Freese the Hero as USMNT survive Costa Rica in Gold Cup Quarterfinal

Sunday night’s Gold Cup Quarterfinal between the United States Men’s National Team and Costa Rica was decided in penalty kicks, when Matt Freese made three saves to send the team through. The Wayne, Pa. native and former Philadelphia Union homegrown had the most significant moment of his career to this point, as he was named Man of the Match by U.S. Soccer.

The match was an up and down experience for both Freese and the team as a whole. Freese, an Episcopal Academy grad who played for Penn Fusion before joining the Union Academy as a senior, got the call between the pipes for the fourth straight match in the Gold Cup, cementing his spot as the starter on the current roster. The match started out shaky, as Max Arfsten fouled a Costa Rica player in the box in the 12th minute. Turner faced a penalty from former MLS defender Francisco Calvo. Freese guessed the right way, but couldn’t get a strong hand to the effort as the USMNT went down 1-0 early.

Goals on either side of halftime from Diego Luna and Max Arfsten allowed the USMNT to take a one goal lead. They continued to hold most of the possession and chances in the match, until Carlos Mora dribbled easily past the goal scorer Arfsten and fired a shot on Freese. The shot was low and powerful, and Freese was unable to contain the shot, rebounding back to Mora. Freese’s NYCFC teammate tapped Mora’s ensuing cross into an empty net, tying the match.

A flurry of late chances in stoppage time went begging for USMNT, and the final whistle meant penalties – since matches at the Gold Cup do not go into extra time if they remain tied (excluding the final). Martinez took the first penalty, sending it centrally as Freese dived out of the way.

Freese made a decisive save on Juan Vargas for the first stop in the shootout. After a miss high from Sebastian Berhalter, son of the former USMNT manager, the shootout entered sudden death tied at 3-3. There were some mind games at play, as Calvo stepped back up to take his second penalty of the match. Freese gambled and stayed central, and Calvo shot centrally as well, putting the USMNT on the brink of advancing. However, his job was not done as former Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Keylor Navas denied John Tolkin of the winning penalty.

This only allowed Freese to put the cherry on top of a great performance, saving his third penalty kick on Andy Rojas. Young striker Damion Downs struck home the winning penalty, but the star of the night was Freese.

Freese claims that penalty kicks are his specialty. He faced seven of them on Sunday night; one during the 90 minutes, and six in the shootout. He dove out of the way of Martinez’ penalty to lead off the shootout. Outside of that, Freese chose the right side (or stayed middle) on every other penalty – reading the penalty kick taker correctly for six of seven total penalty kicks.

Freese and the USMNT hope to keep the magic going in the Gold Cup Semifinal on Wednesday night in St. Louis. USMNT face off against Guatemala, coming off a historic win over Canada. USMNT are looking to rebound after losing the last Gold Cup Semifinal to Panama in 2023.