It\u2019s hard to pinpoint the exact reason for the Stars and Stripes\u2019 recent success, something the team has previously struggled to find in soccer\u2019s showpiece event.<\/p>\n
Former NFL All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Freeman claims its the very same element that turns an American football team into Super Bowl champions. He know what he\u2019s talking about, too.<\/p>\n
Freeman not only made back-to-back Super Bowl runs with the Green Bay Packers (1996, 1997), winning Super Bowl XXXI with a 35\u201321 victory over the New England Patriots, but he also has a deep familiarity with the USMNT. He is the father of star defender Alex Freeman, after all.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to be around these guys, at their hotel and I got the chance to stop by practice,\u201d Freeman said about the USMNT<\/a> on the Rich Eisen Show<\/a> Wednesday. \u201c… Man, what I see is magic. I don\u2019t like to compare a lot, but the love and camaraderie we had in that locker room when we were winning Super Bowls and making Super Bowl runs, [it\u2019s there].<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost electrifying when I walk into his team hotel. They all like each other. They all get along. They all just want to win, and they want to win for this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Compete against the world. | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED<\/p>\n <\/a>That Super Bowl-Caliber \u2018Magic\u2019 There were hugs all round after the USMNT\u2019s win over Australia. | Jamie Squire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n After the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX this past February, defeating the Patriots 29\u201313, star linebacker Ernest Jones got up to the microphone ahead of the victory parade through downtown.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you got anything to say about my quarterback, if you got anything to say about my defense, if you got anything to say about our o[ffensive]-line, and you got anything to say about the city of Seattle, I got two words for you: F— you!\u201d<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s so eloquently-worded speech harkened back to the several times throughout the NFL season that he and his teammates had rushed to each other\u2019s defense, especially quarterback Sam Darnold who had struggled in big moments earlier in the fall. <\/p>\n It was this fierce brotherhood that characterized the entire Super Bowl-winning team and allowed them to defy everyone\u2019s expectations. A similar fire stokes within the USMNT. <\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just proven by the lockstep that the U.S. plays in on the pitch, shifting seamlessly, interweaving with fluidity and often connecting passes of 30-plus in a row. It\u2019s proven in the way star player Christian Pulisic\u2019s teammates vehemently defended him amid his long goal-scoring drought<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the way the players celebrate when they score, encompassing even those on the bench and 54-year-old Pochettino in the hearty dogpile. <\/p>\n The USMNT has become defined by its togetherness. | Alex Livesey\/FIFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n It\u2019s the way Pulisic pep-talked striker Ricardo Pepi, who replaced him in the starting lineup against Australia amid his leg injury.<\/a> It\u2019s the way the team has been unwavering in its belief<\/a> that it could actually win the entire tournament, when every history book suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the best team in the U.S. that they have put together, and all of these guys just want to win. Their camaraderie, it glows, whether they know it or not,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cIt glows. Not only on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n The USMNT has already begun rewriting history, winning two group stage matches for the first time since 1930<\/a> and the first time ever in the modern era of the World Cup, and the team appears poised to set even more records.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope that these guys continue to glow, keep that energy, play hard, play physical and believe in themselves because they are right there on the cusp of doing something great,\u201d Freeman added.<\/p>\n![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/01kvbhm6gzqs0w3jgwmc.jpg\" "\\"World")
<\/p>\n![\"USMNT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/01kvh4h85p4qrqvws8ht.jpg\" "\\"USMNT")
<\/p>\n![\"USMNT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/01kv9e5c5b871af4jrjy.jpg\" "\\"USMNT")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\"){kind=icon}
Add us as a preferred source on Google