INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Goalkeepers live to make saves. It’s what they do.

That said, Matt Freese didn’t much mind taking just 25 touches (approximately half of a modern goalkeeper’s average) and recording nary a single, solitary stop in the United States’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday.

Attaining the lifelong dream of a World Cup debut was plenty enough as far as stats lines go, not to mention an unbeatable vantage point for one of the greatest performances in USMNT history.

“It was a great night for sure,” the New York City FC star told MLSsoccer.com postgame in Los Angeles. “I had a great view for what was happening in front of me. The guys up top and in the midfield, everyone was vibing well and connecting really well. I think it was super evident everyone was on the same page, just the flicks and the one-touch, two-touch passing was crisp and really good. So a great first step.

“I like to take everything very steady, and never get too high, never get too low,” he later explained. “But from a group perspective, I think a focus is on cohesion and the chemistry that we're building, and I think you could see that on the field tonight.”

World Cup moment

Glancing around the stadium and soaking in the moment is not standard operating procedure for Freese. Quite the opposite, it turns out. But he revealed that he did so on this rare occasion at a packed, vibrant, NFL-scaled venue, thanks to some advice from a few influential figures in his life whose identity he prefers not to share.

“I always try to keep my eyes down, so that I don't get amazed too much and out of my own focus, thinking about a crowd and stuff like that,” he noted. “But today, walking out onto the field – I had gotten some texts from a few mentors that said, make sure you take a moment to take it in, because they know I otherwise I wouldn't. And so I did: Just looked up, and it was a breathtaking sight.”

A Philadelphia Union homegrown who moved north up I-95 to find his big break with NYCFC after several seasons as a backup to Andre Blake, Freese was cheered on by a big contingent of loved ones who gathered from all over to be present for his milestone, one that's been a lifetime in the making.

“My entire family: my mom, stepdad, girlfriend, brothers, sister, in-laws, everyone. It was great,” he said. “I just saw a few of them after the game, so that was really special.

“Making a World Cup debut,” he added, “I'm pretty much at a loss of words trying to explain what it means. A ton of emotions obviously are involved, but my job is to just kind of limit those and stay steady throughout it all.”

More to prove

That sort of commitment to composure can earn you a nickname like ‘Matty Ice,’ though according to the player himself, there’s an even simpler backstory to that tag: It was a moniker applied by a gym teacher in his younger days who knew former NFL quarterback Matt Ryan, a native of Exton, Pennsylvania, just a short hop down Route 202 from Freese’s roots in Wayne.

Any observers who might have gotten the impression that this squad were cocky or overly jubilant about their tournament-opening victory would be well advised to listen to what Freese said next.

“It’s such an honor and such a big moment in my life,” he continued. “Definitely, the first part of the goal was to be on the World Cup team and make my debut. But the full dream, the full goal of mine and the whole group is to make history, make a deep run. This is just getting started.

“We're still hungry.”

Tight competition

That theme has been a constant focus for head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his staff, practically from upon arrival in September 2024, and their approach to the goalkeeper corps might just be Exhibit A.

Freese played in just one of the Yanks’ two pre-tournament warm-up matches, with his chief competitor, Matt Turner of the New England Revolution, splitting the other with Chicago Fire FC’s Chris Brady. That, plus the fact that Turner and Freese evenly shared the minutes in March’s high-profile friendlies vs. Belgium and Portugal, fueled perceptions the starting job was back up for grabs after Freese won it at last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup and started all 12 of the USMNT’s remaining matches in 2025.

Both contenders told reporters last week they didn’t know who would get the nod against Paraguay. Asked postgame when he learned he’d be starting, Freese hemmed and hawed uncharacteristically.

“Ummm, recently,” he said with a sheepish smile.

“Within the last few days, within the last few days,” he responded when asked for specifics. It was a small glimpse of the secrecy Pochettino & Co. have instilled on certain topics, and Freese didn’t fuel any perception of a goalkeeping controversy, at least in the conventional sense of the term.

That’s simply not the case with the USMNT this summer, said Freese.

“That's the reality of this group, is it's such a talented group, such a talented roster,” he explained. “Everyone can play a role, and everyone can play a part. And some people on the outside might view that as a negative, but I view it as competition in a group that, quite frankly, we're always going to be hungry. We all are competitive, and I think you see that on the field tonight with the intensity in the duels.”

Full steam ahead

There’s a more traditional line of thinking that a starting goalkeeper needs a full endorsement from their coach to take the field in full confidence, that even the slightest lack of clarity about the starting job can sow seeds of doubt in the individual and those around them.

When presented with that conventional wisdom, Freese offered a perspective that’s been something of a mantra for him under the World Cup’s brighter media spotlight.

“I derive my confidence from the hard work that I put in, and that's a fixed variable,” he said. “I've already put in a certain amount of work, so whether or not I know if I'm playing early on or not, it can't waver the confidence, it can't change the confidence. You just got to be ready for whatever the team needs.”

Freese’s journey continues on Friday in Seattle, where the United States will face off against Australia, a Group D fixture that’s suddenly taken on extra spice in the wake of the Socceroos’ impressive 2-0 upset of Türkiye on Saturday evening in Vancouver, in which his Aussie NYCFC teammate Aiden O’Neill logged a full 90 minutes. 

Take another three points there, and the growing sense of possibility around the USMNT will surge that much further.

“I think Mauricio said it perfectly: what a result, but more importantly, what a performance,” said Freese on Friday. “It's one that we can build on, and need to just keep building on.”