Brenden and Paxten Aaronson play on better soccer fields these days than the New Jersey basement known as "The Dungeon" where they used to practice penalties and free kicks.
"We had to put in special lights so they wouldn't kick the light bulbs and break them," mom Janell Aaronson recalled. "We had to do some padding on some of the poles that are in the basement so they didn't get hurt. We made it as safe as we could."
On June 10, she was in the stands at GEODIS Park in Nashville, Tennessee, watching them become just the fourth pair of brothers to start the same match together for the U.S. national team, the first since George and Louis Nanchoff against the Soviet Union in 1979.
"I played with this guy since, I don't know, 5 - he was probably actually 2 at that time," Brenden said. "Maybe 7, I was, and he was probably 4."
Brenden, 24, already is a World Cup veteran, appearing as a substitute in all four U.S. matches at Qatar three years ago, Paxten, who turns 22 in August, hopes to make the World Cup roster for the first time when the U.S. co-hosts next year's tournament.