SEATTLE — At the final whistle of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s 2-0 win over Australia on Friday, Auston Trusty walked over to Matt Freese to offer a big hug.
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They didn’t know that a photographer from the Associated Press was standing nearby to capture the moment. But soon enough, everyone found out.
Yes, Delco was very much mentioned on the world’s biggest stage.
“He came over to me and said, ‘Two Delco-heads just had a shoutout in the World Cup together. That’s fate,’” the Wayne-born Freese said after his shutout in net. “And I laughed and I said, ‘Yeah who would have thought?’”
Perhaps Jim Curtin, or other coaches across the Union ranks who worked with the duo over the years. But not too many people beyond Chester, or Wayne in those days since that was YSC Academy’s first home.
“It’s obviously such a cool thing to have known him for so long, and I knew him outside of the soccer world too,” Freese said of Trusty. “We were just friends. So it’s incredible.”
That wasn’t the only karmic coincidence of the day. Trusty made his World Cup debut in front of not just his wife, daughter, in-laws and cousins, but two of his first youth soccer coaches with the old Nether United club in Nether Providence, Delaware County: Tor Hotham and John Waraksa.
Like so many people around American soccer, they circled this day in this soccer-mad city and decided they had to be there. The reward was beyond measure.
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“To have them fly here, not knowing if I’m going to play or not, to come here and be here for this game where I actually make my World Cup debut, it’s just all meant to be,” Trusty said.
The Media native beamed with pride again when he reflected on finally reaching this moment at age 27, 11 years after going to an under-17 World Cup with Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Alejandro Zendejas, and Haji Wright.
“When you’re a little kid, dreaming about the stadiums you play in and the atmospheres and everything involved, to play in a home turf World Cup, get minutes, it’s a dream come true,” Trusty said.
Freese had his family in attendance too, plus his girlfriend’s family, and old friends from high school at Episcopal Academy. He shouted out one of the closest, Michael Hinkley, a soccer teammate back then who went on to play basketball at Dickinson.
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“Obviously incredible support,” Freese said. “It means a lot to play in front of them, and play in front of everyone in this country.”
That support fueled the U.S. team all day, with the stands full and roaring well before kickoff. Trusty said the atmosphere “gives you chills,” especially when the crowd sang The Star-Spangled Banner over the orchestral rendition on the speakers.
“The atmosphere is one of those things you dream of,” Freese said. “I’ve heard ‘the 12th man’ is what they call the crowd here. It was definitely a 12th man for us — I think it was a 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th man for us today.”
But things were getting dicey when Trusty and Joe Scally entered the game in the 80th minute as defensive reinforcements. Australia was gaining momentum even though it hadn’t scored, and an already-physical game was getting even more fractious.
It got especially chippy in the last few minutes, but those two and the rest of the Americans kept their heads and finished the job. They did so at both ends, ensuring Australia didn’t score while also keeping a foot on the gas pedal in attack.
“Just keep the pressure up,” Trusty said. “They weren’t really pressing too much, they kind of had like a halfway-block [formation], and obviously in a back five [defensively], they want pressure on them. So just continue the press that we had and the movement we had, and really just keep momentum.”
Mission accomplished on all counts. Not only did the U.S. men qualify for the knockout rounds before the group stage finale against Turkey, but the program has two wins in one World Cup group stage for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1930. And thanks to Turkey’s loss at the end of the night, the U.S. clinched first place with a game to spare.
“We came into the tournament wanting to make a statement,” Freese said. “The first part of that’s done, but, you know, there’s a lot more statements we want to make.”
In this World Cup, underdogs are stealing the spotlight, the U.S. men are on a roll, and Philadelphia has not only welcomed the world but has given visitors a crash course on just how real the curse of the Rocky Statue can be.
Join Jonathan Tannenwald, the Inquirer’s soccer writer, and host Lisa Carlin, analyst for CBS Sports Golazo, as they dissect the matches, the moments, and more as Philly has its moment in soccer’s brightest spotlight. Watch our latest episode right here.
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