'Scored at a World Cup!' - USMNT families reflect on goals scored

USMNT family stories

Every USMNT World Cup goal has sparked joy far beyond the pitch, with families, friends, and loved ones sharing in moments years in the making.

SEATTLE -- Every player who kicks a soccer ball begins with a dream, and most of those center around the World Cup. Countless hours are spent in the backyard or on the training field imagining the moment, the one where your shot hits the back of the net and your country rallies around you.

Entering this summer, only 25 American men had scored a World Cup goal. This tournament has added six more names to that list. But those players are not the only ones living out the moment. Behind each of them are the families, coaches, friends, and communities that helped get them there. It takes a village to make a World Cup player, and for the lucky few, there is a brief moment where that whole village gets to celebrate a goal.

That's been something felt by six families this summer. The Baloguns and Reynas saw their loved ones, Folarin and Gio, score against Paraguay. The Freemans saw Alex net against Australia. The Trustys and Berhalters cried when they saw Auston and Sebastian score, while the Tillmans took one heck of a video when Malik bent in his free kick against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Six families, all from different places and with different journeys, but, this summer, they've all felt one thing: the pure joy that comes with seeing someone they care about score at a World Cup.

"It's the best moment ever," Emily Trusty, wife of USMNT defender Auston, tells GOAL. "There are no words that can describe it. It's you getting to watch somebody that you love live out their dreams. It's the most amazing thing in the world. I don't know the percentages; maybe .1 percent get to live out that dream.

"If I talk about it now, I could literally cry. It's the moment where you watch somebody you love, and you just know how much it means to them. Nobody can ever take that away from him. He scored in a World Cup!"

It's a feeling that can't be taken away, and it's a feeling that this summer's six families will never forget.

USA v Australia: Group D - FIFA World Cup 2026

'Man, I just cried'

Like just about everyone else, Antonio Freeman had to wait.

His son, Alex Freeman, had headed the ball into the back of the net to seemingly make it 2-0 against Australia, but then the flag went up. The joy was paused, but it did resume. After a VAR review, the goal was confirmed, sending the USMNT's youngest player darting across the field with his teammates chasing behind.

The elder Freeman created plenty of big moments throughout his NFL career. He knows what it means to succeed on the field, and he knows what it feels like when you do step up for your team. This feeling, though? It was different.

"Man, I just cried," he told U.S. Soccer. "I had my shades on, had my Freeman jersey on, and I just cried. To see Alex and his teammates run around after the goal was called, I cried even harder, man. For them to take Alex, it was like he was everybody on the team's little brother. It brought tears, man, because you can have individual moments, but when you have team moments, that's what makes it special."

Reyna, meanwhile, had his own celebration. After scoring a stunning trivela to put the cap on a 4-1 win over Paraguay, Reyna took the ball and put it under his shirt. Any fan of soccer knows what that means. It's a pregnancy announcement. He and wife Chloe were just waiting for the right time to go public, and what better time than at a World Cup?

“I’ve known for a couple months now,” Reyna said after scoring, “so I was waiting for the perfect time, and this sort of felt like it.”

While the Freeman and Reyna celebrations were emotional for the respective families, Emily Trusty, funnily enough, totally missed her husband's. As Auston Trusty made his own mad dash to the bench after scoring just minutes into the match against Turkey, all she could do was look around. First, she locked eyes with her husband's older sister, Onnie, before then looking down and seeing her daughter. From there, there was no holding back.

"His sister was the one who inspired him to play, and I looked at her to see if our reaction was the same," Emily Trusty recalls. "'Was that really Auston? Was that really him?' We looked at each other, and we burst into tears because we realized it was him. My daughter was playing at my feet, and I look back at videos now, and she's reaching at my legs trying to get up. I didn't watch the celebration because I was hunched over crying. Then we all came back to it, it quieted down and we were just shocked. I think we were just shaking the rest of the game.

"It's funny because people congratulate you and celebrate as if it's us," she continues. "I was talking about that with Auston after the goal and how I was celebrating and crying as if it was me. I did nothing. I just watched, but everyone comes up and congratulates me, but it's not me, it's 1,000 percent him. I'm just here celebrating that."

Gregg Berhalter's tears didn't hit him until later. In the moment, the one where his son Sebastian scored against Turkey, it was smiles and fist pumps. The tears came hours later.

"It's obviously great to watch your son playing in a World Cup, but for him to get an assist and a goal in a game in a World Cup, I mean, it's incredible," Berhalter told ESPN. "It's really like one of these things that is hard to put into words, really the feeling because you're so proud of them.

"When I was on the plane after the game on the way back, I took a red-eye just reflecting on it. Tears came to my eyes just thinking about his journey and just how much it meant to him."

For the loved ones of the goalscorers, those goals are special. In those moments, families reflect on the journey, which is often why decades of tears flow out, either at the stadium or, in Berhalter's case, on a red-eye.

Those moments aren't just limited to each individual's family, though. There's a collective family, too. When a player scores a goal, the eyes of the USMNT's friends and family section quickly turn towards that player's loved ones, and those tears turn to celebrations.

Timothy Anja Tillman

'Your time to react'

Multiple members of the USMNT family have said the same thing: the celebrations are often kick-started by one woman.

"Weston McKennie's mom was sitting right in front of me," Anja Tillman, mother of USMNT star Malik, tells GOAL, "and every time there was something, she's like, 'Hey!'"

"It's definitely Weston's family," Trusty adds. "His mom was right in front of us. She was celebrating with my cousin and they were going crazy. They were so happy. There were other families behind us, and I was crying watching the reactions because they were so happy for us and happy for Auston."

While Tina McKennie may be the one to launch the celebration, every goal quickly turns into a moment for the group. There's something of a throwback feeling to it. As kids, when you score, you can often look to your family on the sideline and see others congratulating your loved ones. The further you go, though, that happens less and less as life gets in the way.

Not at a World Cup. It's a shared moment, and it's shared by everyone. The USMNT's friends and family section is made up of 26 different families and, when you're the one related to the player that makes the difference, the other 25 suddenly have all eyes on you.

That's what happened when Tillman scored his stunning goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everyone had their phones out, waiting to record the free kick. Then, when the free kick hit the back of the net, everyone's phone turned towards the Tillmans. Mother Anja was in tears, while brother Timothy was smiling ear to ear.

"Being in that family section is fun," Timothy Tillman tells GOAL, "because as soon as something happens, everyone's just turning around and now, it's your time to react... We're just super, super happy that we were there to experience it and just have that moment together, you know? He knew that we were in the stands, and I think that's just the biggest accomplishment. It was so cool for all three of us."

For each family, it has been comforting to know the others who are going through the emotional rollercoaster with you. Now, over a month into the USMNT's journey, everyone has gotten to know each other fairly well.

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'The closeness of the team is real'

The moment she arrived in the U.S. for this summer's World Cup, Anja Tillman knew she had some homework to do.

In Germany, she was unable to watch HBO's "U.S. Against The World" documentary, so when she landed stateside, she needed to binge every episode. It was nice learning the players' stories, of course, but there was a bigger goal: figure out who everyone's family members were before arriving at the World Cup.

"I watched this before the tournament started," she says, "and so I knew a little bit. Now, I know which family belongs together."

Team gatherings have helped. Throughout the tournament, the U.S. has had a few group activities on off days. Barbecues have helped everyone get to know each other, building chemistry between those in the stands that can nearly rival the chemistry between those on the field.

"The family and friends barbecues helped a lot," Timothy Tillman says. "We've gotten to know the other families. You get to know who is with who and who is related to who."

That knowledge has helped everyone prepare for the big moments. When Malik Tillman scored, everyone knew where Anja and Timothy were. When Auston Trusty scored, all eyes were on his loved ones. Every goal has a similar story: Balogun, Reyna, Freeman, Berhalter - when they all scored, everyone knew where to look. Berhalter, for example, had 32 friends and family members in the stands for his big goal, which meant it was easy to spot those who his goal meant so much to.

"To have the other families celebrating us, it's the most amazing thing," Trusty says, "but it's also really cool when you get to give that back. Every time someone scores, if you're around their family, you're going to celebrate with them because you know what that moment means to them, too.

"You see the closeness, and that's not fake. The closeness of the team is real, and there's something special about that bond that resonates, and you can see that with the families as well."

USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina: Round Of 32 - FIFA World Cup 2026

Reflecting after

The days that follow are all about the journey. Eventually, once the adrenaline dies down, there is a chance to reflect. Years of sacrifice pay off in one swing of a foot or one leaping header.

Trusty says that, even after the moment had passed, she received countless text messages. One was from Matt Freese's girlfriend, Kelsey, who was stationed just far enough away that she couldn't fully get to the Trusty entourage in the moment. After the games, players get to meet up with their loved ones and get a dose of congratulations from others. Malik Tillman, mother Anja, joked, always runs late, including on the day of the goal.

It's okay, in truth. These are moments that everyone will reflect on for the rest of their lives. They're the type of moments that leave everyone remembering where they were and who they hugged first. For those in the stands who watch their loved one's life change in an instant, it's hard not to feel like their lives changed, too.

"It's just a childhood dream coming to fruition every single time this happens," Trusty says. "Every time they win, every shutout, every time they score, it's a childhood dream that's made it into reality. You see that and, as a family member, it's really cool. Obviously you give up a lot for these dreams. I've moved overseas, put my career on hold, essentially molded by life to fit his and, with that comes talk about dreams and what he wants to be and what this means to him.

"He's missed so much in order to chase this dream, and he'd never change it, but to watch that and to actually see it happen, it's such a beautiful moment. They're all just kids living out their dream, except it's even better."