16 American goalkeepers you may need to know

A line caught my attention in an Associated Press story on the U.S. U-23s’ ouster:

"And goalkeeper, long a strength of the Americans, is now a potential problem area. Given the struggles of Hamid and Johnson, 41-year-old Spurs goalkeeper Brad Friedel might be brought out of national team retirement in the event of an injury to U.S. starter Tim Howard."

Future U.S. national team goalkeeper?

The first mistaken assumption is that Hamid and Johnson are the primary backups to Tim Howard, when it's clearly Brad Guzan. But the overall trend is something I’ve heard a decent amount lately: the American goalkeeper well is drying up. I don’t think of the U.S. as being short on goalkeepers, but it's true that there is no real pecking order behind Howard and Guzan. If you had to pick a starter other than those two, it would make you nervous. But I think it is inaccurate to decry the future of American goalkeepers.

Goalkeepers tend to develop and excel later in their careers than field players. There are many reasons for this – maturity, decision-making, need for repetitions among them – but it’s pretty standard logic. So writing off the entire goalkeeping pool because the U-23 goalkeepers underperformed is not fair.