Coming into Friday’s Orlando City B game, Alex Freeman had not scored a professional goal.
After the final whistle blew in the young Lions' 2-1 win over Huntsville City, he had two.
The Lions Homegrown defender managed to notch both of his first goals in purple in the first half of the home opener for OCB, with his first being a left-footed strike from outside the box.
“Obviously, it means the world to me,” Freeman said on finding the back of the net. “I'm always looking to score, especially as a right wing-back. They always want me to go forward and try to make plays, and it was just my day to be able to make plays and be able to help the team get to win.”
After signing with the MLS side as the 12th homegrown player back in February of last year, Freeman has played mostly with OCB, playing in 19 games. Now, in his first game with the club this season, he has added an offensive side to his repertoire.
“It's something we were looking for with him the whole year last year, we were looking for him to score and he found the goals now,” Orlando City B head coach Martin Perleman said. “We give a lot of importance to our wing backs and we want them to reach the goal. So we are really happy that he did it twice.”
Freeman missed the first game of OCB’s season in Philadelphia after being called up to the U.S. U19 National Team, playing against Argentina’s U17s. It’s been more and more consistent to get the call-up for the youth national team for the fullback, something that he doesn’t take lightly.
“It's an honor,” he said, “I just get to know people from different teams and knowing their different perspectives. Everybody had a different pathway to be going pro and mostly everybody in the national team was either pro or on their pathway to pro and I feel like it's just amazing to learn everyone's different pathways even though they're the same age as me. So I feel like it's just having the whole team at the same age as me at this age is hard and being able to represent my national team is just an honor as well.”
On the club level, Freeman has been balancing his time between OCB and the MLS side, training with both teams. The professional drive the 18-year-old has in a still very young career has helped his overall improvement from year to year, while training with players that are playing at a high level.
“I just want to get better,” Freeman said. “I'll come down here and I just try my hardest to make an impact. I feel like every day I'm training with MLS players that have been in the league for so long. I feel like I want to learn from them every time I get a chance. I feel like I'm still kind of new to this, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it and I'm trying to learn from so many people and put it in my game.”
Freeman and OCB will look to continue their hot start to the season, hosting Inter Miami CF II on Sunday at 6 p.m.
Orlando City B (2-0-0) vs. Inter Miami CF II (1-1-0)
When: Sunday, 6:00 PM
Where: Osceola County Stadium at Osceola Heritage Park, Kissimmee, Fla.
TV: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (subscription required)
Tickets: View seats
