For now, Matt Miazga is simply known as the answer to the trivia question 'Who was the first American to play for Chelsea Football Club?'. (Sure, Roy Wegerle used to play for Chelsea back in the late '80s, but he didn't become a US citizen until the early '90s, so technically, he was not an American (yet) when playing for the Blues.)
After Miazga was pressed into service against Aston Villa last spring, he made a second consecutive start against Swansea City the following weekend. Unfortunately, interim head coach Guus Hiddink saw fit to take the young man off at half-time after his big error gifted the game's only goal to the Swans ... and we never heard from him again. In the summer, Miazga was farmed out to Vitesse in the final days of the transfer window, and so far, he's hardly played for the Eredivisie side, recording a grand total of 50 minutes in three substitute appearances in all competitions while also turning out for the reserves side a few times. Not exactly stats to make US Men's National Team manager Jurgen Klinsmann sit up and take notice like he did after Miazga's debut against Villa.
The good news is that Klinsy's still keeping tabs. The bad news is that Miazga sounds about as far from the national team setup as he ever did since arriving at Chelsea in January.
"Matt is a huge, huge prospect that we have."
"We are waiting for him to take a starting role in his new environment, in his new club, and once he is in a starting position and he gets games week in, week out - hopefully, we get him in a flow and then down the road he will be back with the senior national team."
"[Miazga is] trying to prove himself in a not-so-easy environment. This is a good thing and we can't wait until he starts games and then we take it from there."
-Jurgen Klinsmann; source: Facebook via Once a Metro
If we're looking for signs of hope, we should note that the three substitute appearances have come in Vitesse's last three matches before the international break. So perhaps Miazga is close to breaking into the starting lineup, at which point he can hopefully resume his upward career trajectory.