U.S. women’s national team captain Lindsey Horan was one of 16 players named to the shortlist for the 2023 Best FIFA Women’s Player award.
The prize will be given for performances from August 1, 2022 through August 20, 2023.
Just like the Ballon d’Or, Spain star Aitana Bonmatí will be favored to take home the Best FIFA Women’s Player after winning a double with Barcelona and leading Spain to the World Cup title.
Alexia Putellas, Bonmatí’s teammate for club and country, has won both awards in back-to-back years.
While Sophia Smith made the 30-player shortlist for the Ballon d’Or, the USWNT and Portland Thorns star was not selected among the 16 finalists for the FIFA award. Instead, Horan was nominated after a strong World Cup with the USWNT and helping Lyon to a league title in 2022-23.
Here are all 16 players on the shortlist for the 2023 Best FIFA Women’s Player award.
Horan said the USWNT’s issues were due in part to how they were set up
Lindsey Horan has aimed some thinly veiled criticism at former U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski and his staff, saying that part of the team’s World Cup failure came down to them not being set up to succeed.
The USWNT crashed out in the round of 16 for its worst World Cup finish ever, winning just one of four games at the tournament.
Andonovski stepped down last week in the aftermath of the World Cup, which followed a disappointing bronze medal finish at the Olympics in 2021 in his first major tournament as USWNT coach.
The coach was heavily criticized at the World Cup over various issues, but one of the common themes was the USWNT’s problems playing out of a 4-3-3 setup that saw them struggle to connect passing sequences.
The USWNT’s best performance of the tournament came in the round of 16 against Sweden, which saw the team switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation that resulted in much more control of the game. Ultimately, the U.S. couldn’t find the net and was eliminated on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
Appearing on The RE-CAP Show with ex-USWNT teammates Tobin Heath and Christen Press, USWNT captain Horan hinted that the changes for the Sweden game came from the players themselves — not the coaching staff.
“The game against Sweden, I don’t think we were necessarily set up to play the way that we played,” Horan said. “That was just us finally coming together and being like, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ And then it worked and then it’s like, ‘OK, keep doing it.’ Could that have happened earlier? Maybe. It’s a really tough one.”
AP Photo/Abbie Parr
Horan said in her role as captain, she tried to help out some of the younger players the USWNT needed to rely on in the tournament, including Sophia Smith.
After a double to open the tournament against Vietnam, Smith didn’t score in the team’s final three games. According to Horan, the reason Smith and some of the USWNT’s other young stars didn’t perform up to expectations was the way they were set up by the coaching staff.
“I made it a point to help Soph Smith as much as possible in this tournament because I think she has a lot of pressure on her back,” Horan said. “I want to make sure she’s in a good place and some of the younger players are in a really good place, because they’re going to have massive roles. And so it was like, could I have done more to help those players? Because I don’t think we got the absolute best out of some of them because of the way that we were set up, and some of the things that we did in the game.”
Horan added: “I [have been] killing myself for the last two weeks. Like what the heck could I have done to help or to push our playing style or to push this bravery? And at the end of the day, it’s like you’re set up in a structure to do this. And here’s your opportunity individually, like just go play within the structure.”
The USWNT finally played like themselves, but soccer can be cruel
Soccer has always been a cruel sport, and today it came calling for the U.S. women’s national team.
After three underwhelming performances in the group stage, the USWNT finally looked like themselves against Sweden, bossing one of the best teams in this World Cup.
Unfortunately, they found goalkeeper Zećira Mušović having one of the games of her life, and when she wasn’t making a big save, the errant finishing that has plagued this team appeared again, and the result was a penalty kick elimination after a scoreless 120 minutes.
It was a heartbreaker for the U.S., who missed a shot in the shootout that would have seen them advance, and then had to watch Sweden’s winning kick require a VAR check to reveal that the ball had crossed the line by a nearly imperceptible margin.
Still, when it comes to ratings, this was by some margin the best performance from the USWNT at this World Cup as a team, and for many players as individuals.
As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:
Our scale:
1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
6: Adequate. This is our base score.
10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.
The now FOX Sports broadcaster then clarified her comments, saying she made them because she cares “deeply about this team.”
But, as ESPN reported Thursday from Auckland, New Zealand, Lloyd’s comments didn’t sit well with Horan, the USWNT current captain. Horan said the criticism was “frustrating for me to hear” because of how hard the team has worked.
“Again, it’s noise and, again, it’s an opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion — we know that’s how it goes,” Horan added. “But for me, I always want to defend my team and say: you have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, you have no idea every single training what we’re doing individually, collectively, etcetera.
“So, for anyone to question our mentality hurts a little bit but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t really care. It’s what’s going inside of the team and getting ready for that next game.”
Advancing out of the group stage and into the knockout round, the USWNT opens the Round of 16 against Sweden on Sunday at 5 a.m. ET on FOX.
The USWNT captain admitted that her former teammates words were “frustrating to hear”
Lindsey Horan has admitted that hearing her former teammate Carli Lloyd questioning the U.S. women’s national team’s mentality “hurts a little bit.”
Lloyd made headlines in the aftermath of the USWNT’s 0-0 draw against Portugal to close out the World Cup group stage, offering a scathing assessment of the team’s state of mind.
“I’m just not seeing that passion,” Lloyd said on Fox. “I’m just seeing a very lackluster, uninspiring, taking it for granted, where winning and training and doing all that you can to be the best possible individual player is not happening.”
The USWNT legend’s comments have not gone down well with those around the program, with head coach Vlatko Andonovski saying they were “insane” and Midge Purce calling them “absolutely ludicrous.”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, USWNT captain Horan wouldn’t go quite that far, but admitted that her ex-teammate’s words stung.
“It’s kind of frustrating for me to hear, especially knowing this team and knowing how much we put into every single game, how much preparation we put into every single game, seeing our trainings, seeing how hard we work,” Horan said in quotes published on ESPN.
The midfielder added: “Again, it’s noise and, again, it’s an opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion — we know that’s how it goes. But for me, I always want to defend my team and say: you have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, you have no idea every single training what we’re doing individually, collectively, etcetera.
“So, for anyone to question our mentality hurts a little bit but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t really care. It’s what’s going inside of the team and getting ready for that next game.”
The U.S. women’s national team, by a margin of about three inches, survived a feisty Portugal side to get through to the knockout round of the World Cup.
That’s about all the good news there is to discuss. The USWNT were totally unable to solve the Portuguese midfield diamond throughout a troubling 0-0 draw, struggling for possession and also lacking chances to break out in transition.
The stats may show the USWNT holding a 17-6 shot advantage, and this is another game in which a U.S. opponent were held without a shot on goal. However, anyone that watched the match would be able to tell you that the Portuguese troubled the U.S. from start to finish, seeing the game’s best chance end with Ana Capeta hitting the post deep in stoppage time.
It was a dispiriting and disappointing showing in which no player really looked like they’d been given a platform to be their best. If the USWNT is to go on and make history as the first team to win three consecutive World Cups, this has to be by far their worst performance of the tournament.
Here’s a breakdown from a game in which no one looked particularly good.
As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:
Our scale:
1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
6: Adequate. This is our base score.
10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.
The Dutch, on their first attempt at anything resembling an attacking foray, took a surprise early lead through Jill Roord on a sequence featuring four or five errors. That goal left the U.S. reeling, but just as importantly served to inspire the Oranje, who proceeded to threaten to run the USWNT off the pitch.
The U.S. managed to avoid letting the Netherlands turn their control into a ton of chances, and after a conflict between Lindsey Horan and Daniëlle van de Donk, flipped the tables. Horan scored seconds after that dispute was broken up, and as much as the USWNT showing drew criticism, the team will look back and wonder how their dominance of the game’s final half-hour didn’t result in a game-winning goal.
It was intense, breathless, controversial, and everything else people want out of high-level sports…except, if you’re a U.S. fan, it didn’t end with the expected three points.
Let’s dig into the most charged-up game of this World Cup thus far:
A good start and finish sandwiched some worrying stuff for the USWNT
The U.S. women’s national team was far from its best against the Netherlands, struggling for a long spell in the middle of the match before recovering for a 1-1 draw.
Jill Roord’s goal on the first shot conceded all tournament by the USWNT deflated the group, and until Dutch star Daniëlle van de Donk clattered into club teammate Lindsey Horan, it was starting to get hard to see a way back in for the favored Americans.
However, Horan — after a fairly heated argument with van de Donk in the seconds that followed — powered home a header, and the U.S. took the game over for the final half-hour.
The good news? Those final minutes were the “real” USWNT. The bad news? They arrived for a reason the team can’t control, and since a winner didn’t arrive (nor did any substitutions after Rose Lavelle’s entry at halftime), the flaws on the day aren’t going to be papered over by three points.
With all that in mind, let’s dig into who delivered, and who didn’t.
As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:
Our scale:
1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
6: Adequate. This is our base score.
10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.
Don’t make Lindsey Horan mad. You won’t like her when she’s mad
The Netherlands chose the wrong person to get angry.
With her team up 1-0 midway through the second half, Daniëlle van de Donk took Horan out with a nasty looking challenge near the sideline.
Horan was clearly displeased with the tackle from her club teammate at Lyon and two minutes later, she found the perfect response.
The USWNT captain got on the end of Rose Lavelle’s corner to nod home an equalizer her team desperately needed. After the game, she admitted that the challenge from Van de Donk had set her off.
“Me and Dan always go up against each other and it’s a physical battle,” Horan told Fox Sports after the game. “I respect her so much because that’s how it should be — it should be competitive at all times.
“So I think once we got to that tackle, all I wanted to do was score. In the heat of the moment I got a little pissed at her. But Rose put in an absolute dime and I got on the end of it. So I’m happy for the goal.”
The game ended 1-1, after which Horan and van de Donk hugged it out. There were naturally plenty of reactions one of the more memorable moments of the tournament thus far.
The United States Women’s National Team tied their second World Cup group match against the Netherlands 1-1 late Wednesday night and Lindsey Horan was a big reason why.
After the USWNT came out flat in the first half — facing a 1-0 deficit and without Rose Lavelle for the first 45 minutes — the United States had their work cut out for them in the last half. At around the 60 minute mark, the Netherlands Daniëlle van de Donk impacted with Horan in a rough collision. Horan was shaken up on the play, but managed to stay in the match after a few minute delay.
When Horan returned to the field, she had a tense exchange with the referee and van de Donk, who coincidentally is her teammate on the French professional team Olympique Lyonnais Féminin!
Talk about getting your revenge. While the USWNT weren’t able to score again, getting a 1-1 tie out of that game has to feel like a relief given how the first half went.
After the game, Horan and van de Donk had an incredibly classy moment on the field, as they shared a hug and exchanged some words.
