’s return to Major League Soccer.
“He would practice so much and so hard that they would have to physically tell him to get off the field and stop practicing,” Copeland recalled from a past Sports Illustrated article while filling in for Marcelo Balboa on Mile High Sports Radio’s From the Pitch, “because [coaches] felt he was actually hindering himself because he was practicing too much.”
Howard’s workhorse mentality has done wonders for his game, though. He’s climbed the ladder to third all-time with 126 shutouts for Everton while allowing 1.2 goals per game in his his last seasons with the club. His 57 wins are the most all-time in U.S. soccer history, and his 35 shutouts are second only to Kasey Keller.
In his five previous years of MLS experience, Howard steadily increased his save percentage from 62.5 his rookie year to a career-high 77.1 in 2003, his last year.
Copeland has a theory about great players, which Howard seems to fit, judging from his numbers.
“I believe that the great players are the players that practice as hard as they would [in] a game,” he said, “and every time they step out on the field, they’re the ones who are running a hundred miles to the ball; they’re going to out-sprint you … Those are the guys who are great because that’s how they practice. Then they go to games and they play like that.”
Howard has faced tough competition throughout his years with the USMNT and Everton, but perhaps the pinnacle performance of his career came in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when he stopped a record 16 shots in the USMNT’s 2-1 loss to Belgium in the Round of 16.
After travelling the world and performing for crowds of all ages and fandoms, Howard will return to Major League Soccer in hopes of helping his new club to their first MLS Cup since 2010.
To hear more about the Rapids’ newest goalkeeper, listen to the podcast below …
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/6-26-16-rapids-last-minute-goals-depth-offensive-flare-from-the-pitch
Catch From the Pitch Sundays from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.
