Tim Howard reflects on 'bittersweet' World Cup record in USA defeat

Tim Howard set a new World Cup record by making 15 saves against Belgium on Tuesday night, but told reporters that it felt like a hollow achievement after his USA team were eliminated anyway by Belgium. The goalkeeper’s efforts had been enough to keep the score level at 0-0 through 90 minutes, but he was beaten by Kevin De Bruyne at the start of extra-time, and then again by Romelu Lukaku as the Americans slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

Fifa has tracked save statistics at World Cups since 1966. The previous record had stood since 1978, when Peru's Ramon Quiroga made 13 stops during a 0-0 draw against Holland.

“You know, I don’t really keep count,” said Howard at first when asked about his performance after the game. “It sucks that we lost. So that’s the overriding thing unfortunately.”

Informed of the precise details of his record, he smiled for a moment but continued in a similar vein. “Someone said that,” he said. “That’s a crazy stat. But bittersweet I suppose … You know, I don’t really keep count. It sucks that we lost. So that’s the overriding thing unfortunately.”

Howard was named as man of the match, but agreed when one journalist asked if it was the least favourite award of his career. Asked if he thought this was the best individual performance to date, he replied: “I don’t know. Maybe. It was of the spectacular variety but we lost, so I don’t know if it can be counted up there.”

This has been an impressive tournament for Howard, who despite failing to keep any clean sheets may have contributed more to the USA’s cause than any other individual player. But he was keen to downplay his own contribution.

“You just try and do all the things that have gotten me here, and gotten us here, and we hope that it all comes together,” he said. “That’s what I signed up to do, stick my face in front of balls. I hope I can get more saves than I allow goals.”

Reflecting on the overall experience of this World Cup, he added: “Thirty-one teams get their heart broken. It has to end some time, it ended a little bit early for us. We felt like it was a good Belgian team. Sometimes you just give everything you have and you do your absolute best and it doesn’t stack up. That was tonight.

“I thought it was a good performance, Belgium’s a top team. People have been talking about them for a while now. You know, we gave as good as we got. Romelu [Lukaku] made a difference when he came on, obviously Julian [Green] made a difference for us, as well. Fine margins at this level.”

The United States Soccer Federation’s president Sunil Gulati had spoken to the press a short while earlier, expressing the hope that the 35-year-old Howard could still be playing for his country by the time the next World Cup rolls around in 2018. But the goalkeeper was not ready to look that far ahead.

“You know those decisions will be made, obviously, when I’m less emotional,” he said. “When things have settled down, and I’ve had a few important conversations with important people.”