Football fans hail historic Tim Howard display against Belgium

Wednesday 2 July 2014 at 8:12am

Tim Howard made more saves than any World Cup goalkeeper since 1966. Credit: Reuters

Tim Howard's spectacular goalkeeping performance in the USA's World Cup defeat to Belgium last night - in which he made 16 saves - has made him the most talked about man in the tournament today.

Initial praise for the Everton shot-stopper, such as that proffered by Belgium captain Vincent Kompany and US Vice President Joe Biden, was pretty straightforward.

But soon afterwards, Howard was named US Secretary of Defence (on Wikipedia):

Then the plaudits got even sillier:

And sillier:

Inevitably, it culminated in #ThingsTimHowardCouldSave: