Villa's Guzan given USMNT starting nod ahead of Everton's Howard

When the United States lost to Belgium in the Roub of 16 of the 2014 World Cup, first-choice goalkeeper Tim Howard said that he would be stepping down and taking a year off of international football. That left the starting job to Brad Guzan, who acquitted himself fairly well in the Gold Cup this summer. There, his strong performances were wasted by a USMNT squad that couldn't find the back of the net often enough to support him.

But Tim Howard's year is up, and he has been recalled to join the US team from Everton. There was plenty of speculation as to whether or not he would step right back into the starting role. And now we know that he won't. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has made it official that Guzan will be the US starter for this week's friendlies against Peru and Brazil ahead of the important Confederations Cup qualifying match against Mexico on October 10.

After that, Klinsmann may work Howard back into the rotation, but at this point if Guzan can reel off a few more strong performances, it may be a matter of Howard having to wait for mistakes rather than simply reassuming his crown.