Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie are set for a long-awaited USMNT homecoming

There have been a lot of great roars in Subaru Park’s 15-year history. But next week, there might be one that fans at the place have never heard.

Union alumni Brenden Aaronson, Mark McKenzie, Auston Trusty, and Matt Freese were announced Thursday as part of the 25-player U.S. men’s soccer squad that will face Paraguay on Nov. 15 in Chester (5 p.m., TNT, Telemundo 62), and Uruguay on Nov. 18 in Tampa, Fla. (7 p.m., TNT, Universo) for the program’s last games of the year.

It’s the latest proof of the Union’s currently unmatched contributions to the national team and the cherry on top of its first visit to the nation’s birthplace in six years.

When Aaronson and McKenzie have returned to their old home over the years, they have only been fans. In May, for example, the Medford-born Aaronson took in a Union game with his younger brother, Paxten.

But until now, they haven’t been granted the privilege that many of their national team colleagues have: representing their country in their hometown.

And because of how long it’s been since the men’s national team’s last visit here (while making other cities frequent stops), local fans haven’t been able to see a key part of American soccer’s tapestry.

» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie celebrate the Union, their old team, winning a trophy

The best pathway to prominence for the nation’s best players is to grow up in their local clubs, turn pro there, succeed, move to Europe’s big stage, then come home to show their talents with the national team.

That’s one way soccer is different from Philadelphia’s traditional sports — a point that, at times, has hurt its popularity. In football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, winning titles for the city’s teams is all that matters. In soccer, there are other pinnacles.

That extends to the U.S. women’s team, as it showed during last month’s visit here. Along with the crowd of 17,000-plus at the game in Chester, the days when the Americans and the Union trained on adjacent fields were in-person proof of the sport’s full scope.

Aaronson and McKenzie have a different experience of that scope. They have dreamed for years of a U.S. men’s team game here and have not been shy about it.

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When the U.S. men last played here, a June 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup game at Lincoln Financial Field, Aaronson was in his rookie year with the Union’s first team and McKenzie was in his second. The year before, the U.S. played a friendly in Chester in the wake of the failure to qualify for that year’s World Cup.

By the end of 2020, the two players had risen for club and country. They made their senior U.S. debuts in the same game, a friendly that February just before the pandemic shut down the world. Nine months later, they helped the Union lift the first major trophy in team history, that year’s Supporters’ Shield.

Those successes earned both players big moves to Europe soon afterward, and they have stayed on the sport’s biggest stages ever since.

Aaronson went to Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg for $6 million, playing in the Champions League. Eighteen months later, he earned a $30 million move to the English Premier League’s Leeds United, at the time the second-biggest transfer fee ever for an American player.

That earned the Union more prestige — and, just as important, a $5 million cut of the check by agreement with Salzburg.

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He has stayed with Leeds since then, save for a one-season loan to Germany’s Union Berlin after Leeds was relegated to England’s second tier in 2023. Upon returning, Aaronson helped the club gain promotion back to the top flight. He turned 25 on Oct. 22 and celebrated two days later with his first Premier League goal in three years.

(Aaronson’s age might be the hardest part of any of that for his fans to believe, especially those who watched him as a floppy-haired teenager back when.)

McKenzie, born in the Bronx and raised in Bear, Del., moved to Belgian first-division club Genk for another $6 million fee. He spent 3½ years there, winning a Belgian Cup and playing in a range of European competitions.

In August 2024, French top-flight club Toulouse bought him for $3.2 million. The 26-year-old has been a stalwart there for most of the time since, including starts in 10 of 11 games this season for the team currently ninth in Ligue 1. He and his wife also recently welcomed their first child.

» READ MORE: The USMNT’s new playing style could give Mark McKenzie a big opportunity

Now McKenzie gets not just to come home, but also to reunite with Trusty. The Media native earned a surprising invitation, his first since November 2024, as the U.S. seeks centerback depth.

Trusty, 27, grew up with the Union, spent his first three pro seasons here, then was traded to Colorado at the end of 2019 when he didn’t fit with sporting director Ernst Tanner’s tactics. Three years later, he moved to English power Arsenal but never caught on. Since then, he has bounced to Birmingham City, Sheffield United, and now Scotland’s Celtic.

He didn’t play much to start this season. But when fellow American centerback Cameron Carter-Vickers suffered an Achilles tendon injury in a game late last month, Trusty returned to action, and he has stayed on the field.

“He played really well,” U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino said of Trusty, noting a man-of-the-match performance in a League Cup semifinal win over archrival Rangers this past Sunday. “Because I think we are a little bit short in that area, I think he deserves to be given again the possibility to perform.”

» READ MORE: Folarin Balogun is living up to the hype as a long-awaited top striker for the USMNT

Freese, of Wayne, makes it four players with local and Union roots as he tries to keep the starting goalkeeper job. Andre Blake’s former backup remains the No. 1 at New York City FC and on Friday will play to earn a playoff trip back to Chester for the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Elsewhere on the squad, Sergiño Dest might get his first shot at the freewheeling right wingback role in Pochettino’s 3-4-2-1 formation. Tyler Adams is back to anchor the midfield, and Ricardo Pepi joins Folarin Balogun and Haji Wright in one of the best striker units the U.S. has seen for years.

There’s also a big surprise: Gio Reyna and Joe Scally are back after being cast off in March and not playing well for their clubs — if playing at all — since then.

“I think we already know Gio, the potential of Gio, and the talent,” Pochettino said. “It’s true that he is not playing too much, but I think it’s a good opportunity in November, because after [this], until March we are not going to be together again. … More than to perform on the pitch, it’s more about to be with him, to share time, to know him better.”

Those names and more will help make up for major absences due to injuries, or at least precautions. Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards, Tim Weah, Malik Tillman, Alejandro Zendejas, and Antonee Robinson are sidelined this month.

» READ MORE: Wayne’s Matt Freese remains atop the USMNT goalkeeper depth chart

Weston McKennie, meanwhile, was left out because his (and Weah’s) club, Italy’s Juventus, just hired a new manager.

“I think it’s important for Weston to be there and try to convince, you the coach, that he [should] keep playing,” Pochettino said. “I think it’s more important than maybe being with us, because we already know what he can provide the team.”

Goalkeepers (4): Roman Celentano (FC Cincinnati), Matt Freese (New York City FC), Jonathan Klinsmann (Cesena, Italy), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew)

Defenders (9): Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands), Alex Freeman (Orlando City), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse, France), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Germany), John Tolkin (Holstein Kiel, Germany), Auston Trusty (Celtic, Scotland)

Midfielders (7): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth, England), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough, England), Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Germany), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Tanner Tessmann (Lyon, France), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus Crew)

Forwards (5): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United, England), Folarin Balogun (AS Monaco, France), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands), Haji Wright (Coventry City, England)

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