USMNTs Brenden Aaronson on getting married during World Cup prep and the insane travel to pull it off
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga.— Brenden Aaronson walked into Mauricio Pochettino’s office in March ready to move the most important day of his life.His wedding to Milana D’Ambra, Aaronson’s high school sweetheart, had been on the books for May 30 for about 2 ½ years, the USMNT midfielder said Tuesday.
The original schedule he’d gotten for the lead-up to the World Cup, he thinks before Pochettino was even hired in September 2024, had June 1 as the date for the team to report to camp.So, no problem.Then, with just a few months to go, the schedule changed. The USMNT was now scheduled to play its first sendoff friendly on May 31.
It would report to camp on May 26. “I think it was around December, probably Christmastime, when you get those friendly schedules and when you learn that we were gonna be reporting — when she learned we were gonna be reporting at that time, her reaction, her face flushed,” Aaronson said.“My face flushed.
We were kind of freaking out.“You put so much time and effort.She put so much time and effort, let’s be honest, doing the wedding, and it was really scary.”Weddings aren’t easy to move around in a few months’ notice, but Aaronson was willing to try if that was what Pochettino wanted.
He waited until the March window, when he could speak to the manager in person, and laid out the situation.Thankfully, Pochettino was on board with giving Aaronson a day off training to travel to Manahawkin, N.J., for his nuptials. So, on Friday, Aaronson trained with the USMNT, then booked it to the airport.
He got to his own rehearsal dinner at 7:30 p.m.— 90 minutes late — after going straight from the plane.
His wedding was the next day, then on Sunday, it was a 2:30 a.m.alarm to drive to Philadelphia and catch another flight back to Atlanta to resume training.That came on the heels of an already insane travel schedule: Aaronson had gone from London to Leeds to Manchester to New York to Atlanta — all since the prior Sunday — and...