Today, Brad Guzan will play the last soccer game of his legendary career. The Big Bald Wall, the long-time captain, and the MLS Cup champion will start for Atlanta United once last time after 9 years with the club against DC United at 6:00pm EST.
Those 9 final years wrapped up a 21-year career that began with former MLS side Chivas USA in 2005. After being selected with the 2nd overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft, Guzan would start through 2008, leading the team to 3 straight playoff berths from 2006-2008. In 2007, Guzan was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.
That early success rewarded him with a move to Premier League side Aston Villa, with whom he immediately made a great impression. In the 2009 Peace Cup final, a preseason tournament, Guzan saved multiple penalties to win the game, most famously not falling for Alessandro Del Piero’s attempt down the middle.
That same year, Guzan would make 4 penalty saves, 3 in the shootout, against Sunderland in the EFL Cup while adding some incredible reaction saves to boot.
It took a couple more years, but in the 2012-2013 season, after resigning with Villa, Guzan became the undisputed starter and the club’s player of the season for his efforts in avoiding relegation. Below are just some of his extraordinary highlights from that season.
During this time, and for a long time after, Guzan was the USMNT’s undisputed #2 goalkeeper behind Tim Howard and was the #1 after the 2014 World Cup when his Villa form peaked and Howard took an international break. Guzan made 64 total appearances for the national team in his career, his first in 2006 when he was still at Chivas. He produced some absolutely incredible performances on the international stage, and I would recommend going to YouTube and watching great saves from his USMNT that we do not feature here, but we will feature the biggest impact moments.
The United States may have finished 4th in the 2015 Gold Cup, but to no fault of Guzan. He walked away with the tournament’s Golden Glove, consistently coming up in the clutch like in the Honduras game below (where he comes up big at the beginning and end).
Guzan started during the USMNT’s Copa America Centenario semi-final runs and in my opinion, his best national career saves came in this tournament. He made multiple saves in 1v1 situations with slim leads and most notably made a stunning double-save with less than 10 minutes to go for the US to defeat Panama.
Right before Guzan played his first Atlanta United match, he returned to play in group stage matches at the 2017 Gold Cup. Once again, he came up big against Panama.
Guz had a talent for performing exceptionally well against very specific teams (as sen with Panama), and after being released from the Gold Cup roster to play his first game for Atlanta United, this talent would reveal itself to fans in his first game against Orlando City SC.
This would mark a fantastic half-year for United’s new starting goalkeeper, who won MLS Save of the Year for a ridiculous stop on Bradley Wright-Phillips.
The next year would be even better, as Guzan would be named an MLS All-Star and make arguably the biggest save of his life, a diving effort to the right on the goal line that denied a Jeremy Ebobisse header and equalizer. Mr. Clean was clutch yet again, and this time, he had a trophy to lift up for his efforts.
2019 was even better with another All-Star appearance and absurd saves. Remember the juggling save on the goaline against Minnesota?
What about Guzan’s big saves to hoist the Open Cup and spite Minnesota again?
And what about when he pulled off one of the best saves of his career the same day Martinez got a record 15th straight game with a goal and the 2019 Goal of the Year?
In 2020, Guzan performed at the same level as his All-Star seasons, but was overlooked due to the drop-off in performance from the rest of the team. This matchup versus Orlando where he single-handily kept the team alive was the highlight of many that year.
After leading the club back to the playoffs in 2021, Guzan ruptured his Achilles and was out for most of the 2022 season. Many fans thought that would be the end of his career. Instead, Guzan came back, became the starter again, and showed the world he still was on the top of his game against LAFC with 9 astounding saves.
The year after, many fans worried that we were starting to see age, or the Achilles, catch up to Guzan, but a down-year rapidly became the best year yet. That started during the late Atlanta playoff push, where Guzan’s performance earned a point in Red Bull Arena.
Once Atlanta qualified for the play-in against CF Montreal, Guzan kept the game close and got a penalty save that made all the difference for advancement to face Inter Miami.
Now, do I need to say anything about Guzan’s 3-game shutdown of Lionel Messi and friends? Please, just watch, and relive the masterclass in goalkeeping and the biggest upset in MLS history. If anything lives forever to represent Brad Guzan’s legacy, it will be these 3 matches.
Finally, it’s fitting to end Guzan’s career showcase by continuing the theme of him dominating against specific clubs. Guzan went toe-to-toe with Miami again in his best 2025 performance.
Now, here we are at the end. It’s an end fans will accept, seeing that Jayden Hibbert shined as the potential goalkeeper of the future, but most fans still don’t want to think about the end too much.
Guzan has been playing for so long, he seems like he could keep playing forever, right? What happens when you take away the last player remaining from the 2017 inaugural team and one of the core pieces of your franchise? What happens when you have to say goodbye to an incredible role model with extreme talent that goalkeepers in Georgia and the United States have looked up to for so long?
Truly, we know there will be a void. We learned when we lost Parkhurst, Larentowicz, Martinez, and Nagbe; you can maybe replace a player’s talent, but you cannot replace the impact they made on and off the field.
Thank you, Brad Guzan, for your impact on our team and our lives. Enjoy a well-deserved retirement.