Saturday proved to be a memorable day for Matt Miazga.
The U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team defender started and played all 90 minutes as Chelsea cruised past Brad Guzan’s Aston Villa, 4-0. The appearance was Miazga’s first for Chelsea since joining the club in January. Chelsea’s victory featured goals from Alexandre Pato and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, while Pedro added a brace.
Miazga partnered veteran Branislav Ivanovic at centerback, and the former Red Bulls defender looked comfortable from the opening whistle. The 20-year-old centerback proved capable against the relegation contenders, making no mistakes defensively while connecting on a majority of his passes out of the back.
Miazga’s debut comes just several days after being sent off in the U.S. U-23s 2-1 loss to Colombia.
With the win, Miazga and Chelsea now sit ninth in the Premier League, seven points out of fourth place. The Blues return to action next Saturday with a visit to Swansea City.
What did you think of Miazga’s debut? Expect to see more of him this season?
Share your thoughts below.
At this level, I don’t think, even with a poor season, AV is such a drop in competition. He did really well. Not a one mistake from what I saw. It would be great to see him get a run of seven more games and see how he plays and handles that prolonged intensity. Of course, as much as it is Hiddink likes…it doesnt matter. Conte will be bringing his guys. I just hope he sees in Miazga what the rest of us have seen the past few seasons.
I’m happy for the Kid. Was a good opponent for him to get his first minutes against. Hope he continues to grow and improve as a player. Should be interesting to see if he continues to get minutes this year. If he does he could find himself on the squad for the Copa this summer.
The CB options for the USMNT look very promising in the near future….Brooks, Miazga, CCV are all looking to be serious contenders. Just need a 4th (Besler, Gonzalez, Birnbaum, Alvarado) to really emerge and we could move Cameron to CDM.
@Lost… Nice post sir.. I totally agree with you. Birnbaum has also been looking very comfortable in the middle and another is Parker (Van. Whitecaps).. To be able to move Cameron to the #6 would seriously help our entire backline. If not for the Copa, at least for the September qualifiers and into the Hex.
This all sounds too positive.. so just watch JK screw this up by playing his plug and play nonsense…
I feel many people are getting way ahead of themselves with Birnbaum. I don’t want to take anything away from him because he’s done everything required of him, but his 2 starts this year have hardly been difficult. We weren’t challenged at all in either game. Neither team sustained any attacks and never came at us with numbers. Our defense was able to sit back comfortably and clean up sloppy attacks from our opponents. Again, he did this well but the responses from many have been “what a great game he and Cameron had” rather than “they weren’t tested at all and did their plain and simple job”
He’s always been super calm and super proactive, I’m just glad he maintained that style on a higher level. Some prospects look great at their level but when me going up start making wrong decisions (see Anderson for Seattle last night…)
Really hope that he gets a solid dose of experience there! He’s the type of up and comer that could man a USMNT center back slot for years, sooner than later if he can just start seeing the pitch ahead of warming a bench in the coming future.
A well selected match to put him in for his debut. Regardless of opponent- looked not a bit out of place- composed and efficient- like himself. Obviously the prerequisite is talent but, so much about trying to break into a top league is pure chance- right place, manager, circumstance at the right time. Seems lots of the right things are in place this season at Chelsea to offer a unique opportunity. Hope hope hope “it” and Matt continues to grab hold!!!!
….he looked, calm on the ball, was solid, was involved in plays and even took a shot at Guzan. Congrats
Well, looks the posters who confidently predicted he would never play for Chelsea were wrong.