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Alex Freeman Scored Against Australia… He’s the Son of Former Eagle Antonio Freeman… That Means Philadelphia Deserves Credit for the Goal… This Makes Sense
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Nothing is confusing about this. What part don’t you get? Alex Freeman scored the second goal for the U.S. in its win against Australia on Friday. Alex Freeman is the son of Antonio Freeman, who was a Super Bowl Champion wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, but more importantly was a Philadelphia Eagle for one season in 2002. Ipso facto, Alex Freeman’s goal – which was the final goal of the game, was, in many ways, a Philadelphia goal. That being the case, Philadelphia should get some, or most, of the credit for that goal, and the win overall. That is what this blog is about. That’s what I’m saying. It’s simple and it makes sense:
Philadelphia’s influence on this team doesn’t end there, either. No way. This city essentially produced the most important goal of Team USA’s World Cup so far, true, and won the game against Australia, yes, of course, we’ve established that, everyone already knows about that — but there’s more: there are four Philadelphia Union Academy players on the American roster, as Kinkead wrote last month:
- Matt Freese: A Wayne native. He debuted for the Union in 2019 and was later traded to New York City FC because he was stuck behind Andre Blake and didn’t have a path to serious playing time.
- Auston Trusty: Born in Media, Delco. He played for the Union’s first team between 2017 and 2019 and was traded to the Colorado Rapids in 2019. Arsenal acquired him in 2022 and he’s spent the last four years in the UK with Birmingham, Sheffield, and now Celtic.
- Brenden Aaronson: The Medford Messi. He was a key part of the Union’s 2020 Supporters’ Shield team and sold to Red Bull Salzburg in 2021. Aaronson joined Leeds United in 2022 and spent the 2023-2024 season on loan with Union Berlin in the Bundesliga.
- Mark McKenzie: Born in New York but grew up in Bear, Delaware and played 48 games for the U between 2018 and 2020. He transferred to Belgian side Genk in 2021 and now plays for Toulouse in the French first division.
There’s Hershey native Christian Pulisic as well, who played his youth soccer with PA Classics and then entered the Borussia Dortmund academy. So if you count Pulisic, that’s five players from the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware region on the World Cup roster.
Five local players, plus the Freeman goal. That’s a lot. For one city’s influence? That’s about as good as it gets. There is no other city in America that’s had this much of its DNA on Team USA and its success (I did not Google check this). Philadelphia is number one (that’s how it feels). And that being the case, Philly should get some credit. Even a little nod from USMNT would go a long way. Something simple. Examples:
-Slap a Liberty Bell patch on the jersey sleeves.
-Slap a keystone patch on the sleeve if you want to include the whole state (I don’t want to; this is me compromising).
-Do something with ‘215,’ maybe a team chant of some kind.
-Get the Phillie Phanatic in the mix.
-Let him do his quad thing, the Phanatic.
-Hydration breaks would be a good time for that.
-Let John Kruk call the games on the international broadcast.
-Send Crossing Broad, Philadelphia’s irreverent sports and culture blog, some free merch.
-Meredith from The Office. Something there.
Those are just a few ideas. It could be any, or perhaps all, of the above. I’m not going to sit here and tell USMNT what giving Philadelphia credit should look like. That’s not my job. I don’t have time to do that. I have all kinds of stuff to do today. But those ideas are good jumping-off points.
America’s jerseys are Sixers/Phillies colored too. Just thought of that one. That’s an interesting one. That’s something to consider.
USMNT, it’s time to do something. The ball is in your court. If you have any honor at all, give Philadelphia the praise it deserves for Team USA’s success. This makes sense. Send Crossing Broad some jerseys. Thank you.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com