Tim Howard says he believes Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando is "the greatest goalkeeper in MLS history."
The two shot-stoppers have been teammates on the United States national team for years, but while Howard left Major League Soccer for more than a decade in the Premier League, Rimando has spent his entire career in the U.S.
And as Colorado prepare to face rivals RSL on Friday night at Rio Tinto Stadium, the Rapids keeper had to give the nod to Rimando.
"What I think is that he's the greatest goalkeeper in MLS history," Howard told MLSsoccer.com. "I think that has nothing to do with anyone's opinion of anything. His longevity and his records and his numbers speak for themselves."
Rimando, 37, leads MLS all-time in wins and clean sheets, but he's never won the league's Goalkeeper of the Year Award, an honor Howard received in 2001.
"He is a dear friend of mine," Howard said. "I've known him since we were 17. We were roommates together for five or six years.
"We have tremendously different styles, but I think they're each very effective," Howard added. "His works for him and mine works for me. There's so many technical aspects of the game that we do differently that it would probably take a manual to explain that.
"The easy similarities are that we both are very good reactionary goalkeepers. For our age, we haven't lost a step in our quickness and reaction, so that's a good thing."
Rimando also looked back fondly at rooming with Howard in his teenage years.
"We met on the Under-17 US national team and traveled the world together as roommates since we were 14, 15 years old," Rimando said. "We grew up together. We pushed each other and over the course of playing soccer we became really good friends."
But Rimando said any friendship will be put aside when they face off against each other for the first time since Howard came back to MLS.
"When he steps across that line, he's playing to win," Rimando says. "He's playing to get a shutout. He's very passionate about this sport, and whether he's in an Everton kit or a Colorado kit, he's going to do whatever it takes to win.
"When we cross that line, we're not going to be training with each other, we'll be playing against each other," he adds. "It'll be a good fight and we'll go have a pint after."