Newcomer Matt Freese ices Costa Rica in penalty shootout win that sends USMNT to Gold Cup semis

This was a game in which Matt Freese allowed two goals (not a shutout), and it was in a CONCACAF Gold Cup (not the World Cup), and it was against Costa Rica (not reigning world champion Argentina).

And still Freese left Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium late Sunday night having delivered one of the great goalkeeping displays in the history of a United States men’s national team program that has lived for a generation on phenomenal goalkeeping.

He was the biggest reason the United States advanced to the Gold Cup semis following a 2-2 draw with a victory over Costa Rica on penalties. Yes, it was German-born Damian Downs who converted the clinching PK, but Freeze rejected three opposing attempts and nearly stopped two others. We’re going to call it the greatest shootout performance by any USMNT goalkeeper and dare the historians to prove us wrong.

“Penalties are my thing,” Freese told Fox Sports afterward.

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Instead of spending his time on the flight from DFW to the Twin Cities trying to get a reservation to Manny’s through Open Table, Freese said he was studying the choices and techniques of Costa Rica players who might be called upon to attempt penalties if the shootout became necessary to break a tie. In the Gold Cup quarterfinals and semis, there is no extra time: It goes directly to PKs.

That seemed to be a huge advantage for Costa Rica, whose goalkeeper, Keylor Navas, split a decade between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid and started in three consecutive UEFA Champions League triumphs.

In fact, Freese was significantly better. Navas saved one U.S. penalty, and his reputation might have been a factor in Sebastian Berhalter knocking his attempt along the same flight path as Roberto Baggio at the 1994 World Cup or David Beckham at the 2004 Euros: well over the crossbar.

Freese read the opponent’s intent correctly and moved in the direction of the strike on four shots. On the stop that set up the USMNT for its first chance to win the game, Costa Rica’s Francisco Calvo approached after having scored from the penalty spot in the game’s 12^th minute to give his team a 1-0 lead. His shot then had been fired inside the right post, with Freese getting a hand on the ball but unable to stop it from crossing the line.

This time, Freese chose not to move at all and remained in the center of the goal. Calvo kicked it directly at him, almost as if they were playing catch.

“I’d been studying them all week. I was ready for it, if we needed it,” Freese said. “The one I didn’t move on, it was a suggestion from my goalkeeper coach Toni Jimenez. He was the reason that save was made.”

Freese has been impressive enough, with two shutouts and now this dazzling show, that coach Mauricio Pochettino faced the inevitable question regarding whether this 26-year-old from the Philadelphia suburbs and New York City FC of Major League Soccer has passed Matt Turner as the USMNT’s No. 1 keeper a year ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“We have plenty of good players and good keepers,” Pochettino said. “Matt Turner has the experience, because he played in the World Cup in 2022. He’s a great keeper. The only problem, in this tournament, Matt didn’t play in the whole season and for this reason we wanted to see another keeper.

“It’s important for our coaching staff to have, for the future – to have different options. One year to the World Cup … I think it’s good for Matt Turner and the rest of the keepers to see they can have the possibility and deal with it because you never know what is going to happen in one year. Now is the moment to test, to give the opportunity to show they can deal with the stress and perform.”

What the United States always had in the early years of its modern era was phenomenal goalkeeping. It began with Tony Meola at the 1994 World Cup and elevated to Kasey Keller’s unfathomable, 10-save brilliance against Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup, Brad Friedel conjuring a penalty save to preserve an essential 1-1 draw against South Korea at the 2002 World Cup and then to Tim Howard’s 16-save gymnastics against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup.

The most curious thing about the rise of the American player over the last couple decade is the simultaneous decline of the goalkeeping position. There are no U.S. keepers currently starting in any of Europe’s top five leagues.

There have been promising keepers signed by big Premier League clubs; Zack Steffen went to Manchester City after a successful run with the Columbus Crew, but wound up rarely starting. He earned two Premier League championship medals but was back in MLS within five years.

Turner, the U.S. starter at the 2022 World Cup, signed with Arsenal in 2022, but loans to other English teams haven’t gotten him a regular starting position. It is possible Turner could be starting on a Ligue 1 side if Lyon’s reported interest results in a transfer (and the promised relegation of Lyon over financial matters is able to be prevented or delayed.)

After Turner allowed four goals against Switzerland in the final U.S. friendly ahead of the Gold Cup, Pochettino chose to start Freese in the tournament’s opener. He played well, but committed a major blunder in the team’s third group game, against Haiti, that nearly cost the Americans a victory. It would have been easy for the coach to use that play as an excuse to move back to Turner, whose experience Pochettino acknowledged even after Freese’s brilliance advanced the team to the semifinals.

“I think it’s a very special place, to me the most important position on the pitch. Because the objective for the opponent is to score goals and for you, for us, it’s trying to not concede goals,” Pochettino said. “For some mistake, you cannot not trust or change your decision.

“I think we trust our keepers, and when we made the decision to play and give the confidence to him it was, we thought, this decision happened knowing and accepting that maybe he could make a mistake. But any keeper can make a mistake. The most important thing is to make the decision and translate the confidence and trust and be sure that your decision was a good decision for the team.”

It took only six appearances for Freese to deliver a performance like this. Imagine what might be possible for him if he becomes the No. 1 keeper, the No. 1 Matt, on this national team.