Tim Howard walked into a circle of reporters as he has done on dozens of occasions over the past decade, only this time felt different.
Rather than facing the kind of questions he had probably grown accustomed to — about the state of the U.S. national team, the condition of the defence, or his team's chances of winning — Howard fielded questions he never faced before. About being away from the national team, whether he had lost the hunger to represent the U.S., and what it felt like to be a backup.
