{"id":285605,"date":"2026-05-27T02:53:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285605\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:53:21","slug":"former-orlando-city-sc-defender-alex-freeman-called-up-to-u-s-mens-national-team-for-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285605\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Orlando City SC defender Alex Freeman called up to U.S. Men’s National Team for 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. (May 26, 2026) \u2013 Ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122, the U.S. Men’s National Team announced that former Orlando City SC defender Alex Freeman has been named to the 26-man roster that will play in this year’s tournament, becoming the first Lions player to go through the Academy, MLS NEXT Pro and MLS levels before playing in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Freeman made 34 starts in 42 appearances for the Lions across all competitions in MLS, scoring six goals and adding seven assists. The American right back was selected to the MLS All\u2011Star team, the MLS All\u2011Star Skills Challenge, and the MLS Best XI in 2025. He also became the first Orlando City player to win the league\u2019s Young Player of the Year award.<\/p>\n

A product of the Orlando City Academy, Freeman made 30 appearances (28 starts) for the U17s, scoring eight goals and providing 15 assists en route to the MLS Next Cup U17 Championship in 2021.<\/p>\n

After numerous call-ups to the U.S. youth national teams, Freeman finally broke into the first team in 2025, earning his first caps for the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team. He made his debut on June 6, 2025, in an international friendly against T\u00fcrkiye and went on to make 13 appearances for the U.S., scoring twice in a 5-1 friendly win over Uruguay on November 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freeman and the U.S. will open the tournament on June 12 against Paraguay.\u00a0The match will be broadcast live at the Pointe Orlando as part of the\u00a0Orlando Soccer Celebration, presented by Verizon<\/a>. Kickoff for the match is set for 9 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. (May 26, 2026) \u2013 Ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122, the U.S. Men’s National Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7699,115,139,4786,121150,18312,141,140],"class_list":["post-285605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-alexander-freeman","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-city-academy","tag-orlando-city-b","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}