Matt Freese’s crucial saves help USMNT beat Costa Rica in Gold Cup quarterfinal

The United States men’s national soccer team is moving on to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup after a dramatic penalty shootout against Costa Rica. 

The match was deadlocked at two goals apiece after 90-plus minutes, leading to the penalty shootout that had all the dramatics to keep everyone on the edge of their seats to see who would be moving on. 

After the USMNT’s Tyler Adams and Costa Rica’s Alonso Martinez buried their attempts to begin the penalty shootout, goalkeeper Matt Freese from the U.S. made a tremendous save on Juan Pablo Vargas’ shot to give his team the upper hand.

This came after Malik Tillman made up for a missed penalty shot during regular time that could’ve been the game-winner, perfectly placing his shot to his left past Costa Rican legend Keylor Navas. 

But Sebastian Berhalter, the son of former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter, evened things up when he sent his attempt flying over the net. Santiago van der Putten’s follow-up shot for Costa Rica got past Freese despite the goalkeeper guessing the right way. 

After Alex Freeman and Jefferson Brenes made their shots respectively, Freese got yet another save on Francisco Calvo’s attempt, giving John Tolkin the shot to end it all for the USMNT. But Navas came up clutch, as he leapt to his left and swatted away Tolkin’s shot. 

An extra round was needed, but Freese was simply locked in. He was able to stop back-to-back shots, this time saving Andy Rojas’s shot.

Again, the USMNT had a chance to end the match, and Damion Downs was given the chance. Navas wasn’t able to guess right this time, as Downs went left and celebrated immediately as the ball hit the back of the net. 

During the 90 minutes before the shootout, there were fireworks as well, starting with “Los Ticos” getting on the board first. It was Calvo who got the best of Freese with a penalty shot in the 12th minute. 

However, the UMSNT rallied toward the end of the first half with Diego Luna scoring in the 43rd minute and Max Arfsten following it up in the 47th minute. 

Then, in the 71st minute midway through the second half, Martinez came sliding in after a rebound off Freese to tie the game up. 

But the USMNT will be the ones moving on to face Guatemala on Wednesday in the semifinal to determine who has a spot in the Gold Cup Final. 

The other semifinal is Mexico against Honduras, which will be played after the U.S. and Guatemala. 

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