AMSTELVEEN, Netherlands – Despite watching Aston Villa's last five matches from the bench, US starting goalkeeper Brad Guzan is confident he’ll be ready when the team takes on the Netherlands in a friendly at Amsterdam ArenA on Friday night.
Currently ranked sixth in the world by FIFA, the Dutch are loaded with attacking talent that would make organizing a defense in a matter of days quite the task – even for a ‘keeper fresh off of action.
Nevertheless, Guzan insists that the five weekends he spent behind Irish international Shay Given have not dulled him game from where it was after starting the first 34 games of the recently-completed English Premier League season. Sounding cool as a cucumber, the backstop says he'll be fully ready to dive into the fray when the opening whistle blows in Amsterdam (3 pm ET; ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMas, UDN).
"It's a long season for the European players," Guzan told MLSsoccer.com, explaining that he can maintain his form despite the benching after nearly three seasons as an EPL starter. “It’s basically the whole year.
"Now, it's busy summer for us. We've got these two games [at Holland on Friday and at Germany on June 10] to hopefully prepare us to go into the Gold Cup. Obviously, the priority for us is to win the Gold Cup."
The veteran has had an up-and-down last month. On the club level, he was deposed as starter, forced to watch from the sidelines as his Aston Villa teammates eked out their EPL survival and made their run to the FA Cup final.
Things went smoother on the international front, with US head coach Jurgen Klinsmann naming the 30-year-old as his starter for this summer’s Gold Cup earlier this week. He’ll hope to help the US bring home their second straight CONCACAF crown and the 2017 Confederations Cup berth that would go along with it.
English tabloid rumors have swirled about Villa manager Tim Sherwood shopping for a new backstop, but they all seem rather quick, what with the campaign freshly capped by this past weekend's FA Cup Final loss to Arsenal. Guzan says he is not yet aware of Sherwood’s goalkeeping plans for next season, but figures he'll learn soon enough.
"First and foremost, we wanted to survive and we did that," he said. "Then, we got to the cup final and it wasn't the result we wanted. That was just a few days ago, but I'm sure there will be some discussions going forward."
Uncertainty may well be following Guzan wherever he goes. Currently unsure of his Villa Park place, he will soon have top stopper Tim Howard back in the USMNT stable after his year-long international hiatus ends in the fall.
As with the rest of his possible distractions, the Illinois native isn't letting any battles ahead for the top club and country jobs alter his mindset with two big friendlies on the horizon.
"There's always competition for places," said Guzan. "For us, [from this week's games through the end of Gold Cup] is a long time, so we'll take it one game at a time.
"We want to be as hard possible to play against, and to beat. It starts here in training. You hope to get better and get on the same page."
