Matt Turner’s mother and father celebrated Thanksgiving with his parents in Qatar. (Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports)

Thousands of miles from home in Qatar in the World Cup, the U.S. men’s national team will be forced to celebrate Thanksgiving far from home.

Many players will have their immediate family with them as they prepare for Friday’s showdown against England in a Group B encounter.

“Every Thanksgiving, probably 30 or 40 of my family and friends all gather at my mom and dad’s house, back in Park Ridge, New Jersey,” goalkeeper Matt Turner said. “We’re going to miss out on that. Mom and dad are here in Qatar so it will be a little bit different for the people back home this this time around,. But look forward to the future many more times with family.”

Defender Cameron Carter-Vickers, who was born and grew up in England and plays for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, said that Thanksgiving was “not such a big deal.” His father was born in Louisiana, which opened the door for the defender to play for the USMNT.

“All our families are here so on Saturday we’ll have a nice little Thanksgiving gathering, so I’ll enjoy that,” Carter-Vickers said.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.