PRINCETON, N.J. — When Tim Howard was 6 or 8, his career path was already being MapQuested by a coach who perhaps did not know about tactics but did understand proportion.

“It was like, ‘Get in goal, you’re the biggest,’ ” Howard said.

He has since joined the elite ranks of the United States’ most prized and dependable soccer export. There are nearly as many Americans (three) starting regularly in goal in the English Premier League as there are Englishmen (five). When the two countries meet at the World Cup on June 12, the United States will not be widely considered to have an advantage at any position except one — Howard in net.

In England, American goalkeepers have become as reliable as tea time. The theories for this are plentiful and speculative: Americans grow up playing sports that require use of the hands. The population of 300 million is bound to produce a high number of terrific athletes. The 6-foot-3 Howard, for instance, was a formidable basketball player at North Brunswick High School in New Jersey.

Bob Bradley, the United States coach, does not subscribe to the good-hands theory. He believes more in the ancestry of role models. In this view, Gianluigi Buffon’s impenetrability as Italy won the 2006 World Cup can be directly traced to the magnificence of Dino Zoff, who captained Italy’s 1982 World Cup-winning team at 40.