Turner displaces Freese, back in US goal for first time in 9 months for 5-2 loss to Belgium

By Canadian Press on March 28, 2026.

ATLANTA (AP) — Matt Turner retrieved the ball from the back of the net twice in his first game for the U.S. national team since last June. Three others were struck so hard they bounced back across his goal line on their own.

“My overarching theme for earning that opportunity again is just to continue to be myself, to go out there,” Turner said after the Americans lost to Belgium 5-2 in a friendly on Saturday. “Obviously, they’ve seen something that they like that I’m doing in training. They’ve seen something they like in my performances in New England.”

Turner, 31, was the U.S. starter at the 2022 World Cup but his 53rd international appearance was his first for the national team since a 4-0 loss to Switzerland on June 10. Matt Freese displaced him in goal for the CONCACAF Gold Cup last summer and the 27-year-old had made 12 straight starts.

“It’s not that when you concede a goal, it’s only the keeper or mistake of the keeper,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “It is good to see him to perform after a long period. We all know that he has experience in the national team and in the previous World Cup, and that is a point that we need to use, use being in the starting 11 or not.”

Pochettino sounded as if he wanted to see Turner so he could evaluate his form in case Freese gets hurt. The U.S. was ahead before Belgium got a 45th-minute equalizer, the first of five straight goals.

“Matt Freese was playing a lot in the last year with us and I think we thought that it was necessary to provide the opportunity to another keeper,” he said. “For the World Cup, circumstances can happen.”

Turner shouted and pounded the ground after the second goal.

“We were in a spot to handle the situation and didn’t,” he said.

Turner’s career slowed following a move from Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution to Arsenal ahead of the 2022-23 season. He didn’t get into a Premier League match and was limited to five Europa League and two FA Cup games with the Gunners. Turner transferred to Nottingham Forest and lost the starting job midway through the 2023-24 season, was loaned to Crystal Palace where he became a seldom-used backup, then returned to the Revolution last August.

Before Pochettino gathered players for a May 2025 training camp, Turner had started 14 consecutive competitive matches for the U.S. and 23 of 24 dating to the 2022 World Cup. Turner recalled how he wound up playing in the 2022 World Cup over Zack Steffen, who had started the last three qualifiers but injured a knee at the start of his 2022-23 club season.

“I understand and feel in my bones that this coaching staff is very fair and they’re going to give people that deserve chances a chance,” Turner said. “So just stay calm. I know that a lot can change in three months time and it did from September to November back in the last go-around.”

U.S. goalkeepers were a strength from 1990 through 2018 with Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel and Tim Howard, but the current generation has failed to land extended starts with top European teams.

“Yeah, it’s of course difficult” Turner said. “I have to accept that the performance went the way it did and the team performed the way that we did. And yeah, I’m just going to continue to claw and dig and nobody does that better than me.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

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