MARIETTA, Ga. — Barring a change of plans, Tim Howard will make his first and only appearance as a player at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this weekend. Howard is calling it a career at the end of the 2019 season. With the Colorado Rapids looking like a sure bet to miss the MLS Cup playoffs, the team’s away dates are serving as a farewell tour for the United States goalkeeping icon.
Atlanta United (1-3-2, 5 points) hosts Colorado (0-6-2, 2 points) Saturday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
For Atlanta’s American-born players, the game is a last chance to go up against one of the best players this country has ever produced.
“He’s a legend in my eyes, everything he’s achieved with his career and what he’s done for the sport in America,” fullback Brek Shea, whose U.S. international career overlapped with Howard from 2010 to 2015, said after Wednesday’s training session. “Watching him growing up, and then being able to play with him and then hanging out with him and getting to know him, it’s something that I cherish. It’s always fun playing against him, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Howard got his start in Major League Soccer in the late-90s, back when the New Jersey-based team he played for was not part of an energy-drink conglomerate. He made a groundbreaking move to Manchester United in 2003. While his career at Old Trafford never really got off the ground — Edwin van der Sar came in and took the No. 1 shirt for himself — Howard found a home at Everton and spent 11 years on the blue side of the Mersey. He posted more than 100 clean sheets with the Toffees and set a club record with 28 appearances in European continental competitions.
“In my generation, he was really the first guy who went to a huge club in Europe and stayed at Everton and was instrumental for them for a really long time,” midfielder Jeff Larentowicz, who picked up four U.S. caps in 2011 and 2012, told reporters Wednesday. “Ton of respect for him.”
Asked if any particular moments from Howard’s career stand out in his memory, Larentowicz picked that moment, the one every American soccer fan would select. In the 2014 World Cup round of 16, Belgium defeated the U.S., 2-1, in extra time. If not for Howard’s heroics, it may have been 5 or 6-0 after 90 minutes. The ’keeper made a tournament-record 16 saves at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil.
“It was an incredible performance, and if that was the only game you play in your career, you could say that you had an outstanding career,” Larentowicz said. “Tim’s played I don’t know how many hundreds of games. He always seems to be doing some incredible things.”
As pleasant as it is to reminisce about one of the greats on his way out the door, Atlanta has a task at hand Saturday. Incredibly, the defending champions find themselves playing a Wooden Spoon six-pointer in late April.
If the Five Stripes are ailing in attack — and they are, with a league-low five goals through six games — the Rapids could be a perfect tonic. Colorado has shipped 23 goals in eight games, which by far is MLS’s worst defensive record in 2019. The opportunity is there for a breakout performance from Atlanta. Frank de Boer’s team took 22 shots and put eight on target last week in a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas, but only a Josef Martínez penalty deep in second-half stoppage time found the net. Against a goalkeeper with the reputation of Howard, execution in the final third must improve.
“Just being more clinical,” Darlington Nagbe, a regular with the U.S. senior team since 2015, said Tuesday regarding what Atlanta must do to beat Howard. “There’s more focus on getting in [dangerous] spots and those situations. He’s another great goalie, so it won’t be easy.”
There has been much optimistic talk from players and coaches about how the team is progressing, and that results will soon come. Larentowicz said this sort of chatter is acceptable for only so long. A home defeat to a winless Colorado team would cast Atlanta’s season in an abysmal light and bring about real concern of a 2018-Toronto FC-style collapse.
An early goal Saturday would calm nerves and boost confidence. Should it not come, the Five Stripes cannot lose the plot. If they overextend themselves or switch off defensively, Colorado can punish them. The Rapids have size at center forward in the 6-foot-3 Kei Kamara, who has scored in each of his past four games. Atlanta’s centerbacks have to be wary of counter attacks. Fouling in their own half or giving away corners may lead to problematic set pieces. Colorado has scored three of its 12 goals this season from dead-ball situations. The club’s goal tally ranks 11th in MLS this season, but the Rapids are fifth in the league with 10.7 expected goals, for those who put stock in such advanced metrics.
“They’re a capable team of getting results, and we understand that,” centerback Michael Parkhurst said Thursday. “They’ve had a rough go of it, but so have we. Who are we to look past anybody? We’re at the bottom of the table as well, so we are not going to do that. We understand what we expect out of this game, and what’s going to be needed to be done in order to [win].”
After training Thursday, de Boer, who earned 112 international caps for the Netherlands, acknowledged Howard has had a great career and that “it’s fantastic that he’s still around.” From one national-team legend to another, de Boer wishes Howard well.
“I hope he has a fantastic last year,” de Boer said, “but not on Saturday.”