The woman who wasn’t there: why the USWNT miss Becky Sauerbrunn

The absence of USA captain Becky Sauerbrunn has been felt as the Americans navigate what's been a rocky World Cup so far. But Lindsey Horan has embraced the pressure

United States midfielder Lindsey Horan's second-half equalizer against the Netherlands last week in the group stage of the 2023 World Cup was a quintessential moment of a captain dragging her team out of the muck of a poor performance to salvage a draw.

Those moments are what the world sees, but the everyday duties of a captain take place away from the public eye: meeting with coaches, meeting with teammates, and - critically - serving as the conduit between them.