It takes a ton of confidence to accept your fate as a backup in professional sports. Doubly so when you do that for both club and country like American Brad Guzan.
Today, Tim Howard's backup inked a new three-year deal with Aston Villa-his English Premier League club.
Guzan will join his teammates on a preseason tour of the United States and he's expected to be at Villa until the end of the 2014-15 season. Irish goalkeeper Shay Given-one of the best at his position in the world-stands in front of Guzan and more substantial playing time in England. Guzan played in seven games last season including one FA Cup match when Given was hurt.
Some people will probably think that Guzan is crazy since at 27, he should be starting to reach his prime years as a pro yet he's going back to a place where he's played in eight EPL games over the last four years (all but one last season) and 10 overall (2 FA Cup matches).
It's hard to say how good he could be since he went from Chivas USA in MLS to Aston Villa in 2008 and he's basically been stapled to the bench since then. He also played on loan at Hull City for four months during the 2010-11 season where he made 16 starts for the Football League Championship squad. Apparently, the new manager of Aston Villa-Paul Lambert-has seen enough since he remarked that "I've watched Brad and some of his games when he was on the team last year and he was excellent."
Howard is 33 and Given is 36 so no matter what, Guzan is much younger than both of the guys he is stuck behind. However, unlike most field positions, players have a better chance to hang around (think Brad Friedel who is 41 on Tottenham) when they are goalkeepers since you don't have to run. For his sanity, let's hope that Guzan gets more of a chance to show what he can do in the next few years. Nobody deserves to sit that much, assuming they have some ability.
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