Brad Friedel may well be on his way to Tottenham, but it’s easy to forget all the good work goalkeepers do while remembering the saves they didn’t make. This video shows some of Big Brad’s finer moments during his final season at Aston Villa and reminds us what big gloves he has to fill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbgz9HuGFjY
[Spotted on AVFC California]
Brad Friedel had a surprising number of options open to him as his Villa contract came to an end. Interest was reportedly shown by Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, along with an offer of further 12 months at Villa Park.
However, it’s Spurs who have won the American’s signature and are due to announce this morning (Friday) that he will be moving to White Hart Lane from July 1st, presumably on a two year deal.
It’s sad to see Big Brad go, but
Brad Friedel turned 40 years old today, so, aside from wishing the big man many happy returns, it seemed like a good excuse to take a glance at our goalkeeping situation now and going forward.
Friedel’s contract expires this summer. We know that Gerard Houllier was actively looking at potential replacements last year, but the gaffer never ruled out the possibility of extending Friedel’s stay. In fact, he said that they’d talk about it in February and come to a decision
Brad Friedel became Aston Villa’s oldest ever player tonight, but you would never have known it as he pulled out a number of superb saves to prevent a much harsher scoreline than the 3-1 this one finished.
Wayne Rooney signalled a timely return to form with two very well taken goals in open play in the first and last minutes of the first half. Darren Bent got one back for Villa only for any hopes of a comeback to be
I believe the pre-match press conference ahead of the Boxing Day game against Tottenham is taking place today, so brace yourself for cherry picked Houllier quotes to filter out over the next few days, sending people predisposed to fly in rages into those very rages.
He said WHAT?!?!? ARRRGHHHHH!!!
Oh, wait. I see. Well that makes sense I suppose. Okay, carry on.
I’m not entirely sure where the quotes on Brad Friedel came from yesterday, but they also look
One of the words on the street is that Houllier and Randy Lerner are meeting today to flesh out finances for player acquisitions. Then again, that was also one of the words a couple of weeks back, so who knows?
However, it seems self evident that there’s plenty to discuss and that they’ll be getting together at some point. It also seems self evident that there will be some significant activity in January one way or another.
Paul Faulkner seems
A bit thick on PR here and there as Jack Woodward unconvincingly attempts to lead the players into agreeing that the new FxPro deal will somehow bring success no other sponsor could, but still interesting to see extended interviews. Especially Carlos Cuellar talking about the World Cup and Brad Friedel’s obvious disdain for the bumblebee costume goalkeeper kit.
(More vids after the jump)
Carlos Cuellar
Stiliyan Petrov
Brad Friedel
Stewart Downing
Brad Friedel recently sat down with ussoccer.com to discuss, among other things; breaking the record for consecutive Premiership appearances, keeping himself fit as he gets older, yoga, dealing with making mistakes under the glare of the media spotlight and coping with building a long career so far from home.
This 5 minute vid is the first of two parts, I’ll hopefully be able to follow up with the second part when it is released.
February was a busy month, but with all the Carling Cup and FA Cup fixtures, there were only 3 Premiership games to capture the data from. It’s probably quite fitting since he’s consistently among the highest scoring players in every game that Brad Friedel finally win an AVC Player of the Month award himself.
Very well deserved and largely thanks to being the highest scoring player in the Tottenham and Man Utd games. It’s unquestionable that Brad has saved