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Sorry to dredge it back up, but the U.S. men’s national team had a rough FIFA World Cup exit on Monday.
There’s no way to sugarcoat the team’s 4-1 capitulation to Belgium, and the controversy surrounding U.S. striker Florian Balogun’s suspension being overturned before the game. It’s been hard to avoid the dejection, outrage — and bile — online after a promising tournament run ended so abjectly.
Much of that ill will has been directed towards Media native Matt Freese, who was the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper during the game and the entire tournament. His howler early in the second second half led to the third Belgium goal, crushing all hope of a comeback.
Apologies again, but we’ve got to replay it.
The sequence may be used to highlight an insight by Jonathan Wilson in his book “The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper.”
“The danger all goalkeepers face is thinking too much, that the nature of their position gives them time to dwell on doubts,” Wilson wrote.
Freese himself pulled no punches when recounting his miskick.
“I’m obviously disappointed for my error in judgment on the third goal,” he said after the game. “It’s part of the position. I know the guys in front of me did everything they could today to get the win and I’m so proud of them. I wish that moment was different and wish the result was different.”
That highlight will be the lasting memory of Freese’s World Cup for fans, not his two clean sheets, tying him for most World Cup shutouts by an American goalie. It could also outshine his three World Cup wins, the most by any US keeper.
Jamie Scott coached Freese for three years at Penn Fusion Soccer Academy in West Chester, while Freese was in high school at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square and before he joined the Philadelphia Union’s youth academy. Watching the moment his former player flubbed on the soccer’s biggest stage was tough.
“The game’s the game, you know. There’s always situations that people would want to redo,” Scott said. “He made an incredible save early and started the game so well.”
While Scott said he didn’t instantly earmark a teenaged Freese as a future World Cup goalkeeper, he wasn’t surprised that it happened, given Freese’s outstanding work ethic, intelligence, maturity and meticulous focus on improving his weaknesses.
“I actually remember before Matt joined us, I saw him play one of his last games for his former club, he got injured in the first half and he hurt one of his arms,” Scott recalled. Freese was at Radnor Soccer Club and FC Europa before Penn Fusion. “He proceeded to play the whole game one-armed and he was still pulling off incredible saves. He’s just such a great athlete, a great goalkeeper.”
Scott recalled that Freese would be the player winning all the fitness tests at Penn Fusion, which was not something you’d expect from a goalkeeper. Freese also built a brotherly relationship with fellow Episcopal student AJ Marcucci, now a goalkeeper with New York Red Bulls, that made them both constantly strive to improve their game.
“Sometimes when you have players of that talent, it’s more making sure you don’t mess anything up with them, isn’t it?” Scott said. “It’s providing the right environment where they can prosper and learn with each other, with us and their teammates. The right experience to set up to be successful.”
After Freese played for Penn Fusion and the Union’s academy, he was convinced to pursue academics and soccer at his father’s alma mater, Harvard University. Freese left college to go pro after three semesters, joining the Union on a homegrown deal in 2018. Freese was a back-up for Jamaican goalkeeper Andre Blake, but was on the field for the team’s Supporters’ Shield-clinching win in 2020.
In 2023, he was traded to rivals New York City FC, where he has faced off against the Union regularly, being on the losing side of the Union’s second-ever Supporter’s Shield win last October, but getting some revenge in the Eastern Conference semifinals and in the Union’s home-opener this season in March.
Not content with just a career between the goalposts, Freese did later get his Harvard degree, by taking online classes during the pandemic. He also serves on the executive board of Major League Soccer’s Player Association, and gives time and resources to Penn Fusion and other youth programs in Pennsylvania and New York.
Penn Fusion held a World Cup watch party to cheer on the U.S. team and celebrate Freese, as well the three other Union products on the team. Fortunately, it was for the team’s 2-nil win over Australia, where Freese kept a clean sheet.
Soccer can be cruel towards goalkeepers. While a striker’s missed shots get easily overlooked by the goals that they scored, a goalie’s great saves are quickly negated by the ones they let in.
Couple that with an online environment that needs to be constantly fed hot takes, while setting poor barriers from thoughtless, reprehensible comments and young people’s access to those, and it’s enough to make someone feel like the whole world is against them.
However, Scott isn’t worried about Freese.
“He’s built to bounce back. He’s built to learn and — as much as it’s a cliché — I know he’ll be better for his experience of playing this World Cup.”
Freese returns to club soccer by being selected on the roster for the league’s All-Star game.
“This hurts,” Freese said after the game. “This moment stings more than probably any other moment in my life. But I know that this is a step in a longer journey, and I know that there’s big things to come from this federation and from this group.”
Scott said this doesn’t diminish Freese’s place as a role model at Penn Fusion for the current crop of local youth players. It just adds another story of struggle and a coachable moment to an already stellar example.
“This sport for us is not just about winning games, is it? It’s about teaching players and teaching young athletes, young people, how to deal with adversity and how to really want something and how to go about getting it,” he said.
“I hope that a couple of moments don’t take away from what’s been a really positive World Cup, for not just for Matt, but for for the whole U.S.”
The post ‘He’s built to bounce back.’ USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese’s youth coach sees Monday’s World Cup loss as a coachable moment appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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