"It's almost electrifying when I walk into his team hotel." That's Antonio Freeman — Super Bowl champion, NFL All-Pro, and father of USMNT defender Alex Freeman — describing what he felt after spending time with the U.S. squad during the 2026 World Cup.
Freeman won Super Bowl XXXI with the Green Bay Packers, part of back-to-back championship runs in 1996 and 1997. He knows what a team with genuine belief looks like from the inside. And he's saying the USMNT has it.
"What I see is magic," Freeman told the Rich Eisen Show. "The love and camaraderie we had in that locker room when we were winning Super Bowls — it's there. They all like each other. They all get along. They all just want to win, and they want to win for this country."
More than vibes — this team has the results to back it up
The USMNT has already won two group stage matches at this World Cup, the first time that's happened since 1930 and the first time ever in the modern tournament era. They've topped Group D with a game to spare. Thursday's match against Türkiye is dead rubber territory before the round of 32.
On the pitch, it shows. The team shifts in lockstep, strings 30-plus passes together with real fluency, and plays with an urgency that's been absent from previous U.S. World Cup campaigns. Christian Pulisic's teammates went to bat for him through a long goal drought. Pulisic himself pep-talked Ricardo Pepi after Pepi took his starting spot against Australia. Mauricio Pochettino, all 54 years of him, is throwing himself into the goal celebrations.
Freeman drew a direct parallel to the Seattle Seahawks, who won Super Bowl LX this past February — a team defined by fierce internal loyalty, the kind that carried them past everyone's expectations. "This is the best team in the U.S. that they have put together," he said. "Their camaraderie, it glows. Not only on the field."
What it means for anyone watching the outright markets
The U.S. entered this tournament as long-shot hosts. History said they'd flatter to deceive. Two wins from two, a settled squad, and genuine cohesion have shifted that calculus. Teams with this kind of internal chemistry don't tend to fold when the knockout pressure arrives — they tend to get more dangerous.
"I just hope that these guys continue to glow, keep that energy, play hard, play physical and believe in themselves," Freeman added. "Because they are right there on the cusp of doing something great."
He's watched them train. He's sat in their hotel. His son plays for them. If anyone has earned the right to make that call, it's Antonio Freeman.
