Matt Miazga spent most of this year in the middle of a whirlwind. His successes tugged him in countless directions. Every day brought a new challenge, a new question, a new tabloid rumor or a new twist. Those are the inevitable realities created by integral roles in three separate teams and a first taste of the United States national team earlier this month.
It is easy for a 20-year-old defender to get sucked into that vortex and veer off course. There are countless cautionary tales in the books to cite the peril of those demands and distractions.
Miazga marched through all of them with composure well beyond his years. He shuffled between his duties with New York Red Bulls and the U.S. under-20 and under-23 national teams without suffering. He stepped into the senior team as a reward for his performances on all three fronts and stoked interest from several overseas suitors.
There are no magic secrets behind the dramatic rise. Miazga is blessed with physical and technical attributes often found at the top levels. He benefits from a strong structure on and off the field. And he understands the importance of summoning those qualities day after day in order to push forward and shoulder the load.
“For the most part, it’s all about mentality,” Miazga told FOX Soccer during the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Kansas City, Kan. last month. “That’s the way I look at it. Every time I step on the pitch, I have to give it my all. What I think in my head is what I have to do. It all comes down to mentality. I have goals in my life that I want to achieve. Every time I step on the pitch, I try to achieve those things. It’s all about mentality.”
Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch trusted Miazga to establish himself as a first-team fixture after Ronald Zubar sustained a hamstring injury at the start of this season.
Those fundamental tenets serve as the bedrock for Miazga’s ascent this year and his status as a fixture in the Red Bulls’ defense ahead of the second leg of the Eastern Conference final against Columbus Crew SC on Sunday (live, 7:30p.m. ET, FS1, FOX Sports GO). They also underscore the strides made to move into this position.
Miazga signed with the Red Bulls in 2013 and spent most of the next two years learning on the job. Former Red Bulls coach Mike Petke played him seven times last season, but Miazga mostly sat and soaked up the experiences encountered by most young players. He figured out how he needed to approach his duties and tried to emulate the people around him capable of imparting those traits. And then he went and applied them during his spells with the U.S. youth teams.
This year -- particularly with the FIFA Under-20 World Cup placed squarely in the middle of it -- always loomed as a potential step forward. The process accelerated when expected Red Bulls linchpin Ronald Zubar picked up a hamstring injury in the season opener against Sporting Kansas City and recovered more slowly than anticipated.
Zubar’s absence provided Miazga with the chance to entrench himself in the team. Miazga remembered his trials from the previous year -- he started five games in a row during June and July without starting an irrefutable case to retain his spot -- and responded accordingly.
“There were some growing pains [last year], but I think they helped me to mature and become more focused,” Miazga said. “I never take training lightly. I give it my all on the pitch. And that translated into this year. You’re going to go through your ups and downs. It’s just a matter of responding. It’s all about how you respond. I’ve taken it all into my stride. It’s all about that mentality and becoming the best person and player I can be.”
Everything came together for Miazga at the right time. He grasped his opportunity with both hands. He stepped into a revamped team with a revamped approach predicated on pressing without the ball and pushing the defensive line high up the field to reduce time and space. He thrived alongside the astute and seasoned Damien Perrinelle to establish a partnership only broken up by external forces or injuries.
“The system fits well into the way I like to play,” Miazga said. “I like to be aggressive. I like to press and make teams uncomfortable. It’s gone well so far. Hopefully, I can continue to develop in it.”
Miazga spent the year moving from strength to strength. He shined with the U.S. U-20s as they reached the quarterfinals at the World Cup earlier this year. He stood tall with the U.S. U-23s even as they stumbled to a third place in Olympic qualifying. He turned out week after week for the Red Bulls and placed himself among the top five or six center backs in the league this season in the process.
U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann rewarded Miazga -- the son of two Polish citizens who moved to the United States and settled in New Jersey before his birth -- with a place in the squad to face St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago earlier this month. Klinsmann settled those nagging questions about Miazga’s international future by handing him his debut as a substitute against St. Vincent. Those precious few minutes punctuated a year of radical progress.
Miazga played for three United States national teams -- including the senior side -- and showed well at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup this year.
This date at Red Bull Arena represents the next task for Miazga. It is the latest in a series of important games for him. Every match holds meaning for a player still honing his craft and ironing out the wrinkles in his game, but this affair provides a chance to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg and secure a place in MLS Cup.
It also provides the latest test to those guiding principles. Miazga credits his family and his focus for the strides made this year. This occasion marks the latest chance to cast the noise to one side, form a partnership with Zubar (inserted into the starting XI after Perrinelle suffered a knee injury against D.C. United in the Eastern Conference semifianls) in the heart of defense and set his sights on the important factors at hand.
“Through my short professional career so far, I’ve learned that it’s all about consistency,” Miazga said. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve had a good game in the past. You have to perform all of the time.”
Those tenets guided Miazga through a year filled with potential distractions and rigorous obligations now. He hopes to apply them yet again here to backstop the Red Bulls’ revival in this second leg and tack one last game onto this fantastic year.
