13015_packwoodwill_supplied Photos courtesy Birmingham Mail
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Will Packwood Dreams of Playing in 3 World Cups

Massachusetts native Will Packwood has spent one-third of his life in England in pursuit of soccer excellence. Here, the Birmingham City defender opens up about his long-term goals in the game.
BY Max Hall Posted
January 30, 2015
4:45 PM
IT IS ONLY WHEN THE CONVERSATION turns to representing the United States at the World Cup that 21-year-old Birmingham City defender Will Packwood finally lets his guard drop.

The Concord, Mass., native parlayed a stellar junior career with FC Greater Boston Bolts into a successful tryout with the English club at the tender age of 14. Schooled from such a young age at a club which bounces between the media goldfish bowl of the EPL and England’s second-tier Championship, Packwood, like his academy graduate peers, has received coaching on how to deal with headline-hunting journalists and deftly parries enquiries on potentially controversial topics with a polite, laid-back demeanor.

But the thought of taking the field at a World Cup transforms the youngster—the professional mask slips, Packwood’s eyes light up, and a smile appears.

“I want to represent my country at the Olympics and the World Cup, which for me is 2018, 2022, and 2026,” Packwood said. “If you get three World Cups that’s it—that is the best career imaginable. If you get two World Cups, that’s amazing. And just to get there at all would be incredible.”

Such enthusiasm for international football, at a time when so many of Europe’s best players seem more interested in pursuing the biggest salaries by prioritizing their club careers, is refreshing—and good news for Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach who led the Americans out of a difficult group in Brazil.

With Packwood having appeared for his country at U-17, U-18, U-20, and U-23 levels, the German head coach invited the six-foot-three defender to the senior squad for a friendly against Ukraine last March. Packwood did not earn his first cap but he did earn a seat on the bench.

If the aim was to ensure Packwood would be inspired to fight for a regular berth it seems to have done the trick: “To represent your national team is as big as it gets in football because when you’re finished, although you want to win titles and silverware, that’s what you remember, playing for your country and playing at the World Cup.”

If Packwood does secure a spot on one or more World Cup rosters, he will have earned the opportunity. Having captained Birmingham’s U-18s and secured a regular spot in the reserve team, Packwood was given his senior debut on the right side of defense by coach Lee Clark after a slew of injuries. He impressed enough in a 5-1 win in the League Cup against lower league Barnet in August 2012 to make seven more appearances for City in the Championship that season.

The run came to an end in horrific fashion when the defender broke the tibia and fibia in his left leg after an aerial duel in an FA Cup tie against Leeds United in January 2013; club doctors told him he would be out of action for up to a year.

“It’s like climbing a mountain,” he said, when describing the eight months he spent in the treatment room. “When you look at the peak afterward it seems impossible but you get there in small stages.

“So it was a series of small steps, a series of small progressions at every stage of the recovery and every time you try to push it a little further. Day by day you get there but if you look at the whole process it just seems like it will take too long. They told me it would take nine months to a year and if you think about that timeframe, it’s too daunting.”

But Packwood made it. Last season he was farmed out to fourth-tier side Bristol Rovers where he impressed enough to have his temporary stay extended. Another run of injuries at Birmingham, in January 2014, saw Packwood back at Birmingham City, playing in his favored position in the center of defense.

“It was brilliant to be playing at center back in the Championship,” recalled Packwood. “Every game you play, you get faster and more confident. It was just where I wanted to be.”

With transfer funds having run dry, Birmingham was struggling at the wrong end of the Championship table just four seasons after finishing in the top 10 in the EPL and three seasons after beating Arsenal to win the League Cup. The worst was yet to come, as Hong Kong-based owner Carson Yeung was handed a six-year jail sentence for money laundering.

Perversely, the club’s off-field travails may have fast-tracked Packwood's advancement within the club.

“There’s been a lot of young players who have made their debut in recent years," he acknowledged, "which might not have been the case if there had been money available for transfers.”

After 13 appearances for the Blues, which saw Packwood named the English Football League’s Young Player of the Month for February, Clark reshuffled the team for the final few fixtures as Birmingham managed to avoid relegation to the third tier thanks to a goal deep into injury time in the final game of the season.

As the 2014-15 season approached, the stage was set for further progress but Clark brought in players ahead of the promising youngster and Packwood was back to putting in the hard yards in training.

While the U.S. U-23 international was restricted to just one substitute appearance, the Blues continued to struggle and Packwood saw his mentor Clark sacked in October. Birmingham lost 8-0 to Bournemouth six days later as the club searched for a successor.

When former player Gary Rowett was appointed Birmingham manager in the wake of that dismal performance, one of his first decisions was to send Packwood to third-tier side Colchester United. Put straight into the United team, Packwood lasted just 67 minutes of the game against MK Dons before tearing his adductor muscle—and earning the first red card of his professional career—as he fouled Arsenal loanee Benik Afobe.

“It was a last-man foul,” admitted the defender, who was recalled to Birmingham when the extent of his injury became clear.

With an eight-week recovery time penciled in, a new manager to impress all over again, and only four months to convince the club to take up the option to extend his professional contract for another season, it would be easy for a young player to lose heart. But Packwood has suffered plenty of adversity already and adopted a measured tone when discussing his immediate future under Rowett.

“Gary Rowett is a fairly communicative guy and you can see from the results he has had a great impact—which is great for all of us at the club,” Packwood said while taking a break from an hour of exercise bike rehab at a frosty Wast Hills training ground. “When I come back, I’ll speak to the manager here and get his thoughts and I will try and impress him in training and get into the team. If that turns out not to be the case, then I’ll deal with that when it happens.”

Although his focus is on getting back into the Birmingham first team, it is obvious the U.S. national team is never far from the thoughts of a young man who says his first soccer memories are of playing in the back garden with his father Richard, an Englishman from Solihull who moved to Boston to pursue a career in the software industry.

“With the USMNT, my first port of call is the under-23s, which I’ve been involved with most recently,” said Packwood. “I attend camps with Tab Ramos and the other coaches on a fairly regular basis and we are working toward the Olympics.”

If Packwood can stay fit and in form that would mean a return to Brazil for the Rio games next year and the chance to emulate the U.S. national teamers who advanced at the World Cup last summer—a prospect the Birmingham player would clearly relish.

“In Brazil I thought the team was hardworking and very well organized with a game plan," he said. “Every player knew their role and executed it to the best of their ability. I think that, as a combination, flummoxed a lot of teams. They found it very difficult to break us down and to overpower us. We were solid and had a game plan that we stuck to.

"I thought we did ourselves very proud and on another day we possibly might have beaten Belgium.”

While debate swirls around whether Klinsmann is justified in calling for his players to seek opportunities in Europe’s biggest leagues, Packwood insists the German coach runs a meritocracy and has demonstrated his willingness to turn to MLS regulars as well as his overseas contingent.

“As a player, you generally find if a player is good enough it doesn’t matter where they play,” said Packwood. “If someone is in the framework for the national team, they have done well enough, regardless of which league they play in. There are benefits to staying in the U.S. and in going somewhere else and individual circumstances will be different. A choice that’s right for one person will be wrong for someone else.

“I decided to join Birmingham because I felt that it was a rare opportunity and I thought that I would regret not taking that opportunity later on. In that situation you may as well go for it and see where it takes you.”

Such diplomacy means Packwood will not be drawn any further on the public row between Klinsmann and MLS Commissioner Don Garber on the merits—or otherwise—of being based in the MLS. And he wasn't willing to compare the standard of football in the two nations, despite his experience in the second, third, and fourth tiers of the game in England.

“When I moved from Boston to Birmingham I changed from training three nights a week and playing on Saturdays to training five times a week and playing on Saturdays, so it was more intense—a significantly bigger commitment. But I have never played in MLS and I’m a great believer in not commenting on it if I haven’t experienced it.”

Would he ever consider playing in MLS?

“Absolutely yes,” he said. “Apart from my sister in Atlanta, my entire family lives near Boston. Although I would consider playing anywhere if it felt like the right time for me. I’m open to moving, I moved here when I was 14.”

Far from sounding like an ultimatum to his current employers, however, Packwood’s open-minded attitude to his career is probably a result of his contract situation. He was quick to dismiss the suggestion that regular playing time in the EPL, and potentially a move away from Birmingham as a result, is a pre-requisite for U.S. national team recognition.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Packwood, “Klinsmann has brought in players from a variety of locations for the national team. As long as you’re playing well enough you will get your chance. The important thing then is you have to make sure you take it.

Having fought his way back from a career-threatening injury once already, it would be unwise to bet against Packwood stepping onto the field in Rio next year and then, of course, there is the first of those World Cups on the horizon.

This is Max Hall's first piece for American Soccer Now.

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