IRVINE, Calif. — In all likelihood, goalkeeper Matt Freese will start in the U.S. World Cup opener Friday against Paraguay. He has, after all, been Mauricio Pochettino’s primary netminder for a year, culminating with a 90-minute performance in the final tuneup last weekend.
And if, in fact, the soft-spoken Pennsylvanian is in the lineup for the Group D debut at SoFi Stadium — the first U.S. World Cup home match since 1994 and, by far, the biggest moment of his seven-year pro career — it would add another luminous achievement to his family’s history.
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“I dream of this opportunity, you work for the opportunity, but you never know if it will come,” he said this week. “I learned probably nine years ago the ones that work hard without promise of reward are the ones that usually succeed.”
A World Cup assignment would punctuate a life nurturing both brain and body.
Freese, 27, studied economics and computer science at Harvard and, after turning pro following his sophomore season, continued his education online and earned an economics degree in 2022. His studies included a research project about penalty kicks — which he applied in heroic fashion last summer by saving three of Costa Rica’s six attempts in a Gold Cup quarterfinal.
Freese, in other words, is a smart cookie but hardly the only educated member of his clan.
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His paternal grandparents, who were German immigrants, were scientists at the National Institutes of Health in the Washington area.
Matt’s late father, Andrew, was a neurosurgeon with two degrees from Harvard and a doctorate from MIT. In 2001, he performed the first successful gene-therapy trial for neurological disease in a human. His mother, Marcia, has degrees from Boston University and Tufts and founded a medical management company.
Matt’s aunt, Katherine, is a University of Texas physics professor who has been “working to identify the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the universe as well as to build a successful model for the early universe immediately after the Big Bang,” according to the school’s website.
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Older brother Jack, a former Harvard rower, works in private equity.
“A lot of science, a lot of academia,” Matt said. “It was definitely interesting growing up.”
In high school, his parents prioritized academics and “knew the way of getting me motivated in the classroom was to hold soccer as a reward.”
At Harvard, “balancing academics and education, 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 is necessary,” he said. “It’s different now. I know how to handle it, but at that point in my life, it was incredibly important.”
Matt Freese brings an Ivy League background and a year as Mauricio Pochettino’s top choice into the USMNT‘s World Cup opener.
(John Dorton/USSF via Getty Images)
These days, Freese’s priority is solely soccer. A Philadelphia Union homegrown signing before the 2019 Major League Soccer season, Freese started 13 matches over four years before being traded to New York City FC ahead of the 2023 campaign. A year later, he was the starter and one of the league’s rising goalkeeping stars.
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The first invitation to a national team camp came in January 2025. At the time, he was behind not only Matt Turner, the 2022 World Cup starter, but multiple other candidates. Pochettino summoned Freese again before last summer’s Gold Cup and, after debuting in a friendly against Türkiye, the keeper’s job was his to lose.
Over the past year, Freese has started 15 of 18 matches, with Turner receiving the other three assignments. Chicago’s Chris Brady, 22, is the third World Cup keeper.
Freese will wear No. 24 — the same as former U.S. World Cup star Tim Howard wore during his club career. In MLS, Freese wears No. 49 in honor of his maternal grandfather, Jack Geary, who played for the New York Bulldogs in the American Football League. (At the World Cup, the highest available number is 26.)
Howard has “done a lot of historic things and really helped his team in the past, and I’d love the opportunity to do the same,” Freese said. “He was obviously one of the people I watched growing up, and so to have that same number as him at a World Cup is pretty, pretty cool.”
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Freese would join a notable list of U.S. World Cup goalkeepers, including Hall of Famers Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Howard.
“I was a fan of that goalkeeping corps for much of my life – still am,” he said. “It’s an honor to be part of that group to hopefully continue that great legacy.”
Competitors for the starting role, Freese and Turner seem to have strong relationship.
“There’s a healthy, mutual respect between us, of course, and whatever the coach ultimately decides, we owe it to each other to respect that decision and support each other all the way till the end,” said Turner, the New England Revolution starter who, from an analytics standpoint, is having a better MLS season than Freese.
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Both seem well-liked by teammates.
“Matt Freese has popped up over the last year and a half, and it’s been really pleasing to watch,” midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “Matt Turner may be taking a step back, but he’s been so incredibly supportive of Matt Freese and the team, putting the team first. Credit to both of them. Look, they’re competing at the end of the day, but they want what’s best for the team.”
Though the World Cup is looming, Freese has stuck to his routine. On the road with the national team, he brings his kettle from home and makes his favorite tea, an organic chamomile loose leaf. He also packs his own alarm clock.
“I love keeping things consistent, because if it works for you in small moments, then the game itself doesn’t change,” Freese said. “And so it helps me at least deal with those big moments in that pressure.”
In all probability, he is about to face the biggest moment and enormous pressure.
