World Cup hero is Harvard graduate who snubbed Manchester United contract

Matt Freese has spent his whole career building up to this moment.

The 27-year-old shot stopper is the starting goalkeeper for the United States Men’s National Team at a home World Cup.

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Born in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Freese made his way up through the ranks in Major League Soccer‘s Philadelphia Union youth academy.

He pursued an education at Havard University, forgoing the opportunity to develop across the pond in the United Kingdom at Premier League club Manchester United on an apprenticeship contract in favor of balancing his studies of economics along with playing college soccer for the Crimson.

“It was largely a family decision [to not join United],”  Freese told Hudson River Blue back in 2025. “There were some tough conversations between me and my parents about this one.

“There was a clear path that I wanted to go on, but I had to respect what they wanted. They sacrificed so much for me, so I had to repay that and honour what they wanted and then, when the time was right, make my decision for myself.”

“It was very clear to me that in order to have the career I wanted to have on the field and to achieve things that I wanted to achieve on the field, the earlier my career could start, the better. It was a pretty natural decision – everyone was on the same page.”

It was a decision – albeit a bold one – that ultimately paid off.

In the 2018 season, he led the Ivy League in saves per game, averaging six per contest, which saw him earn a move to the Union for the start of the 2019 MLS campaign.

“I think it was actually probably the best thing that could have happened for me,” Freese added. “I think if I was thrown immediately into a starting position, it could have been very different.

“When that happens, sometimes you lose a level of humility that I was forced to have, not only for four years there, but because that humility was entrenched so deeply into me during that time, and it’s something that I’m planning on keeping with me throughout my entire playing career.”

He made just 16 senior appearances across four seasons for Philadelphia due to being the back-up to three-time MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Andre Blake, something Freese later said was the “best thing that could have happened” to him as it ensured he kept “a level of humility.”

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Freese played an additional 31 games for MLS Next Pro counterpart Philadelphia Union II, before securing a move to New York City FC in 2023.

Finding his rhythm in the Big Apple

The 2024 campaign proved to be his breakout, where he ranked third in the MLS in saves with 135, fourth in save percentage (73.4 percent), and prevented 8.9 goals – second only to Kristijan Kahlina, seeing him named NYCFC’s Most Valuable Player.

In the MLS playoffs that year, he made 14 saves in NYCFC’s first-round (best-of-3) series against FC Cincinnati, including three saves in a penalty shootout to send his club to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The old saying goes that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, and that proved true, eventually, for Freese.

The appointment of Mauricio Pochettino as the head coach of USMNT eventually opened up the door for Freese to step right through into, though he had to wait a year on from his breakout season to get his first call up to the national team in January 2025.

“It was still so early on for me; it wasn’t frustrating,” Freese said of not being granted recognition by Pochettino initially. “It kept me hungry, but I didn’t need that to keep me hungry because I’m someone that will always be hungry no matter what. …

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“As far as MLS, it’s kinda similar. You need a name for yourself before MLS starts to notice you; that’s just the reality. National team, that was a goal of mine. I knew I was doing it, but I had to do it for a longer period of time — the sample size had to be larger to get really noticed.”

His debut followed six months later in June 2025, just ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“It was awesome, it was something I had been dreaming about for a very long time,” he said of getting the chance to wear the Stars and Stripes for the very first time.

“It was such an amazing honor — every time you get to represent your country is a huge honor. It was something I had been working very hard for, and not just me, but many people who are close to me and have invested in my soccer career, and I think that was also a reward for them.

“My goal was never to play one game for the national team,” he added. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t an honor and super exciting, but I didn’t step into the summer and say ‘I just want to get one game’ that was never the goal and never the ambition. The ambition is to maximize my opportunities as much as I can.”

Having seized the opportunity that he had earned, he went on to cement his place in the roster for the tournament where he was named Pochettino’s starting goalkeeper.

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It was yet another impressive campaign between the sticks, where Freese kept two clean sheets and allowed just six goals en route to the final where the U.S. lost 2-1 to Mexico.

Hard work pays off

A year on from his debut, and Pochettino re-instilled his trust in Freese between the sticks, not just naming him as one of the 26-man roster for the 2026 World Cup on home soil, but also seeing him earn the starting role ahead of Matt Turner and Chris Brady.

In two starts in the Group Stage, a 4-1 victory over Paraguay and a 2-0 win over Australia, Freese barely had much to do, facing just three shots on target, in which he made two saves.

Having been secured as winners of Group D, Pochettino opted to rotate his lineup for the final game of the group stage against Türkiye with Freese playing no part in their 3-2 defeat.

Now, all of the 27-year-old’s preparations are focused solely on keeping Bosnia & Herzegovina from scoring in his goal during the Round of 32 on Wednesday evening, and playing his part in helping the USA reach the last 16 of the tournament.

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As of writing, four teams have punched their tickets to the Round of 16, with both Paraguay and Morocco doing so via a penalty shootout against Germany and the Netherlands, respectively.

In his international career, Freese has only had to face one penalty, which he was unable to save.

However in his senior playing career, he has saved four of the 21 penalties he has faced, not including that epic penalty shoot-out against Cincinnati in 2024.

For Freese, he has always remained confident in his ability to go out and perform to help his team, and hopes to do so for a very long time past this World Cup, no matter how far the USMNT advance.

“I always knew that I had the ability and I was very confident, and I had self-belief in my ability to play at that level,” Freese said.

“The question is: do you get the opportunity? That’s something that’s out of my control, but you can control how ready you are for them … I didn’t want to leave it just up to chance.

“And so I decided to always be ready for whatever opportunity came my way, and I’ll continue to do that for the next 13 years because I wanna play till 40.”

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