INTERVIEW: Sean Johnson chimes in from Stoke-on-Trent

The club announced today that starting goalkeeper Sean Johnson started a three week training stint in England earlier today, beginning with Premier League club Stoke City (Dec. 5-9) before joining U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard and coach Chris Woods at Everton FC (December 10-23) for the second straight offseason.
I caught up with Sean Wednesday morning to talk how his first session went with Stoke, his third offseason abroad and what matches he’ll be taking in over the next few weeks.
Jeff Crandall: Sean, over the past three years you’ve spent parts of your offseason in Spain, Germany and England, do you feel tired at all or is the experience too good to pass up?
Sean Johnson: No, I don’t feel tired at all. I love taking in these experiences and I’ve learned over the past couple years how to deal with the management of my offseason.
It’s about soaking in the experience but also getting the rest and recover enough to be ready to go 100 percent for the season.
JC: What is Stoke like so far?
SJ: I think it’s been a great experience working with guys like Thomas Sorensen, Asmir Begovic and Carlo Nash.
Training with their goalkeeper coach and getting the chance to play and train with the guys at the top level. Just seeing how another team operates gives you perspective.
JC: Have you hung out with your U.S. Men’s National teammates Maurice Edu and Geoff Cameron yet?
SJ:  I’ve hung out with both of them. I’m actually staying with Maurice at the moment. They’re great guys to be around and it’s just good to see familiar faces and make most of the time you have with your friends while you’re over here.
JC: Next week you head to Everton for the second consecutive offseason. How important is it for you to have guys like Tim Howard and Chris Woods working with you there?
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SJ: Having been in with the national team a lot more this past year, training with Chris and Tim again here is a fantastic opportunity to keep some continuity and show how I’m growing.
To be in that environment day-in and day-out and make yourself a better goalkeeper will do wonders for me as a player.
JC: What games are you taking in the next few weeks?
SJ: I’m going to try and take in as many games as I can. This weekend’s lineup has Stoke going to Aston Villa on Saturday and then Everton hosts Tottenham on Sunday at Goodison Park so it works out well. Manchester United also player Man City in a derby match on Sunday so there’s a lot of excitement for that as well.
Depending on how things work out, I’ll hopefully go to a few more games while I’m here. It’s great to go to those stadiums and see everything that goes into a match.
JC: You end your time with Everton just before Christmas. What are you doing with the rest of your time before preseason begins on January 18?
SJ: I’m going to be back in Atlanta through Christmas and maybe New Years. I caught up with the family for a week over Thanksgiving and planned to be there longer.

Because I was coming over here I decided to go down to Florida for a week by myself to get away and be able to get ready for this experience.
JC: Great to hear from you Sean. We’ll talk soon.
SJ: Have a good one!