GOAL Convo: The goalkeeper discussed his Gold Cup run with the national team, finding form in MLS, and growing as leader
Matt Freese hates his phone.
The NYCFC and USWNT goalie was the talk of U.S. soccer when he saved three penalties in a shootout against Costa Rica in the Gold Cup quarterfinal. To say that he didn't care would be inaccurate. But he stayed away from the hype that followed him around in online spheres.
"I just hate technology, dude. I stay off my phone as much as possible," he tells GOAL.
Seems a bit much? That's just who Freese is. The shot-stopper has always been a bit of a technophobe, a soccer nerd who did a research project at Harvard about the psychology of saving penalties. There are a bunch of athletes who are simply hyper-focused on their craft, the kind of guys who at their most comfortable just talking about soccer.
Freese is of that ilk. You kind of have to be as a goalkeeper, he says. It has certainly helped NYCFC. The Piegons have been rather up and down this season, and find themselves in seventh in the Eastern Conference, struggling for consistency in their first season under head coach Pascal Jansen.
"We beat Cincy, beat Philly, and then drop points elsewhere totally unnecessarily," Freese says. "It's something that we've dealt with, I'd say, for the last year and a half, and it's something that needs to change. It will change."
Are they a playoff team? Certainly. But they are hunting for more, and Freese will be central to that effort – even if he is the last line of defense, and not the main guy in attack for the side that has currently scored the fewest goals of any team in a playoff spot. Still, they have a new designated player, Nico Fernandez, in the fray, and their performances have certainly improved of late. With Freese between the sticks to back it all up, that might be enough.
And on the USMNT front, Freese started all six Gold Cup matches ahead of incumbent Matt Turner, and is locked in a positional battle with several contenders looking to be the starter in the 2026 World Cup.
Freese talked about the USMNT, NYCFC and finding consistency in the latest GOAL Convo, a Q&A with central figures in the American soccer scene.
Getty ImagesON THE GOLD CUP
GOAL: Let's start with the USMNT. Did the Gold Cup feel like a bit of a moment for you in your national team career? Have you had time to reflect on it a bit?
FREESE: I didn't take any time to reflect until after the tournament. I think the worst thing you can do as a new guy getting your chance, getting your moment, is have one good game or one good moment, and then get ahead of yourself and forget that in two days you have another game. And so I really didn't take any time to reflect during the actual tournament itself. And then afterwards it took some time to think about it, take it in, if that makes sense.
On one hand, it was a huge opportunity for me, and a huge moment for me to not just get a game, not just get two games, but actually get six competitive tournament games and help be part of the team that gets to a final. It was a huge learning experience for me, and hopefully is another step in my career. I don't want to be naive and say, "Oh, that was my moment, because I hope there are many more moments.' You know, I'm not someone who has a moment and then gets happy and says, 'Ah, that's the one I'll remember forever." Because I always want to keep pushing. And I hope there are many more moments like that.
GOAL: What is it like to get a heightened level of attention? There are so many more eyes on you when you're playing for the USMNT. How do you come to terms with that?
FREESE: I block a lot of it out, to be honest. During the tournament, I didn't go on any social media. My phone, obviously, was busy after the Costa Rica game, and I pretty much didn't answer texts. I answered my mom, answered my girlfriend, and then texted my family group chat, and I was about it pretty much, until after the Gold Cup final. With more eyes on you, does it change you? Does it change your preparation, does it impact you at all? Not really just because I just hate technology, dude. I stay off my phone as much as possible.
GOAL: Was that an intentional decision? Did you go into the tournament deciding that you weren't going to look at your phone?
FREESE: I just stay off all of it pretty much regardless. That's kind of what I always do. In that moment, obviously, I did know that there were more eyes on me than there normally are, and so I very purposely just stayed off of all social media.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportON NYCFC'S INCONSISTENCY
GOAL: You guys are seventh in the Eastern Conference right now. Would it be fair to say that it's been a bit of an up and down season in terms of results?
FREESE: That's in no way, shape, or form a leap. It's been inconsistent from us, and that's something we're aware of, and it's something we're working to fix. You know, we have games where we go to Columbus and tie 0-0. We beat Cincy, beat Philly, and then drop points elsewhere totally unnecessarily. It's something that we've dealt with, I'd say, for the last year and a half, and it's something that needs to change. It will change. I am not a big excuse guy, to be honest. And I'm not saying this as an excuse, more so a potential reason: we're young. We're a very young group. I don't know exactly our average age. But if I'm not wrong, we have, like, maybe the second youngest roster in the league.
Consistency and experience, consistency and age, consistency and maturity, those are directly correlated. There's just no way around that. And so the challenge is expediting your maturation process and expediting your experience as much as possible. That leads to consistency, and then focusing on the details, and focusing on the preparation every single day: what you're doing in the gym, what you're doing on the field, and holding yourself to high standards, holding your teammates high standards, that is what expedites that process, so that it doesn't take years. It can be a matter of months.
Getty Images SportON LEADERSHIP
GOAL: And when you go through those ups and downs, what's your role like specifically? Do you tend to take accountability, or feel like you have a role in it?
FREESE: Definitely. Two years ago, when I just got here, I was in and out, and I'm now playing every game. Maybe that's something I wasn't thinking about as much. But now I've developed into one of the guys who's trying to lead this team forward. It is something we talk about, something we think about. And personally, in my view, is you have to stay very level-headed. I think you can say, "Yes, we're inconsistent, we're up and down." But there are two other options. One is always up, another option is down, and then you keep going down.
Part of the reason, potentially, we're not going down and and then continuing to stay down or going down, down, down, down, each game, further down, is because we are very level-headed. There's very purposefully, I think, an appropriate amount of positivity and an appropriate amount of discipline and accountability. Obviously, with it being a young group, you have to learn how to make sure everyone's enjoying it, but hold them accountable at the same time. And when guys are down, probably not the time to push them down. And when guys are, when guys are up, probably not the time to forcefully lift them even further up.
NYCFCON NEW SIGNINGS
GOAL: You guys have just brought it a new DP, Nico Fernandez, what kind of a lift do you think he might give the team?
FREESE: He's got a fantastic resume! Looks like he has a lot of quality, even the few days I've seen him. Our staff, and the recruiting at New York City FC and CFG as a whole did a great job finding him and getting him here. I think he's gonna be huge. He's very creative. Seems like he's kind of like a little bit of a killer. You need some killers out there. And I can tell he has that bite to him, and he has that tenacity and and I think another important piece. With Nico, he has a physical strength that this league requires. I think a lot of people say blah, blah, blah about MLS, or MLS versus other leagues.
The one thing you can be sure of is that MLS is a very physical league. There's a lot of strong people, there's a lot of fast people, there's a lot of athletes, former college athletes. Defenders that were lifting four or five times a week during their college days. And you have to be able to compete with that. It's just a fact. And I can tell that he has that physical side of him where he'll be able to do that, which is great.
GOAL: Do you think foreign players underestimate the physicality of the league?
FREESE: There have been some quotes about that from some of the big European guys across the league that they were surprised about how physical the league was and how difficult it is. But it is a difficult league. You're traveling, and you're flying across the country, getting home at 4 a.m. and then waking up and getting into the facility for training. It's a very unusual league, a very difficult league to find consistency in and so yeah, I could see some, some people having, having been surprised by that.