Matt Freese has always felt at home between the posts. It's where he has always wanted to be.
It’s why he arrives early at the stadium - to take in his surroundings and find that sense of calm. A goal mouth can be the focal point of chaos in a soccer match, but for Freese, it is often a place of serenity.
“When I was eight or nine I was a full time field player,” he said. “I always wanted to be a goalkeeper but the coach kind of never let me. He said I was creating too many chances on the field to put me in goal.”
As his dream of shot stopping sat on the sidelines, fate stepped in to provide a helping hand. Freese’s request would finally be granted when one week the usual goalkeeper was absent, and it was a debut to remember.
“I had this great save,” he said. “This is back when the crossbar was way too tall for anyone to touch.
“It was probably a 25-meter shot, on smaller fields, maybe more like a 15-meter shot, it was going right below the crossbar and I jumped with everything I had. I didn't tip it over because I didn't know that was what you're supposed to do, so I just kind of stuck my hand out as high as I could and it ended up being a big save. Afterwards, my coach told me ‘okay, you can play goalie whenever you want now’.”
Sports, and in particular soccer, played an important role in Freese’s childhood. It was his constant and afforded him grounding in new surroundings, helping him build bonds with not only new friends but also his siblings.
“I moved I think seven or eight times by the time I was 12 years old,” he explained. “Soccer was pretty much the only thing that was consistent throughout that. We went all across the country. I was born in Philadelphia, and then I went to Minnesota, where everyone's crazy about ice hockey. Then we moved to South Carolina for a little bit - that's a huge American football city - and what was consistently present for me was soccer and the relationships on the field.
“Also, what was really important for me; my older brother and I bonded over soccer in the backyard, all the time.”
Freese’s older brother Timmy, would serve as his first, albeit informal, goalkeeper coach. The family home became a training center. Freese would routinely practice shot-stopping against his brother in the backyard, with injuries an accepted risk of participation.
“He was a left footed player and he had an unbelievably fast shot,” Freese said of his brother. “So that also kind of prepared me. He's three years older than me, and I may or may not have broken a few of my fingers when we were younger, because the shot was too strong for me [laughs].”
Occasionally Freese’s training would take him indoors. That’s where he would watch countless YouTube compilations of Edwin van der Sar, Gianluigi Buffon, Joe Hart, and other goalkeeping greats while repurposing the furniture as training equipment.
“There was this one thing I was trying to get better at - and it was when I was diving I used to drag my feet on the ground behind me,” he said. “This again was when I was really young - say 10 or 11. I’d go to the foot of my bed and then have a ball in my hands and dive onto my bed sideways.
“The whole point is I had to lift my feet up off the ground while diving, otherwise they were going to knock into the foot of the bed and that would hurt - so I learned quickly. I have some permanent bruising on my shins from that [laughs] but I think I learned some big lessons through a bunch of weird ways when I was younger.”
Sat alongside Freese’s unconventional training methods was a steely determination to achieve his dream of playing professionally. As well as a diligent approach to nutrition, he would routinely do one additional rep above the stated number of any drill.
Such diligence afforded him the chance to take in several training stints in England with Manchester United, Liverpool, and Bournemouth, where he worked alongside fellow goalkeepers including future England internationals in Dean Henderson and Aaron Ramsdale. Keen to continue developing both professionally and personally, he would later choose to attend Harvard University, where he believes academics served a significant benefit.
“I've always actually felt that the education and the intellectual stimulation side of schooling has been really important in my soccer development,” he said.
“It gave me a really good outlet. If I had a bad day on the field it allowed me to decompress. It also kept me on a schedule, because it kept me busy rather than slacking off, eating unhealthy, doing things I shouldn't be doing. I think also from a brain development standpoint, the more intellectual work I did, kind of enabled me on the field to make decisions and learn quickly.
“I think, a lot of this season was learning on the fly and learning quickly and I think that those sometimes go hand in hand and I'm really grateful for that and to my parents for really instilling that idea into me.”
Freese’s family – his mother Marcia, sister Lyssa, and brothers Jack and Timmy -- remain a constant pillar of support, especially as he adjusted to his new surroundings in New York. The number 49, which he also wore while playing at Harvard, is in honor of his grandfather Jack Geary, a former Air Force pilot and AFL quarterback.
“My family 100% is the reason that I've been able to get to this level,” he said. “My mom was incredibly supportive. She drove all over. It's just so ridiculous to think about the amount of driving that she did, and the amount of support and away trips that she would do just to help me chase my dream.”
That support will remain present as he embarks upon the next chapter with NYCFC. 2023 presented many exciting new challenges for Freese. The pressure of playing in New York is something he revels in and now he will seek to build on as he spends the next few years at least in the Five Boroughs.
“I love pressure, I think the old saying is pressure makes diamonds and, and I really liked the pressure. I think I thrive under it,” he said before later adding. “I think a home game in the playoffs is what we should be striving for. It's what we should be achieving next year with the group we have, the fantastic coaching staff, and the resources and energy everyone in the organization gives towards the team's success.”
