England goalkeeper: the loneliest position in global football?
Jon Levy
We continue our 32 Players to Watch at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil feature with a look at the man tasked with handling one of the long forlorn and angst-ridden positions in the global game: English goalkeeper. If you need a refresher about how these pieces work before you read all about Joe Hart, player #30 on our countdown, check out our pieces on #32 Shaqiri of Switzerland and #31 Alex Song, of Cameroon.
Number 30: Joe Hart
Country: England
Position: Goalkeeper
Club Team: Manchester City
American-Based Professional Sport “Soulmate”: Jonathan Quick, Goaltender, Los Angeles Kings
You’ve got to be a special player to not only stop England’s decade old revolving door at goalkeeper, but to throw the deadbolt on that sucker and brick the opening shut. Joe Hart is that dude. All of England will be betting on Joe, and you can too, at SportsBettingDime.com.
It’s kind of a wonder nobody noticed before the 2010 World Cup. I mean, most people that know English football realized in 2010 that the Manchester City keeper was England’s keeper of the future, but the “Joe Hart should be our number one RIGHT NOW!” movement wasn’t nearly as earth-shaking as it should have been prior to South Africa. Of course I write this all in retrospect, as I was firmly in the “Rob Green should start for England” camp, but let’s chalk that up to West Ham bias and plow forward as if nothing happened.
Right. So, for those of you not altogether familiar with the exploits of one Charles Joseph John Hart (seriously, that’s his name; it’s ridiculous), here’s a quick rundown:
Despite some detractors, Hart has stabilized the goalkeeper position for England for the first time in over a decade.
“Joe” is from Shrewsbury, and appropriately he began starting in goal for tiny Shrewsbury Town FC at a very young age. He quickly broke into the England youth setup, and was snapped up by Manchester City. Nothing too noteworthy there, and certainly nothing to set him apart from the throngs of unwashed goalkeeping masses that have taken turn manning the England net since David Seaman stopped making appearances in 2002. Rather, it’s what happens next that propels Joe Hart onto this list, and begs favorable comparisons to LA Kings’ stud goalie Jonathan Quick.
Hart was only 19 when he made his move to Man City, and he immediately had to fight for everything he got at the big club. He impressed in training against some world class opposition, went out on loan to Tranmere and Blackpool, and excelled upon his return to City each time. It looked for all to see like the young Hart was going to be the next goalkeeping stalwart for the slightly better than “middling” Premier League club, and then came The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment. The UAE’s royal family bought Manchester City, and they immediately added proven Premier League star Shay Given to start in net. Joe Hart was loaned to Birmingham City; time for him to accept the league’s pecking order, right? Know his role and shut his mouth? Not so much, though Hart would let his play speak for itself. After his recall from Birmingham, Hart stood toe-to-toe with Shay Given every day in training, and quickly took his opportunity to make City fans forget about their brief flirtation with the Irish Buffon.
Jonathan Quick went quickly from US #3 to Conn Smythe winner.
Since earning a spot as the third string goalkeeper on the 2010 World Cup squad, Joe Hart’s made the quantum leap from “great prospect,” to “bona fide star.” The same exact thing can be said about NHL goalie Jonathan Quick, just sub out “World Cup” for “Olympics.” Quick was the number three goaltender on the 2010 team that made the Gold Medal Match, but had its heart broken by an idiotic four-on-four overtime even-in-a-playoff-game rule (and to a lesser extent Sidney Crosby). Since watching his older comrade Ryan Miller excel in that Olympic tournament, Jon Quick’s done a little more than just build on the impressive early resume he was putting together with the Kings. “Quickie” has been an All-Star, a Vezina finalist (best goalie), a Stanley Cup winner, and a Conn Smythe winner (playoffs MVP). Right now he’s one of the best two goalies in the world, and he’s only 28 years old. At 26, Joe Hart comes close to equaling those accomplishments, especially if you factor for the far greater percentage of the world’s populace that plays soccer rather than hockey. Hart is legitimately in the conversation as a top five goalkeeper worldwide. He’s won the Premier League Golden Glove for keeping the most clean sheets three times, and been named to the PFA Team of the Year twice. Hart’s brought City the League Cup, the FA Cup, and of course he played a vital role in winning Manchester City its first league title since 1968. Perhaps most impressively, he’s survived two or three iterations of the Man City dream team, continually keeping his place as the super-wealthy club sheds its skin of world class players and replaces them with seemingly better, world classier players.
Manuel Pellegrini has altered Man City’s style, making Hart even more critical.
And it’s that ambition by Manchester City that’s now changed the way the team plays. Our Hart/Quick comparison was perfect when Roberto Mancini managed City. Both the Sky Blues and the Los Angeles Kings played defensively, with an extremely well organized backline, or blue line in the case of the Kings. But since Manuel Pelligrini’s taken over in Manchester, Joe Hart now sits behind a more attacking, less defensively responsible group of field players. The fact that this team is amongst the Premier League title contenders so late in the season is a another testament to Hart, and perhaps more impressive than what he’s done in the past, and what Quick’s still doing with a stingy defense in LA.
And just as this winter was the right time for Jonathan Quick to make himself known on the world stage, this summer Joe Hart will be the first English goalkeeper since David Seaman to enter a World Cup without a big question mark next to his name. All of England is hoping Hart can restore the pride in goalkeeping lineage that England used to be known for, and he’ll likely have to be spectacular in Brazil to do so. This is a bizarro World Cup for England. They’re now strong in goal and at striker (if Wayne Rooney stays hot), but the midfield hodgepodge of prospects and has-beens won’t do The Three Lions any favors. So much for Sven-Göran Eriksson’s Golden Generation.
Hart will likely have to be the best goalkeeper in the not-quite-group-of-death if England is to move on to the knockout stages, and that’s a particularly tall task when Gigi Buffon and Fernando Muslera are in your group.
The All Unqualified Team: Tales of the Uninvited
Austria winger and Bayern Munich left back David Alaba plans to spend his summer strapped to his club manager Pep Guardiola’s back like C3PO on Chewbacca at the end of Empire. Zlatan thinks this is silly. More on Zlatan next time!
Jon Levy is Co-Founder of The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at jon.f.levy@gmail.com and you can and should follow him on Twitter at @TYAC_Jon.