lindsey horan sounds familiar

The volume on discourse around American soccer fandom and the U.S. Women’s National Team was turned up to stratospheric heights last week thanks to a curious interview with Lindsey Horan in The Athletic. The current captain of the USWNT opined on the intelligence of U.S.-based soccer fans, questioned the professionalism of some NWSL players and laid out her theory on what’s been wrong with the USWNT, who have disappointed in back-to-back major international tournaments.

The more she talked, the more everything – from what was actually said to how it was said – sounded eye-rollingly familiar.

Despite the “American soccer fans aren’t that smart” quote being the one that supercharged the discourse, Horan’s more worrying comments had to do with her assessment of how seriously the athletes in the NWSL take their jobs. Using the seriousness, or lack thereof, of some pre-match team photos in the NWSL, she labeled the silly ones irksome, and described how, to her, it signaled players involved weren’t taking the game or sport seriously.

“I want professionalism, Those little things, they really irked me,” Horan said of some NWSL pre-match photos, “I don’t think I could do it, and maybe I’m wrong in saying that, I don’t know. It just bothers me. We put so much into this game, and it’s just like a joke sometimes.” She continued, “We need to get back to the football. The football is the most important thing. So maybe we should knock some of the shit out for now. We need to focus on the game, we need to focus on being the absolute best we can be.”

This critique resembled Carli Lloyd’s assessment of the USWNT after they escaped Portugal at the 2023 World Cup. The match was dire, but the team advanced to the knockout rounds and dared show excitement about doing so. “There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing and smiling,” Lloyd said over FOX Sports airwaves, “I mean, the player of the match was that post. You’re lucky to be not going home right now.”

In Horan’s interview, it’s noted she claimed she wouldn’t be the one ‘who shuts it [silly NWSL pre-match photos] down’ – logistically, how could she? – but it’s probably not great for morale that many of her teammates have had it publicized that their captain, from an ocean away, questioned their professionalism and how seriously they take their jobs.

One team that has engaged in team photo fun is the Washington Spirit. In the past few years, the Spirit played under abusive coach Richie Burke, then Kris Ward who was released and banned from working in the NWSL over "verbal abuse and emotional misconduct." Collectively, the team also spoke out against previous owner Steve Baldwin, who protected multiple abusers and bad actors, and called for then-minority owner Michele Kang to take over the team.

There is history behind these players, and many players in the NWSL, insisting on injecting joy into the game.

Also, simply put, players are people; some approach preparation with steely focus, others need to keep things light. Some vomit. Some need silence. Some like to get lost in music. Some read. It’s also amusing how this supposed lack of seriousness or professionalism isn’t evident in some non-American players and coaches comparing the competitiveness of the NWSL to the Champions League – the top club competition in Europe.

Yet another familiarity is that Horan, like the retired player turned pundit who bequeathed her the No. 10 shirt, talks an awful lot about the culture of the team. Between the two, tactics rarely come up. Which, given Horan’s other criticism is a curious omission. Instead, they seem to focus on intangibles – wanting it more, running harder, refusing to lose, etc. – that they believe they are uniquely qualified to judge.

“In every successful team, nothing becomes bigger than winning,” Lloyd said on Instagram for some reason. “And when things and other things become bigger than performing and the will to win, that is when the culture is no longer good enough.”

In The Athletic interview, Horan again echoed Lloyd.

“We need to be doing everything we possibly can to be improving, to make each other better, holding the standards. We need to change every bit of culture that we had prior to the last World Cup and going into this Olympics because we need to win. And that starts now.”

While it is true that the last two major international tournaments have been disastrous for the USWNT, both Horan and Lloyd have misdiagnosed the problem. Instead, they push an agenda that is based less in reality and more about what they would like the team to become.

From the 1999 World Cup winning team to the latest landmark USWNT victory of this century, the 2019 team, the women’s national team has always meant more than running hard and giving fans an opportunity to wave the flag. Horan and Lloyd’s attempted revisions of the 2019 World Cup run are curious, as they were both on that team. In fact, after the group stages they had the best seats in France. Across the four win-or-go-home knockout round games that ended with the USWNT lifting its fourth World Cup trophy, Lloyd and Horan combined for one start and 144 minutes played.

It’s weird they spent so much time up close, witnessing the latest iconic version of the team and appear to misremember how and why the team won. Or it’s more sinister, and they are using recent poor results to reshape history to give personal gripes more gravitas.

Whichever is closest to the truth, the “culture” of the 2019 team – taking on all challenges on and off the pitch with a steely determination mixed with an exuberant defiance – helped them absorb, and win, simultaneous fights. The 2019 U.S. team played for something larger than themselves: a legacy that would endure beyond acquiring another trophy.

Megan Rapinoe took the vitriol of the then-sitting president and his fanbase, including an entire TV channel in Fox News, and made them watch her win.

As seen in LFG, a documentary of the team’s fight for equal pay, Rapinoe, then-captain Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press, Jess McDonald and Sam Mewis all spoke of the personal, professional and societal importance of the fight for equal pay. The documentary shows how exhausting, but necessary, it was to achieve this victory beyond the pitch.

Sticking to sports, or just “the football”, wasn’t enough for the 2019 team, and it led to historic wins on and off the pitch. This is in line with the history and cultural importance of the USWNT.

Four years ago ESPN published a piece in which multiple members of the ‘99ers reflected on what they’d accomplished. In the lead up to quotes from former players the article states that ‘they recall a tight-knit group of women who both embraced one another's individuality and put team before self. They also deeply understand the impact they had on women athletes in generations to follow.’

The iconic photo of Brandi Chastain in full celebratory knee slide with her shirt clutched in one hand spoke a million words, and became a Sports Illustrated cover. Women athletes captured the attention of a nation and were lauded for their sporting success, which they used to establish the first women’s professional soccer league in the States, and positioned professional soccer as a viable career path for younger athletes.

In the piece, current President of U.S. Soccer, Cindy Parlow Cone, discussed the style of leadership from veterans on the team. “I could just see in the way that they led and the way that they talked to everyone that they genuinely wanted everyone to succeed. There wasn't any putting someone down so that they could rise up. It was all, we rise together.”

"I remember standing in the tunnel as the starting lineup was going out before the final match. Kristine Lilly was right behind me, and she just looked at me and knew that I was nervous,” Cone recalled. “She put her hand on my shoulder and was like, 'Cindy, this is going to be so much fun.' That's all she said to me. I was like, 'You're right! This is awesome.'"

Fighting for something larger than the team can be galvanizing. It gives additional purpose, and streamlines focus. Would the 2019 team have deserved equal pay even if they hadn’t won? Of course, but they knew in this fucked up world that winning would keep the conversation front and center, and make them more impossible to deny.

Playing for something beyond the pitch is a central tenet of the USWNT, and many of its the newest stars of the team know this. Naomi Girma and Sophia Smith, pillars of the next generation, carry with them the tragedy of their late teammate Katie Meyer, who died by suicide. In her honor, Smith and Girma focus a lot on mental health, from sharing their own vulnerabilities to creating pathways for athletes to combat a culture of suffering in silence.

As a guest on My New Favorite Futbolista podcast before the 2023 World Cup, Sophia Smith detailed her own mental health challenges. “I got to Portland and COVID started, was in a new city, by myself and I didn’t know anybody. You can’t do anything, and you’re isolated in your apartment,” Smith divulged. “That’s when I honestly started to struggle with my mental health. I’ve struggled with depression, I have anxiety still, till this day. I realized that it was a real thing, and it was serious.”

“When it’s all said and done, and you’re laying on your deathbed, you’re not going to care about the physical things you have,” explained Smith, “but the relationships you’ve made and the experiences you’ve had with those people you care about.”

This offseason, Naomi Girma partnered with Common Goal to develop and host the first inaugural Create the Space retreat. In an interview with The Guardian, Girma explained the importance of the step. “I was really wanting to do something in her honour, something I thought could have helped a younger Katie [Meyer]. I didn’t want anyone else’s family, friends or community to have to go through something like this.”

In a piece written by Girma for The Guardian, she further detailed the retreat. “Many professional players feel they have existed in a culture of silence too, unable to be fully themselves, fully vulnerable – and vocal in that vulnerability – in a sport which puts results above people. This retreat was meant to give everyone, truly everyone, a place to use their voice and most importantly to be heard.’

Fortunately for Girma and Smith, and the betterment of sport, they’re on a national team that can proudly claim that its major successes were never just about “the football.” The team’s captain should know that.