Why Matt Freese probably just earned a USMNT World Cup roster spot | OneFootball

Penalties, as Matt Freese says, are his thing. And that may be his ticket to a spot on the 2026 FIFA World Cup roster for the U.S. men's national team, even if he doesn't win the starting job.

Freese saved three of six PKs in the tiebreak against Costa Rica following a 2-2 draw in Sunday's quarterfinal. Just as impressively, he appeared to guess correctly on all six Ticos PKs, showing a knack both for doing penalty homework and reading kicktakers in real-time.

And in an expanded 48-team FIFA World Cup next year, in which teams could play as many as five knockout stage games for the first time, having a penalty kick specialist could be more important than ever.

It's not clear if teams will be able to take 23 or 26 players to next year's tournament, but either way, there would presumably be room for three goalkeepers on each squad. And if you have a goalkeeper in your player pool who is uniquely skilled at saving penalties -- particularly in the tiebreak format -- then you almost certainly have to include him among that three-man group.

Super sub potential

In World Cup games that go to extra time, teams are allotted a sixth substitution as well as a fourth substitution window. And this reality has made some managers more likely to save one of those substitutions for a penalty specialist to bring on late in the second period of extra time if a match is still tied.

The most famous example came in the playoffs for the final 2022 World Cup spots, when Australia manager Graham Arnold inserted Andrew Redmayne during the120th minute of his side's match against Peru. The rest, as they say, is history.

Closer to home, D.C. United manager Troy Lesesne inserted Jordan Farr late in his side's U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 encounter against Charlotte FC. The result was a first quarterfinal berth since the Black-and-Red won the competition in 2013.

None of this is to say Freese won't win the starting job. At the current moment, he may have as strong a case as anyone, given the lack of other in-form candidates at the moment.

But even if he's not the best man to start World Cup matches for the USMNT, it sure looks like he's the best man to finish them. That's probably worthy of a roster spot.