USMNT's European edge: The stunning rise of Alex Freeman and Patrick Agyemang from MLS to final World Cup camp

MARIETTA, Ga. — The charter bus that carried the U.S. men’s national team into the Atlanta suburbs on Tuesday morning held a pair of passports that tell the most unlikely story of this World Cup cycle. Alex Freeman and Patrick Agyemang—two names that barely registered on the senior-team radar 12 months ago—now sit inside Mauricio Pochettino’s final training camp before the Argentine coach trims his roster to 26 names on May 26.

Freeman, 21, was still completing his first full MLS season with Orlando City this time last year, better known for his lineage—his father, Antonio Freeman, won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers—than for any senior-national-team pedigree. Agyemang, 25, had just finished a breakout 2024 campaign with Charlotte FC and was learning how to weaponize his 6-foot-4 frame. The World Cup felt, in Agyemang’s words, “a million miles away.”

A winter transfer window, two trans-Atlantic relocations and a flurry of U.S. call-ups later, both players are now plausible answers to the question Pochettino will spend the next nine days trying to settle: who boards the plane when the squad convenes for the tournament that kicks off across North America in less than three months?

Freeman’s leap came first. After 16 MLS starts and a two-goal outburst in a 5-1 rout of Uruguay last June, the right back-wing hybrid consulted Pochettino and Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie before accepting what they labeled a “high-risk, high-reward” move to Villarreal. He has logged only 42 minutes across four La Liga appearances since January, but the experience of training alongside players chasing a 2026-27 Champions League berth has sharpened his instincts.

“Obviously, I haven’t gotten the minutes I’ve wanted,” Freeman said after training at the Morgan Family Center, “but I feel like I’ve stayed sharp against some of the best players in the league.” With Sergiño Dest sidelined by a hamstring injury, Freeman is expected to start Saturday’s friendly against Belgium at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, his first 90-minute audition since the Uruguay showcase four months ago.

Agyemang’s audition has been more sustained. Derby County, locked in a ferocious English Championship playoff race, have started the Connecticut native in 29 consecutive league matches. His 10 goals and three assists since arriving in January have catapulted him into a striker pool that includes Monaco’s Folarin Balogun, PSV’s Ricardo Pepi and Coventry City’s Haji Wright, the latter nursing a groin strain that could open a door.

“I’ve grown into the person and player I am now,” Agyemang said of the Championship’s bruising style. “You think you’ve earned a foul and it’s just play on. It’s very aggressive, but I like going to new places, putting my head down and working.”

Tim Ream, Agyemang’s Charlotte teammate last season, has noticed the transformation. “He couldn’t last 90 minutes with us,” Ream joked. “Now he’s playing full matches every week. Mentally and physically he’s in a place where he feels he can do anything.”

Pochettino will weigh those physical gains against tactical fit. The U.S. is expected to carry three, perhaps four, true strikers; Agyemang currently sits fourth on the internal depth chart. The next nine days—culminating in a Tuesday night meeting with Portugal—offer one last chance to leapfrog the hierarchy.

For Freeman, the challenge is proving that bench minutes in Spain translate to the high-octane demands of a home World Cup. Cristian Roldan, the Seattle veteran who has watched Freeman “wiggle out of pressure” since their first youth-camp overlap, believes the discomfort will pay dividends. “It’s going to take a whole lot for him to see the field over there,” Roldan said, “but being uncomfortable is how you grow.”

Both players insist they are not consumed by the math of the 26-man cut. “I want to show I’m the same Freeman you guys all see on the field,” the Floridian said. Agyemang, ever the pragmatist, is “taking care of business here, then going back to Derby and doing the same thing. Just trying not to stress too much and enjoy as much as possible.”

Enjoyment, of course, is a luxury. When Pochettino announces his roster on May 26, the bus ride into suburban Atlanta will feel like a lifetime ago for the two players who have covered the greatest distance in the shortest time.