Having played as a defender for many years in this sport, I can tell you it's just a fact that all goalies yell at their defenders. It's not mean-spirited or anything like that. The goalie is the leader of the defense and shouts out commands. Sometimes those commands come from a place of frustration, but the defenders don't take it personally I assure you. The goalie is under a great deal of pressure, and it's the defenders' jobs to keep that pressure as low as possible. Almost any time the ball gets through to the goalie, it's a defender's fault, sometimes the fault of several defenders. The goalie is going to tell those defenders what they did wrong because he's got the best view of it, and they need to learn from their mistakes so it doesn't happen again. As a defender, when you trust and respect your goalie, you absolutely listen to him and work all the harder so you won't let him down.

Goalies do that ALL the time, not just Howard. To explain to you (i'll keep this simple, so not to confuse your Yankie brain ) Goalies are the last line of defense, ok! In an ideal world we would see defenses so well organised that the goalie is a spectator during the match, this never happens. The goalie essentially marshalls the defence,so if he's yelling at player X to close an attacking player down and player X doesn't, then allowing said forward to have a pop at goal,which forces the goalie into an acrobatic belly up dive up to the postage stamp to claw the ball away, then the goalie is going to have a pop at player X for failing to close down the attacker.

That is one scenario where the goalie might yell at his defense. Can you think of another instance? Ask a parent to help.

He was just showing his passion for the game and he had every reason to be yelling at the poor defense the defenders in front of him were providing. I have seen other goalies do the same thing in this years WC and in the past. Howard just did it more often in the last game, so that's what made it more noticeable.

Maybe it wasn't meant to come across as angry, maybe he was trying to pump himself and the team up. Sometimes players do this to get the very best out of their teammates.

HE said he wasn't yelling at them in anger. He said he was just fired up and wanted them to get fired up.

You clearly don't watch much football. Goalies often do that, Tim Howard especially.

to help himself and teammates to focus on defending, to boost morale; to release the highly intensified nerve from great pressure; though maybe over-reacted but it helps

He wasn't angry, he was boosting his confidence and trying to boost their....