After nightmare season at Aston Villa, Brad Guzan eager to lead U.S. to Copa America glory
Brad Guzan will try to replace the memories of a nightmare season with Aston Villa with victorious memories with the U.S. at Copa America.
KANSAS CITY — As happy as every member of the U.S. national team is to be on the squad for Copa America, there may be no player more happy than Brad Guzan. Not only because he has been named the starting U.S. goalkeeper for the tournament, but also because being back with the national team has provided an opportunity to put a nightmare club season behind him.
Guzan stood in goal for the majority of Aston Villa's terrible 2015/2016 campaign, which saw the Villains relegated for the first time since the English Premier League was formed. He faced his share of criticism for the team's dismal results, and the entire season could have been enough to leave any player struggling for confidence.
Not Guzan, who insists he has put the disappointment behind him, and is focused on rewarding Jurgen Klinsmann's faith for making him the U.S. starter.
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"Having the backing of your coach means everything and I feel confident about where my game is, and how we feel as a group," Guzan told Goal USA. "It's a veteran group, and we've been together for a few years now, through different tournaments, and that experience is going to help us this summer."
Guzan isn't very interested in dwelling on Aston Villa's nightmare season. He hasn't, and will never, forget the anguish he saw Villa fans endure, but he also understands how important it is to move forward, and not dwell on past failures.
"I’ve seen a lot in professional soccer, especially being over in England," Guzan said. "You see a lot and you learn how to deal with it. Considering my time with the club, to go through that, you take responsibility, but at the same time you understand what these types of seasons do to you as a player in terms of being strong enough mentally and physically to overcome these difficult times."
Guzan had what, by most accounts, what was considered a disappointing season from an individual standpoint, but that clearly didn't shake Klinsmann's confidence in his ability to be the U.S. starter in goal, and it certainly hasn't cost him the trust of U.S. teammates who still feel he is very much a strength on the team, and not a weakness.
"It was a tough year for him at Villa, but you can't put anything on him. It's a team game and some of his teammates didn't show up," U.S. and Stoke City defender Geoff Cameron said. "He's a guy that's been in the Premier League for a long time and he's got the experience. He's been the backup for a long time and he's seen a lot. He's played games and we're all confident in his ability.
"I feel comfortable playing in front of him as well," Cameron said. "He's a good player and he's a good keeper. He'll be there to lead us in the back."
Guzan made the most of the opportunity to start in Tim Howard's place after Howard took a one-year break from the national team. He showed Klinsmann enough during that time to believe he is ready to be the first-choice goalkeeper even though Howard is back in the fold.
"None of the games over the last two years, even if he didn’t win the Gold Cup, did he make any mistakes," Klinsmann said when he named Guzan his starter. "If you go through all the games and go through his club situation, he had a very tough year with Aston Villa being relegated. And also losing the No. 1 spot, winning it back, losing it again. He had a real battlefield the entire season."
Aston Villa's awful season makes it easy to forget that the last tournament Guzan played in goal for the U.S. also ended in disappointing fashion. Last summer's Gold Cup saw the U.S. finish a woeful fourth, and Guzan was seen as one of the players who could have performed better.
"I’m my own biggest critic," Guzan said. "I look at games that people say you play well, I look at those games and there’s always areas you can improve. When you look at games when you make mistakes, those are games that everybody picks out. Last summer obviously, for me, in terms of getting a run of games, that was important. I felt good, but obviously the tournament didn’t go the way we wanted. When you don’t get the results, it's tough not to feel like you could have done things better."
While the recent season was a brutal one at Aston Villa, it wasn't the first torturous season for Guzan. His very first year as a pro saw him start in goal for the then expansion team known as Chivas USA, a team that won just four matches all season, and surrendered 67 goals in 32 matches.
That was a season to forget, but one that helped Guzan learn and develop some thick skin.
"It was my first year as a pro and I really didn't even know yet what being a pro was about," Guzan told Goal USA. "This year at Villa was much worse because I've been with the club for years, so to see things go the way they did was much tougher."
Guzan isn't looking to discuss his club future at the moment. He is focused solely on Copa America, and will let his club situation sort itself out later this summer. He has expressed a willingness to consider returning to MLS, though options in England could keep him overseas.
This summer's Copa America could go a long way toward determining his next destination. If he has a strong tournament showing, offers in Europe would be sure to emerge. That said, if he shines at Copa America, it just might convince an MLS team to splash a big contract on the 31-year-old goalkeeper much the way the Colorado Rapids did when they made Tim Howard the highest-paid goalkeeper in MLS history.
Guzan isn't worrying about contracts or club options now. He is focused on making the starting goalkeeper position one he holds on to for a long time, and he is determined to get back into the habit of winning games. Something that didn't happen often at Aston Villa this past season.
"We all realize how important this tournament is, and what an opportunity it is," Guzan said. "Getting to play in competitions like this, against the kind of players we are going to see, is special, and I believe the group we have now can make the most of it."