Lindsey Horan has rejected criticism of how the US women’s soccer team has been performing at the Women’s World Cup, labeling it as “noise.”
The US Women’s National Team (USWNT) drew 0-0 with Portugal on Tuesday, a result that confirmed the four-time world champion as runner-up in Group E, but not before the Americans came painfully close to exiting the tournament when Portugal substitute Ana Capeta hit the post in the dying moments of the game.
“It’s noise. Sometimes, you know, you hear it, you see it, and sometimes it’s hard to get away from it,” USWNT co-captain Horan told a media conference on Thursday in response to a question about criticism from pundits and fans.
One of those pundits was two-time World Cup winner and former USWNT player Carli Lloyd who quipped on the FOX broadcast that “the player of the match was that post” – a reference to Portugal coming close to a famous win late on – adding that her former teammates are “lucky to not be going home right now.”
“You guys are all watching us. Everyone in the world gets to have their opinion. And it’s the World Cup, you know, it’s the biggest stage,” added Horan as she looked ahead to the team’s last-16 knockout match against Sweden on Sunday.
“We’re playing for these big matches. We’re playing for these big moments, these pressure cookers. And that’s what we want to be a part of. And being the US national team, we’re always going to have that. You guys always want to talk about us and we’re going to take that pressure,” she added.
“We’re going to go with it, but we’re going to focus on ourselves and look at everything internally and try to keep the noise out as much as possible.”
Forward Lynn Williams added: “We are not panicking. We have made it to the round of 16. I think that we haven’t played our best soccer yet, which is the most exciting part for us. We are a team that are going to battle.”
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