It wasn't the reception Matt Freese wanted in his first MLS game back from the 2026 World Cup.
The United States and New York City FC goalkeeper received boos from the crowd at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio every time he touched the ball in New York City's 2-1 win over the Crew on July 22, but Freese didn't let the negativity get to him.
"I don’t mind getting booed; I’m from Philadelphia," he said after NYCFC's win over the Chicago Fire at Yankee Stadium. "Anything they’re saying to me on the field, I can guarantee you I’ve said worse at Eagles games, so I’m fine with it."
That harsh reaction in Ohio stemmed from Freese's costly mistake in the USMNT's 4-1 Round of 16 loss to Belgium, with the third Belgium goal coming straight from an error made by Freese while far outside his box. Freese got a warmer ovation from his home crowd in the Bronx before beating the Fire, but the USMNT's World Cup exit, and Freese's role in it, seem like they'll remain topics for him for the rest of this season and beyond.
“Big losses in tough moments are things you never really get over because they stay with you for the rest of your career,” Freese told The Associated Press ahead of the MLS All-Star Game. “They continue to motivate you for the rest of your career."
A few days after the loss to Belgium, things got even more awkward for Freese when he was named an MLS All-Star. With the internet already scrutinizing Freese, it was coincidentally bad timing that he got his first MLS All-Star nod after making the biggest mistake of his career on the biggest stage of his career.
Considering the loss to Belgium — which drew more than 30 million viewers — was the most-watched soccer match in American history, Columbus likely won't be the last place Freese receives some heckling this season. Some viewed Freese's boos in a different light, with X user ShastonC claiming, in a now-viral post with 1.9 million views and more than 56,000 likes and 2,100 reposts, that Freese's treatment is a sign that the US is now "finally becoming a proper footballing country."
Surprisingly, when Freese made his MLS All-Star debut in the Skills Challenge on Tuesday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, he didn't seem to get booed. The Skills Challenge was held at 10,000-seat Truist Field, Charlotte's minor-league baseball stadium with views of the city's skyline. The Goalie Wars event in which Freese participated also came following a storm rolling through and causing a weather delay.
World Cup ‘keepers squaring off. 🇺🇸🇨🇦
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 29, 2026
Maxime Crépeau takes this round of MLS All-Star Goalie Wars pres. by @OldSpice! pic.twitter.com/pJVuHsxdNf
Freese faced Orlando City SC and Canada World Cup goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, and the American keeper lost 2-1 to his Canadian rival, with Crépeau eventually winning another round, over defending Goalie Wars champion Pedro Cruz of Houston Dynamo 2, to be crowned this year's Goalie Wars champion.
Despite Freese and Crépeau's statistics not ranking them among the top goalkeepers in MLS so far this season, the fact that they both started on MLS-heavy squads for their respective nations at the World Cup got them to the All-Star Game and the Skills Challenge.
It's unclear how Freese will be treated by the bigger crowd inside the much bigger Bank of America Stadium during the MLS All-Star game against the LIGA MX All-Stars. The New York City FC shot-stopper is a backup behind Nashville SC's Brian Schwake, so it's unclear how involved Freese will be.
Based on the reactions so far since the World Cup, Freese likely has to deal with criticism and scrutiny for the foreseeable future, meaning he'll have to put up more of the kinds of numbers and performances he had in 2024 and 2025 to quiet his detractors.
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