The Hoops certainly have had a knack of coming back from the brink in recent weeks. A melee of emotions and actions on the park at Tynecastle, which saw Greg Taylor nab a dramatic winner as we overcame a fortunate Hearts side who seemed go be given countless lives by VAR and the officials that day, was followed by a crazy few minutes against Dundee United at Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon.
After another controversial VAR penalty decision went against us, combined with a freak Dundee United equaliser, we managed to dig in and find the win; thanks to goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada. The place was bouncing and we had snatched a victory just when everyone thought we were a certainty to drop points once more in the Scottish Premiership.
Cameron Carter-Vickers was interviewed today in a pre-match media conference ahead of our match up with the Steelmen tomorrow night. The USA international insisted it is a wonderful trait to have in any squad and echoed the manager’s belief that this current crop of Celtic players just don’t know when they’re beat. “I was buzzing with the end result, he said via Celtic TV.
“We have that belief in the squad now that no matter what time of the game it is, if we need a goal then we will throw everything at it and try and get one. We’ve done that against St Johnstone this season, and even Hearts away, that was a bit of a back-and-forth game and I felt we would always score. It’s good as a squad that we have that and we need to continue to do it.”
With only two games remaining before the break for this year’s World Cup, Cameron is determined to finish with a flourish. He said: “We’re looking forward to the next two games and it’s important we get two good performances and results and that will set us up nicely for after the World Cup.Since the manager has been here we’ve only focused on our performances and what we’re doing and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Despite the Hoops opening up a seven point gap, the stand in captain revealed the team are taking nothing for granted. He continued: “We don’t look too much at the points. There was a stage last season where we were six points behind and we managed to come back and win the league.We know there’s still a lot of points to play for and it’s still early in the season so it’s not something we take too much notice of.”
The big man will have one eye on the USMNT squad being released for Qatar as he looks to feature at a major international tournament for his country. He added: “For me, it’s always in the back of my head but the way I look at it is that as long as I’m performing here and playing well consistently, that will give me the best chance of making the squad. As a person, I’m quite chilled and what will be will be. It’s the USA manager that makes the decision and all I can affect is my performance here so that’s what I’m focusing on.
“It would be a dream come true. You grow up as a kid watching World Cups, so to be part of one would be a special moment. Ideally you want to be in the squad first and then if you go there then you can’t perform at your top level if you take two games before that to play at half-speed. If you want to perform when the World Cup does come around then you have to be doing it before that and that’s my focus.”
Watch CCV’s full pre-match interview below…
Paul Gillespie
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— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) November 8, 2022
