Miazga and Carter-Vickers pose present solutions for U.S.
PHILADELPHIA » The U.S. National Team camp in Philadelphia this week is all about the future. A present that lacks qualification for next month’s World Cup finals has a way of necessitating that.
The roster, laden with teenagers and players in their early 20s, is geared toward uncovering contributors for when the program resumes meaningful games in a couple of years. But more immediate-term solutions are also included. And with due respect to the young and prosperous German-based duo of Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic, the area of the field with the most potential in Dave Sarachan’s camp is center back.
Matt Miazga and Cameron Carter-Vickers aren’t just at the forefront of this camp. If you were naming a first-choice squad for matches that count, they’d feature in the conversation. Sarachan even admitted that Miazga would’ve made a strong case for the plane to Russia had the U.S. qualified.
In a program where promises of a brighter future seem distant, Miazga and Carter-Vickers offer two tangible manifestations of hope. And their familiarity together could be one of the fulcrums around which Sarachan can leverage progress in Monday’s friendly with Bolivia at Talen Energy Stadium.
“We’ve played a while together now since the U-20 World Cup, Olympic qualifying, and now we played our first senior national team against Paraguay (in March),” Miazga said Tuesday at training at the University of Pennsylvania. “We have good chemistry. We get along on and off the pitch, and hopefully now we can continue to establish ourselves and make an impact with the senior team.”
“We’ve played a lot together through the youth ages, the Under-20s and Under-23s,” Carter-Vickers said. “It’s just another good opportunity for us to kind of hopefully get on the pitch together and build on what we’ve been doing and try to improve.”
The two have remarkably similar journeys. Both picked the U.S. over interest from another eligible nation — Poland for Miazga, England for Carter-Vickers. They combined for more than 50 U.S. youth appearances, starring as a central pairing at the U-20 World Cup in 2015 when CarterVickers was just 17. CarterVickers remains eligible for the 2020 Olympics.
Both ply their trades in London, Miazga at Chelsea and Carter-Vickers at Tottenham. And both excelled on loan this season. The 22-year-old Miazga played 43 games in his second season at Chelsea feeder club Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, scoring a goal in the two-leg playoff to get Vitesse into next season’s Europa League.
“I feel good, I feel fit. I feel sharp, I feel ready,” Miazga said. “So now I’m trying to bring in my form here and make an impact here. I’ve enjoyed my time at Vitesse. I had a good successful season there, two consecutive seasons with the cup win and qualifying for Europa League, so I’m happy with my growth there as a player and a person and I want to translate it now to the national team.”
Carter-Vickers, 20, split the season away from North London, logging significant minutes in the Championship with Sheffield United and Ipswich. Miazga has two appearances with Chelsea in the Premier League, while Carter-Vickers’ only Tottenham games have come in the FA Cup and League Cup.
The prospect of playing on opposite sides of a London derby is tantalizing for both.
“That’s the goal, him playing for a big club and me playing for a big club and playing Premier League football,” Miazga said. “Hopefully that comes true, but we have to work hard and everything else will take care of itself.”
“That’s definitely my aim,” Carter-Vickers said. “I want to go back to Tottenham next year and try to impress the manager, try to impress as many people as I can. I know Matt thinks very similar to me.”
Each player is waiting to see what his club’s plans are and whether it might entail another loan spell. The current focus is to work on what lies before them at camp, where they can state a case for solidifying an international future.
Carter-Vickers has two senior team caps, making his debut in the first friendly under Sarachan last November in Portugal. Miazga made the roster for last summer’s Gold Cup, scoring a goal against Nicaragua. He has five caps.
Center back is a position of relative depth in the U.S. pool, but one looking for another star. John Brooks is a first-choice player who’s just 25 and should be an anchor of the next generation when he’s healthy. But the rest project as depth options. Tim Ream is 30 but coming off a strong season with Fulham (he could be called into the European legs of this current set of three friendlies next week, after Fulham plays a promotion playoff to get back to the Premier League). Matt Hedges, a chic MLS option, is already 28. Longtime fixtures like Geoff Cameron (32), Matt Besler (31) and Omar Gonzalez (29) are getting up there in years and are prime candidates for trying to dismiss the ghosts of the past, while Steve Birnbaum’s growth at D.C. United has plateaued. Real Salt Lake’s Justen Glad and the Red Bulls’ Tim Parker are two long-time youth stalwarts also waiting to break in.
That paints a picture of opportunity, and Miazga and Carter-Vickers this week have given the means to exploit it.
“Personally for me any time I’m with the national team, I have to work hard and give it my all and try to make an impact, and whatever happens, happens,” Miazga said. “I can only control what I can control, and that’s every time I get a callup, every time I step on the pitch, I have to perform well and give it my best. Everything else will take care of itself, but of course you want to be a part of the future and the next generation of USMNT players and that’s a goal of mine.”