Brad Guzan: ‘Whenever your back is against the wall, you’ve got to rise to the occasion’

Atlanta United’s Brad Guzan doesn’t precisely remember where he made his first save as a goalkeeper with Chivas USA in 2005.

That seems by design.

Listening to him discuss the nuances of the position and how he has succeeded for almost 20 years, Guzan probably chooses not to remember too many of the difficult and important saves he made in his team’s 3-2 win against Miami two weeks ago that propelled Atlanta United into the next round of the playoffs. The Five Stripes will play at Orlando on Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Two years after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon, the Guzanaissance is real. The 40-year-old is playing with the quickness and anticipation that he may have made when he made that first save against D.C. United at Dignity Health Sports Park so many years ago.

Guzan has made 40 saves in the past four playoff matches.

Just don’t ask him to describe them, as in this 20-minute exclusive conversation with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the team’s training ground last week.

Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

Q. Do you remember your very first save?

A. No. I remember it vaguely. Was it San Jose? San Jose away actually was our first game in the old university stadium.

Q. This is a weird playoff format, 1-3-1-1-1, what is your opinion of this format? Does it make sense?

A. It’s probably not great, but because of the calendar of where we are in terms of the league, the playoff system gets chopped in and changed because of revenue, because of teams wanting the ability to host a home game, and then on top of it, you throw an international window in the middle of it, and so it’s not ideal, from that standpoint, in terms of timing, in terms of days between games from the end of the regular season to then the first game of the playoffs.

Hopefully, down the road, they can iron that out a bit.

Q. Talking of switching, the league is reportedly considering switching to the fall-winter-spring schedule, either before or after the 2026 World Cup. What is your take on that? Do you like that better than now?

A. I would. I would certainly want to see more details. I think the closer you can get (to rest of globe’s schedule), then I think that then helps with transfer windows. I think obviously the climate in certain cities becomes an issue. But with that being said, can you make do and figure out solutions to those types of problems? There’s always going to be problems that come up with whatever the schedule looks like, in terms of location and so you just got to be able to kind of deal with those. I think the closer you can get to a global football schedule, probably the better.

Q. Ninety-eight degrees in Frisco, Texas …

A. That’s being generous, More like 108.

Q. Or 20 degrees in Minneapolis. Which do your prefer?

A. I think I’m probably taking a game of Minneapolis in the cold.

Q. Y’all have done that before. Twice.

A. Yeah, true.

Q. You may get to do it again. (Minnesota is in the playoffs in the Western Conference. If it and Atlanta United advance to MLS Cup, Minnesota would host).

A. I know. And then I’ll be saying, I’ll be taking the 98 in Dallas or in Houston.

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Q. You’ve played in England, playing for different clubs. Some of them were in some battles for promotion or relegation. Did that change you as a person, and how?

A. I don’t think it changed me as a person. I think it teaches you to be tough. It teaches you to be mentally strong. It shows character. And so there’s a lot of things that come from going through those types of challenges.

Q. Can that be replicated here?

A. Within U.S. soccer or the sport within the United States? I don’t know. I don’t have the answer to that. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to promotion relegation because of owners and teams that saved the league back in the ‘90s, and, you know, early 2000s and the financial investment that was made then. I don’t know if we’re too far down the road to then say, right, we’re going to do a U-turn here, and we’re going to change it. I just don’t know.

Q. Among the other reasons I brought that up, that mental toughness, have you felt a little bit of that in all these different knockout games that Atlanta United has faced this season?

A. Yeah. I think whenever your back is against the wall, you’ve got to rise to the occasion. You’ve got to try and put your best foot forward. And there is no tomorrow, as they say. It’s do or die. You’ve got to give everything, and you’ve got to try and turn up to make sure that you can get a result. And we’ve been in these situations in years previous, but there certainly seems to be a little bit something extra within the group. And sometimes you need that, that little bit of whatever that is.

Q. You can’t put your finger on what that might be?

A. I don’t. I can’t. There’s a feeling among a group in terms of confidence, in terms of belief, and in a real positive focus.

Q. Is that just from winning two weeks ago, yeah, winning at least to this round?

A. Winning helps. I think how we’ve won that helps even more because there’s excitement, there’s buzz, there’s obviously a lot of talk on the outside. So all those things, they add up together and when you put those things together, it certainly helps the feeling within, within the group.

Q. Have you asked yourself, why weren’t we doing this before? Why couldn’t we do this before?

A. No, I’m not a person that looks backward too often. In terms of good or bad, or whatever it’s always about the next play. There’s times it’s probably a little bit of a fault because I think you have to be able to appreciate difficult moments, good moments, but I’ve just never been one to say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna reflect on this and cherish this as much as I can.’ I wish I was more present and more in the moment during that time, as opposed to constantly looking forward.

Q. Is that not a byproduct but a necessary element to being a good goalkeeper?

A. I think so. I think when you look at goalkeeping, I think you need to have memory of a goldfish. You’ve got to be able to forget about good saves. You’ve got to forget about bad saves. Everyone’s going to make mistakes. I made them in Game 2, dropping the ball. You know what I mean? You have to be able to move on from these things really, really quickly.

Because what you can’t have happen is make a mistake in the fifth minute and another mistake in the 10th minute, and you’re thinking, I’ve got 80 more minutes of this game, and it’s only gonna get worse. You’ve got to be thinking, I made a mistake in the fifth minute, great save in the 10th and all of a sudden, a save in the 45th, a save in the 85th and now we’ve tied it up in the 90th, and we’ve got a 1-1 draw, or we’ve gone on to win an extra time and now we won 2-1, but the saves that I made after the mistake were hugely important to help the team have success.

So you’ve got to be able to mentally be really strong and push things aside, and then after the game, and when the time is right, you analyze those mistakes as to why do they happen. How? How can we be better? And how do we try to prohibit those from happening again?

Q. You just talked about trying to be more present and enjoy the moments. And (interim manager) Rob (Valentino) preaches all the time being where you’re feet are.

A. I think I do that. I think there’s a difference, right? I think you’re in the moment, which I am. I told you guys at the beginning of the year I was going to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, and I still am in terms of how I approach tomorrow’s training, the next day’s training, and ultimately, the game in Orlando. And so that part for me doesn’t change.

I think it’s more so like remembering the good moments. I look back at the Miami game and, yeah, OK, I was able to make a few saves, and Jamal (Thiare) scores two great goals, and then Bartosz (Slisz) scores. But for me, what I will probably end up taking away and remembering are the celebrations in the locker room afterward with (team owner) Arthur (Blank) and (Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment vice president) Josh (Blank), and all of our staff and the players. That’s what I’ll end up taking away from that moment. It won’t be the saves or whatever. For me, I was doing my job, right? And so it’s those moments I’ll remember. And in those moments of celebration, you’re trying to say, ‘hey, remember this, because this is a cool moment.’ You know what I mean? You make a save in the game. I’m not thinking, ‘remember this save?’ I’m thinking, ‘make the next save. Don’t worry about this one. Make the next one.’

Q. Have you modeled your captaincy, your style of captaincy, after any former captains you’ve had?

A. No. I don’t come in thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to do something like this or do something like that.’ I just try to be me. To be honest. Obviously, I’m someone that’s been around for a little bit, and I’ve got experience, but every situation that pops up, you try to handle it in a way that is true to myself. Because I think if you get away from being true to yourself, then your teammates, the group, is going to see right through you, and it’s not going to carry any weight.

Q. You did some was it radio or TV a couple of years ago when you had your injury. Down the line, is that what you want to do?

A. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if, whether it’s media, being on your side of the table …

Q. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone (laughs) …

A. Exactly ... or broadcasting, I know I want to be in the game, whether it’s a front-office position and helping do things on that side of it, I don’t know.

Q. I guess this is probably the most important question. You came under fire last year. I think a good bit of it was undeserved. This year, you’re getting a lot of adulation, a lot of the hosannas. Is there a difference between last year and this year for you?

A. No, and that’s the thing, right? You talk about mental strength, going from one to the next, there’s nobody on the outside that is going to hold me to a higher standard than I’m going to hold myself. There’s nobody in terms of how I come to work, in terms of how I train, in terms of how I compete on the field, there’s nobody that’s going to critique me more than myself.

And so last year, no problem. I can deal with it. I can take it, whether warranted or not that’s not for me to decide. No problem. And this year, the same thing. As great and as sexy as everybody’s telling me that I am, that doesn’t do anything for me in terms of saying, ‘Oh, you’re, you’re so great.’ I’m not. Ultimately, as a goalkeeper, you’ve got to try and keep an even head and even mind frame in terms of how you approach things. And so for me, that doesn’t change with all the negativity from last year, all the positivity from this year, there’s still negativity, and that’s fine. It’s it is what it is. That’s part of being in this business.

Q. Statistically, you’re better this year than last year.

A. Don’t give me this nonsense, Doug, about statistics.

Q. Do you feel like you’re a better player this year than last?

A. No, I don’t. It’s not about statistics. Especially in goalkeeping and analyzing goalkeepers and analyzing saves, and how are saves made, you need people that have played the position at a very high level to be able to analyze the statistics of a goalkeeper. Putting the statistics of a goalkeeper in the formula that is used to analyze an outfield player is night and day, and it doesn’t work, yet, we continue to do that. Goalkeeping is a whole other realm of analyzing the position, analyzing performances.

So you talk about statistics, like I said, there’s things that everyone can say, ‘Oh, did you see how great that was? That was a great play by Brad.’ And I’m looking at it saying, ‘Actually, that was a mistake for me, and I got lucky with this, and all of a sudden, because I did that, I was able to make the save, right?’ And it’s like, you’re saying it’s great, and in my review and assessment of that play, it’s a mistake.

You look back at last year, and for me, individually, it wasn’t where I wanted to be. And that’s OK because you continue to learn and adapt and grow. And that’s the thing about playing goalkeeper, you never stop learning. You never stop growing. I learn things from our younger goalkeepers on a daily basis, and hopefully vice versa. And that’s what’s so unique and special about the position of goalkeeper.

Ultimately, you look at guys that have longevity and careers that carry on for a decent amount of time, and I think those are the guys that evolve and grow with the position.