Brenden Aaronson Takes Time Off for Wedding

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — The U.S. World Cup squad went through its paces on Friday without one of its most energetic midfielders. Brenden Aaronson had other plans. He was getting married.

The Leeds United player was excused from camp to tie the knot with longtime girlfriend Milana D’Ambra, whose own roots in the game run deep as the daughter of Saint Joseph’s men’s soccer coach Don D’Ambra. Aaronson left the U.S. camp after Thursday’s training session and is scheduled to be back in time for practice on Saturday, a brief detour from national-team duty for a life moment that doesn’t fit neatly into any fixture list.

At 25, Aaronson is already a two-time World Cup squad member and a familiar face in the Premier League, but his story still feels anchored in Medford, New Jersey, where the Aaronson name has become part of the American soccer landscape. His brother Paxten is building his own path with the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer, while sister Jaden appeared for Villanova as a freshman last fall. Their father, Rusty, stays close to the grassroots of the sport as sporting director of Real Futbol Academy in Medford, shaping the next wave while his children live out the dream.

For the U.S. camp, this kind of exception is not unprecedented. Christian Pulisic once stepped away from preparations as a rising teenage star, skipping training so he could attend his Hershey High School prom on May 27, 2016, at the Hershey Hotel in Pennsylvania. He rejoined the squad in time to play the next day in a Copa America match against Bolivia in Kansas City, Kansas.

This time, it is Aaronson briefly trading boots for a boutonniere. The national team will expect his usual relentless pressing and sharp movement when he returns on Saturday. For one day, though, the engine of the midfield belonged somewhere else.