Does this guy look familiar? For the past two years I watched this dude mimic a brick wall. PK's...he would stop them. Thinking about winning at the HDC...not if el Guzano could help it. I had been hyping him the entire 2007 season saying Timmy Howard better watch his step. For the first part of the EPL season had had been rumored to go to Arsenal and I wasn't surprised. I figured it was due time for my boy to show his stuff on an international stage. Then came January and he almost sealed the deal. It would have been a great opportunity for him at Aston Villa. He went to England to finalize the deal, and the large transfer fee, but it just wasn't meant to be. Stupid work permit got in his way. Oh well, he knew the interest was there and I was beyond certain he wouldn't be around in August when I make my way out to LA for the final Superclasico of the season.
Then the 2008 season started and, well, he's not exactly looking like a guy who is ready to move onto the biggest stage of his career. With his 2.00 GAA, which statistically puts him as the third worst goalkeeper in the league behind Toronto's Greg Sutton and LA's Steve Cronin, he's looking pretty pathetic. Is this his sophomore slump a year late? Are his bags already packed for what, supposibly, lies ahead this summer? I'm not sure what it is but he quite literally doesn't look like he's involved with these games at all. I didn't catch much of the Chivas/Dallas game this past weekend but I saw all of the misery that was the Crew/Chivas game two weekends ago. He looked lost. He looked like he had forgotten everything that was involved with being a goalkeeper. He just didn't look like he was into the game at all. Sure it's still early in the season, but you've got to wonder where his head is at? He knew, well before the preseason started, that he was coming back to Chivas. Him coming back to Chivas had nothing to do with his talent or ability, he just couldn't get his work permit this time around. Now it's like all of his confidence has been taken from him.
I like too many crap teams that I don't need to follow a crap goalkeeper around his entire career so I'm giving him one more game to save himself. He needs to deliver a clean sheet during the Superclasico this weekend or else it's over for Brad and me. I hate to be that way but I have plenty of things to consider, like my fantasy team. Thankfully with the fantasy game on ESPN they don't really take away points when your goalkeeper gives up ridiculously easy goals that they should have saved and would have saved a few months ago, otherwise my team would be sitting in the basement. It's time for some tough love for Brad. You've got to pull yourself together!
This is one of the many reasons I'm looking forward to the first Superclasico of the season!
