Messi's presence puts the confrontation into another orbit. After all, he is the captain of Argentina, the defending FIFA World Cup champions, and since arriving in the States this summer he has been attracting huge crowds and interest every time Miami has played.
Freemon understood that there would be pressure on the officiating crew.
"As officials we definitely feel pressure, with all the media outlets, and all the attention that our league is getting now," he said. "We've got so many more eyeballs than we did even a year ago. So, to say that I don't feel the pressure at all, would be a fib. But I've done this now a few times where I've gotten pretty good at turning that pressure and just focusing it on the performance itself. At the end of the day, it's another match. The job is about the same. There's just going to be more people watching. We just try and keep it in that perspective."
Freemon was introduced to refereeing because of his involvement with another sport. When he played for a baseball team as a 13-year-old, one of the players' fathers suggested the team try officiating another sport. Freemon, who also played soccer, decided to become certified as a referee.
"After the announcement came out about this assignment, my mom sent me a text, 'This is the best $40 that I've ever spent,' " Freemon said. "She refuses to take the $40 back and she doesn't let me live it down. I just live with it."
Freemon started with recreational games.
"Every game blue versus red," he said. "I only had to have one yellow shirt and a whistle. It was great. It was probably 15 bucks a game, less than an hour of work. That was heaven at that time.
"You feel like you're on top of the world. You feel like you can afford all of the dollar hamburgers that you and your friends want to get. There wasn't a lot of pressure at that time. Everyone was there to have fun. Parents didn't really yell."
Slowly, but surely, Freemon moved up the officiating ladder, working youth travel games in such leagues as the Heartland Soccer Association. Then came amateur matches and the Premier Development League (now USL League Two). In 2019, he was in the middle of the 2019 USL League One final before working the 2021 MLS Eastern Conference final as a Video Assistant Referee.
"You have to be seen doing the right thing at the right time," said Freemon, who was the fourth official of the Chicago Fire's 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution on Saturday night. "There's a lot of hard work but there's a little bit of luck involved in getting to the level we are now talking about. You do games at your local level. Someone sees you doing a good job and they recommend you for higher level games. It works that way all the way to the top."
