Lindsey Horan loves to talk about soccer, or football as she calls it. You can't blame her, really. She's spent a lot of time in Europe lately, so it's easy to understand why the two terms are interchangeable for her. Whatever you want to call it, though, Horan is ready to discuss it in any way, shape or form.
Want to talk tactics? Let her pull up a whiteboard or something to break things down. What about technique or style? Her eyes light up when asked about the differences between Europe and the United States and how her game has evolved through the influences of both. The NWSL, Champions League, Ligue 1, Women's World Cup... hell, a game on the moon. If there's a ball to be kicked and a topic to discuss, you can get Horan going on what she thinks about it and the deeper meaning of it all.
That, obviously, is one aspect of being a U.S. women's national team star: the soccer. As they head to the Women's World Cup as two-time defending champions, the USWNT is once again among the favorites. Horan, meanwhile, will serve as co-captain alongside Alex Morgan. Once just a contributor, Horan is now a leader, a mainstay, a star.
With that captaincy and that status, though, comes pressure, and not just on the field. Horan has found comfort between those lines since childhood but, for years, the USWNT has fought battles outside of it. And, for each group battle that the U.S. has fought together, each player that has represented that shirt has seemingly had their own personal fights, and Horan is no different.
"It was always a hard topic for me because I was always just that footballer that wanted the ball at my feet," she says ahead of the USWNT's opening game versus Vietnam in New Zealand. "That other stuff, I was like 'I'll leave it to the veterans and the older players to speak up for us'. In the beginning of my career, that's how it went, but the older I got, the more important those things were to me: making a name for myself but also inspiring the next generation.
"I never thought that was going to be my role, one where little girls and boys could look up to me. I thought it would always be football, but this is amazing."
Ahead of the World Cup, Horan sat down with GOAL to discuss the pressures of playing with the USWNT, why she'll never take those pressures for granted, the extreme highs and lows of life in Europe and, of course, and most importantly, football.