The United States is still seeking a men’s World Cup run into a rarefied space, like a semifinal, that truly captures the country’s imagination. You can’t really blame the goalies, however, for the team’s historical shortcomings. Tim Howard, for example, set a men’s World Cup record in making 16 saves against Belgium during the round of 16 a dozen years ago, in Brazil: the U.S. lost that game, but Howard’s effort earned a nation’s respect. “I know there’s actually a petition on the White House website to make Tim Howard the next Secretary of Defense,” President Barack Obama said afterward. “Chuck Hagel’s got that spot right now, but if there is a vacancy, I’ll think about it.”
Tony Meola, goalie on the plucky 1994 U.S. team that advanced to the knockout stage on home soil before losing to eventual champion Brazil, 1-0, on July 4 in front of 84,000 fans at Stanford Stadium, became a familiar name. Brad Friedel was dubbed “The Human Wall” in 2002, while helping the U.S. reach the quarterfinals in South Korea.
As some pundits are quick to point out, Matt Freese, the Harvard graduate who played the entirety of his U.S. team’s World Cup send-off match on Saturday, a 2-1 loss to Germany in Chicago, hasn’t established the international pedigree of his goalkeeping predecessors. Though U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t officially named a starter for Friday’s opening game against Paraguay outside Los Angeles, Freese, a World Cup rookie who has started 15 of the last 18 national-team matches, is likely to get the call. “I am underwhelmed by the goalkeeping contingent for this summer,” says former U.S. star Alexi Lalas, a Fox Sports studio analyst. “Matt Freese has yet to make the save that he shouldn't make.”
Freese, 27, swears he’s blocking out naysaying. “I don’t hear it,” he told reporters this week at the team’s training base in Irvine, Calif. “With that in mind, it's fair to say the U.S. has had a great goalkeeping core historically. I was a fan of that goalkeeping core for much of my life, still am. So it's an honor to be on this team and be part of that group to hopefully continue that great legacy.”
He might be the most unlikely member of that keeper club. Freese hails from a family of academics and scientists. His grandparents, German immigrants, worked at the National Institutes of Health. His father Andrew, who died in 2021, was a neurosurgeon who went to Harvard for undergrad and medical school, and also earned a neurobiology PhD from MIT. Andrew was known as a pioneer in the field of gene therapy. His mother, Marcia, started a medical management company, and his aunt, Katherine, is a University of Texas theoretical astrophysicist.
Freese focused his research on the soccer field: While at Harvard, he did a paper on penalty-kick analytics. He left school after two years to sign with the Philadelphia Union, his hometown Major League Soccer team, in 2018. He struggled to adjust to professional life in his first 18 months as a pro. But working with Harvard professors to finish his degree remotely actually helped revive him on the field.
“Sometimes it can be difficult to keep a routine, keep a regimen that keeps you focused and keeps you hungry,” says Freese. “For me, taking classes was something that occupied my time, occupied my mind, and gave a very natural release off the field that I think at that age was necessary.” Freese earned his economics degree in 2022.
He was primarily a backup during his four seasons in Philadelphia, from 2019 through 2022. In January 2023, the Union traded him to New York City FC: he won the starting job at the end of that season. He didn’t receive his first national-team call-up until January 2025. Given the slow start to his pro career, a spot at the World Cup, never mind the starting nod, was far from preordained. “You work for the opportunity, but you never know if it's going to come,” says Freese. “I learned probably nine years ago that the ones that work hard without the promise of reward are the ones that usually succeed.”
His breakout moment came last summer, when Freese saved three of six penalty shots against Costa Rica in the Gold Cup quarters, leading the U.S. to a shoot-out victory. While that performance alone won’t ease anyone’s anxiety, Freese seems unfazed about the prospect of staring down the best players in the world in, say, a penalty-shot situation. Let’s hope that paper earned an A. “Pressure makes diamonds,” he says. “We're a group of 26 guys that want to show that we're a bunch of diamonds.”
English (US) · 