Now that the US national team has bowed out of the 2026 World Cup, it’s time to step back and take stock of what happened. This event was historic for New York who, for the first time, surpassed California by sending four state natives to the 2026 World Cup. That got us thinking about the local New York City Football Club and how many, if any, they contributed. The answer isn’t zero, but it’s more complex than you may think, and directly links to America’s dramatic defeat.
While Yonkers has a team, many locals pay attention to New York City’s big sports clubs too. It can come with extra bragging rights, and there are also more practical reasons to follow local players. For example, daily fantasy sports (DFS) services that have exploded in recent years, offering action for both the Major League Soccer (MLS) and the World Cup. Every new game changes how players are valued, so some fantasy coaches try to catch the games their selected players are in. Welcome offers are part of DFS’ popularity, giving new sign-ups benefits like a $40 lineup for free, with full details on Boom Sports. Whether new or returning, half the fun of DFS is watching your player play.
Matt Freese
Matt Freese is the only American that the NYCFC gave to the 2026 World Cup national team. That may sound confusing but will make sense if you know how soccer clubs recruit. What’s more important is the other reason Freese is in the news, that July 6th match against Belgium. It was a dramatic 4-1 defeat on home soil, sending the US out of their own World Cup (shared with Canada and Mexico, of course).
The third of those goals was a tough break for Freese, who until then had received some praise as coach Mauricio Pochettino’s keeper of choice. He left the penalty area to pre-empt the ball and knock it away, only to hesitate at a crucial moment and leave the net open for Belgian forward Charles De Ketelaere. NYT covered it here, but the short story is that it extended Belgium’s lead and sapped the US team’s momentum in that crucial second half. It was far from the only defensive error in the match, so it’s unfair to put all the blame on a calculated sweeper-keeper risk that went bad.
While Freese plays for the NYCFC in Major League Soccer, some can take comfort in the fact he’s actually a Pennsylvanian native. He just plays for New York City in the big leagues. Nevertheless, he represented Pennsylvania, NYCFC, and the US itself when he took to the field, to mixed results.
Aiden O’Neill and Kai Trewin
The World Cup takes national team members based on nationality, allowing foreign players on US soil to go and represent their country. This why Erling Haaland, famous Manchester City striker, plays for the Norway national team. The rules used to be much stricter, locking players into a national team for life once they selected, but FIFA allows for a single switch for those who operate across multiple countries.
Aiden O’Neill and Kai Trewin are the second and third NYCFC players that went to the World Cup, but they took the long way around. They joined up with Australia, because that’s where they were born and bred before coming to America. O’Neill is from Brisbane, having joined NYCFC as a defensive midfielder in 2025, while Trewin came over in January 2026 as a defender from New South Wales.
Both players had a moment to shine in Australia’s last World Cup game, a deadlocked match versus Egypt that they lost at the penalty shootout. O’Neill, who had won FIFA Man of the Match in an earlier game, made the free kick that equalized the score 1-1, creating the deadlock that held everyone in suspense. Then Trewin, who debuted in that same match, recorded 24 passes and an attempted goal during 74 grueling minutes of play. If he had made the goal, then Australia would have owed the whole win to its NYCFC players.
Strangely enough, all three players have another thing in common. They all went down making defiant kicks against the opposing team, to varying degrees of success. Then, ultimately, both the US and Australia lost the matches they featured most heavily in. While neither country will bring the cup home, local NYCFC fans can be proud of the fighting spirit they brought to the field.