The US President was going wild in The White House. A high-ranking member of his Federal Cabinet had been publicly humiliated. Yet it was rapture rather than rage with which Barack Obama was going crazy, and Chuck Hagel was happy to be the butt of banter. The Wikipedia entry for the United States Secretary of Defense had removed the Nebraskan as incumbent. In his place was Tim Howard. The New Jersey native had never served in the US Armed Forces – a prerequisite for the position – but he was acting as a one-man army against a mortal Belgian firing squad.
USA had shocked the sport by escaping a section comprising Germany, Ghana and Portugal – their supporters, who had voyaged down the Americas en masse, had wowed even the futebol-impassioned locals – but drawing Thibaut Courtois, Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Co and was akin to receiving deportation papers from Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security. Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer concurred that the Red Devils would dominate play. They were right. Yet Howard denied Divock Origi after 38 seconds and continued to pull off saves with his left hand, right fingertips, legs, knees, chest, feet and even studs.
He kept his foes at bay for 90 minutes, and though Belgium edged the split of three extra-time goals, the talk of the sport was Tim Howard. He had made a mind-blowing 16 saves – a record for a FIFA World Cup™ game He had made a mind-blowing 16 saves – a record for a FIFA World Cup™ game that he now shares with Curaçao’s Eloy Room.
#ThingsTimHowardCouldSave began trending on Twitter in the second half of it. Dinosaurs, Ned Stark, Private Ryan and The Titanic were among a host of comical suggestions. Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Beyonce Knowles and Katy Perry were among the masses of A-listers to express their awe.
Memes were made of his faces replacing the sculpted heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore, and former US Presidents on dollar coins. Tim Howard Appreciation Day was scheduled. A White House petition was launched to rename Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport the Tim Howard Airport. “That has to be the best [goalkeeping] performance I’ve ever seen,” said his Everton team-mate Kevin Mirallas. “I thought we’d scored many times. I don’t know how he kept them out.”
“I don’t have the words to do justice to his performance,” added another Toffee, Romelu Lukaku, while USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann added, “Tim was just phenomenal.” The record was going viral, but the man who set it was oblivious. “At the time I had no idea it was a record,” said Howard. “Eight, 10, 16 – I honestly had no idea how many saves I’d made. I remember being really, really nervous before the game, but as soon as it kicked off I was in the zone.
“After it I went straight to doping. Somebody mentioned the record, but at the time I didn’t care. I felt this immense sadness. The dream was over. I didn’t want to speak to anybody.” He was, however, “honoured” to speak to somebody the next day. Howard and Clint Dempsey answered a call from the Tivoli Mofarrej Hotel in Sao Paulo from no less than The White House in Washington, D.C.
“Man, I just wanted to call and say you guys did us proud,” said President Obama. “As someone whose first sport was soccer, to see the way you guys captured the hearts and imaginations of the whole country is unbelievable. “Tim, I don’t know how you’re going to survive the mobs when you come back home, man. You’re going to have to shave your beard so they don’t know who you are! I hope I get the chance to see you again at The White House sometime soon.”
“I was honoured to get the call. But you get 15 minutes of fame and I’ve had 14,” said Howard, referencing Andy Warhol’s quote. “The performance will be forgotten about very soon.” The former high-school basketball star was emphatically wrong. His performance against Belgium was as immortalised as the pop art prince’s silkscreen painting of Marilyn Monroe.
“For a long time I was naïve about how much it meant to Americans,” said Howard. “I was embarrassed when people came up to me to talk about it. It didn’t realise how epic it was to them. “I’ve since learned to embrace it. It’s all people ever want to talk to me about. They come up to me on the street, in supermarkets, airports, wherever I am to talk about Belgium. They tell me where they were, who they were with, what they were doing for the game. Yeah, I’m proud of it. It made Americans proud.”
GQ summed up that pride eloquently: “For three weeks Americans loved soccer almost as much as the Spanish, Brazilians and Germans combined. And no American player made us love the game more than Tim Howard.” After those three weeks were up, in no less than his Independence Day address, Barack Obama wrote: “I know there's actually a petition on the White House website to make Tim Howard the next Secretary of Defense. Chuck Hagel's got that spot right now, but if there is a vacancy, I promise to think about it.” Timothy Matthew Howard never got to sit on the Federal Cabinet, but he will, to the American masses who witnessed his jour de gloire in Salvador, eternally be ‘The American Secretary of Defense’.
Sources: FIFA Official
