Lindsey Horan is excited about the investment Michele Kang could bring to Olympique Lyonnais.

Kang, who already owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, is set to become the majority owner of the Lyon women’s team. In an interview with Pro Soccer Wire, Horan said that she’s met Kang “many times” and called her “amazing.”

“And I think her aspirations and the things that she’s doing in the world are insane,” the Lyon midfielder said. “She’s not just saying things to say them, or to hope that it could happen, she’s going and making them happen. What she’ll do with Lyon is going to be absolutely incredible.”

As she prepares to take control of the club, Kang has been vocal about her goals, which include building the women’s team its own training center. Kang also is exploring the possibility of repurposing a local rugby venue as the team’s home stadium.

Not many women’s teams have their own training facilities or their own stadiums. The NWSL’s Kansas City Current opened their own training complex in 2022, and they are in the process of building the first women’s soccer-specific stadium.

“Our team isn’t just attached to the men’s team,” Horan told Pro Soccer Wire. “Our team is in itself its own. To see some of these teams around the world now having their own training facilities, having their own stadiums — that’s what they deserve.

“We women work just as hard and we’re professionals just as much as the men. So at least we should have our own training facility. We should have all access to the things that we need, that I’m pretty sure most men’s clubs get, and to have our own stadium would be incredible as well.”

Lyon is set to kick off the UEFA Champions League group stage at 3 p.m. ET Tuesday. The six-match group stage runs through the end of January, with 16 teams divided into four groups. Lyon is in Group B with Austria’s St. Pölten, Norway’s SK Brann and the Czech Republic’s SK Slavia Prague.

Abby Wambach doesn’t want to hear any questions about the mentality of hte U.S. women’s national team.

Speaking on the latest episode of the “Snacks” podcast, the USWNT great offered a counterpoint to vocal critics of the current squad.

“Even though this last World Cup didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, I still think that we’re talking about a couple of penalty kicks missed and then the U.S. team shows up differently in latter-round games,” Wambach said.

The USWNT exited the tournament after a penalty shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16. And while Wambach didn’t put too much stock in the defeat, she does think it is important for the team to remember and recognize its history.

“I know that the Players Association does a good job of it, but I do think that there is so much value in remembering where the team came from in order for them to chart their new path,” she said. “I think that is the most important element that so many of my teams that I played on, we didn’t really get right all the time, that we were just like, ‘We’re doing it our way.’ And it’s like, you do need to bring in all the elements to what creates such a special environment.”

Still, she doesn’t want to hear of anyone questioning the team’s mentality, she told “Snacks” co-hosts and USWNT players Lynn Williams and Sam Mewis. Former USWNT star forward Carli Lloyd infamously questioned the team’s mentality before, during and after the 2023 World Cup.

Lloyd even went so far as to say that nobody on the current squad has a winning mentality, with the possible exception of Lindsey Horan. Lloyd and Wambach won the 2015 World Cup together with the USWNT, and Lloyd also played on the 2019 World Cup team.

“The champion mentality that we’ve had throughout the years, since the inception of this team, that dog mentality, you’ve got none of that,” Lloyd told CBS Sports in October. “The character, the respect — technically, tactically, you could be great and have a coach that comes in, but if you don’t have all those other things, there’s no winning.”

To Wambach, perspective is key.

“So, we can talk about all of the things and the coaches and the players and the … don’t get me started on the mentality piece because I will blow up on somebody,” Wambach said. “But what I do know is we’re talking about a penalty kick and that, I mean, we didn’t win every world championship we ever played in. Like, that is true.”

Mia Fishel and Jaedyn Shaw both scored their first international goals to power the U.S. women’s national team to a 3-0 win Sunday over Colombia.

Three days after a tepid performance in a 0-0 draw against Colombia, fresh faces brought the USWNT to life. In just their second appearances for the senior national team, Fishel opened the scoring with a header in the 56th minute, and Shaw iced the victory in the 83rd.

Shaw’s goal came off an assist from fellow 18-year-old phenom Alyssa Thompson, a display of the growing youth movement within the U.S. ranks. At 18 years and 343 days, Shaw became the youngest player to score for the USWNT since Mallory Swanson’s goal against Colombia at the 2016 Summer Olympics at 18 years and 102 days of age.

Shaw and Fishel both entered the game at halftime as substitutes for Sophia Smith and Alex Morgan, while Thompson relieved Trinity Rodman in the 72nd minute. The trio of young forwards brought energy to the pitch at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium — and a scoring touch, which the USWNT lacked in Thursday’s scoreless draw.

Lindsey Horan scored the other goal for the USWNT in the 62nd minute.

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Jaedyn Shaw scored her first international goal as well, the third of the game for the USWNT. (Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)

The U.S. women’s national team kicked off their October friendly series on Thursday with a choppy 0-0 draw with 2023 World Cup quarterfinalists Colombia. The two-game series will likely serve as the final international break before U.S. Soccer names a permanent coach after the departure of Vlatko Andonovski in August.

If the USWNT’s September games against South Africa were the closing of one chapter in the team’s history, Thursday’s game suggested a reluctance to begin writing a new era. The balance between steady cohesion and progress from a disappointing 2023 World Cup could be tipping too far in one direction, which is both understandable and worrying with limited time to regroup for the 2024 Olympics.

Fans looking for greater freedom of movement from the team’s veterans were disappointed this week. And while the U.S. ably contained Colombia superstar Linda Caicedo, their emphasis on defense over exciting attacking interplay made them look like a team that’s treading water before their real boss arrives in December.

The U.S. walked away with a result on Thursday night in Utah, but they still don’t look like the world-beaters they’d like to become once again. So, where do the biggest issues lie?

Keeping the band together

The USWNT’s starting XI against Colombia was completely made up of players from the 2023 World Cup roster, with only two changes from the team’s Round of 16 match to replace the departed Julie Ertz and the recovering Sophia Smith. Despite bringing in new faces in September and October, interim manager Twila Kilgore seemed more interested in continuing to build chemistry with the veterans than taking the risk of implementing new personnel.

Eighteen-year-old midfielder Olivia Moultrie did not dress for the match, and teenage compatriot Jaedyn Shaw was only given three minutes in regulation in her USWNT debut. The team’s first substitute was 38-year-old Becky Sauerbrunn at halftime, followed by longtime bubble defender Casey Krueger.

Savannah DeMelo replaced Andi Sullivan in the second half, which gave the U.S. more of an attacking outlook for the rest of the match, but once again they took a pragmatic approach to player development. Defensive midfielder Sam Coffey again sat out the entirety of the match, and Ashley Sanchez has struggled to see the field after Andonovski dropped her down the depth chart at the World Cup.

There’s something to be said about letting this group of USWNT veterans find their way without Rapinoe and Ertz, and they have work to do before any prospective coach can even begin to blow up the current project. There were also positives: Lynn Williams and Trinity Rodman brought defensive tenacity and danger on the dribble from the wings, and the team’s defense-by-committee approach rendered Colombia’s attack largely inert in the second half.

But for a team that increasingly feels like it has nothing to lose by trying out a few new faces in the well-worn system, the U.S. played to get a result instead of allowing Colombia to force the next generation of players to sink or swim. The USWNT has acknowledged it will take bravery to keep up with the rest of the world, and the pragmatic approach left something to be desired.

Andonovski-esque tactics

For the fourth game in a row, the USWNT lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with two defensive midfielders and Lindsey Horan in the most attacking midfield role. Sullivan and Emily Sonnett again sat in a double-pivot, maintaining the strategy that helped the team look their best in their World Cup exit.

The double-pivot started as an antidote to many of the team’s problems at the end of the Andonovski era, but there’s mounting evidence that it is now their poison. The U.S. didn’t have many creative playmakers on the field at any given time, sitting off the ball in the first half to contain Colombia’s explosive attack and move in quick transition after forcing turnovers.

The approach almost paid off in the first half, when a quick turnover forced by Williams turned into a scoring chance for Alex Morgan, who sent it right to the goalkeeper. But it also meant that the USWNT spent much of the first half chasing the game. Disconnected passing through the midfield yielded poor turnovers. And while the defense recovered well to snuff out the Colombia attack, the U.S. was not fully in control of the game, outside of a period of momentum in the second half after the attacking-minded DeMelo came on for Sullivan.

In short, the USWNT’s performance felt reminiscent of the way they played under Andonovski. Kilgore has espoused the importance of building off the team’s performance against Sweden in the World Cup Round of 16, but that performance similarly resulted in a 0-0 draw. A number of the team’s creative players have been relegated to the bench, with an overemphasis on progressing the ball up the wings to send it into the penalty area.

Not unlike during the World Cup, better finishing would have papered over other issues, but U.S. players have not shaken off their inconsistency in front of goal. Morgan’s scoreless stretch for the USWNT has now reached a 10th game, punctuated by a penalty miss in the first half. A number of other players settled for shots into traffic from distance late in the game rather than remaining patient in possession.

There are logical reasons for many of the USWNT’s struggles: They haven’t had much of a break since the World Cup, they don’t have a permanent coach, and many of them are in the middle of playoffs with their club teams. But with the Gold Cup and the Olympics looming, a match without new ideas against a quality opponent feels like a wasted opportunity.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Alex Morgan missed her second penalty kick of the year for the U.S. women’s national team in Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Colombia.

The 34-year-old striker is now 4-for-7 all time from the spot for the U.S. women’s national team. Only one player has more missed penalty kicks for the USWNT: Carli Lloyd, who missed four of her 16 career attempts.

Even still, interim head coach Twila Kilgore said Thursday that she still trusts Morgan to be the one to step up to the spot.

“I trust Alex Morgan to take penalties and she’s not going to be satisfied with that,” she said. “We’re not satisfied with that. But I trust quite a few of our players in these moments. And when they’re called upon, they will do their best. And sometimes you make them and sometimes you miss them. The expectation is that they do execute, but I trust Alex.”

Overall, Kilgore wasn’t satisfied with the number of shots the USWNT created. The penalty kick represented one of the USWNT’s few strong chances throughout the match, and the team finished with just two shots on target.

“The issue was more that we weren’t moving the ball with enough pace in order to find the free player fast enough for [Colombia] not to recover,” Kilgore said, noting that she didn’t think changing the midfield trio of Lindsey Horan, Andi Sullivan and Emily Sonnett would help.

“I think that has to do with the pace of the ball coming in, information around, those sort of things,” she continued. “I think we just need to trust some of the things that we’re trying to do and play a little bit quicker. This team is a team that’s being challenged to make quicker decisions. And when we don’t hesitate and we do those things and we execute a little bit faster, we find more success.”

Lindsey Horan gave Savannah DeMelo a much-needed confidence boost ahead of her first career start for the U.S. women’s national team — which happened to come at the 2023 World Cup.

Speaking on the latest episode of Just Women’s Sports’ “Snacks” podcast, DeMelo described her World Cup call-up itself as a surprise. She had not received any prior call-ups in 2023, and she made her first appearance with the USWNT in the send-off match ahead of the tournament.

The 25-year-old midfielder also detailed nerves she felt upon learning that she would be starting in her first-ever USWNT game in the tournament opener against Vietnam. She played 27 minutes as a substitute during the send-off match against Wales, and she wasn’t a part of the starting team during a scrimmage against the Philippines.

“We had a day off. And then the next training session after that, (then-head coach Vlatko Andonovksi) had come up to me,” she said. “He was like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna put you with the starting group. And I was like, ‘Oh, for what reason?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’m gonna start you against Vietnam.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, OK.’”

As soon as she joined the starting team, Horan – who served as a co-captain at the World Cup – helped her settle her nerves.

“I remember as soon as I went on that team, Lindsey came up to me, and she looked at me and was like, ‘You totally deserve this. Don’t think anything of it.’ And that gave me so much confidence,” she said. “Just like, I respect her so much as a player and a person. So her saying that to me really settled my nerves. … Then we had, like, three more training sessions and then it was the game.”

Still, DeMelo doesn’t think “anything could prepare me” for her first USWNT start – let alone at the World Cup. So she took it “day by day.”

“The more I was becoming familiar with our formation and set pieces, it gave me more confidence, like, ‘OK, I’m prepared for this.’ Because I think when I first came to camp, I knew nothing, like the way we pressed, our set pieces are so detail-oriented,” she said. “So I think I was a little shocked. But then once I became more knowledgeable in the system and what we do, I felt a lot more confident mentally too.”

While the search for a permanent head coach remains ongoing, the U.S. women’s national team announced its roster on Wednesday for two October friendlies against Colombia. The group consists of both longtime veterans and exciting young talents, including the first senior team call-up for 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie.

If the 2023 World Cup squad looked like a team in transition, the USWNT we’ve seen this fall only leans deeper into the winds of change. Legends have said their goodbyes, and young players are getting their chance to prove their value on the international stage. In between, the U.S. has many holdovers to help maintain the team’s longtime standard before a new coach comes in to make their stamp on the team.

The post-Pinoe era

The USWNT’s October friendlies will be the first international break since the retirements of Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe, which are already being felt on the depth chart. Ertz’s absence should make way for more consistent opportunities for Portland Thorns defensive midfielder Sam Coffey, who is likely competing with Emily Sonnett for time despite Sonnett being listed on the roster as a defender.

The U.S. is also left searching for center-back depth after Ertz took over a starting role during the 2023 World Cup. Tierna Davidson misses out on this roster after suffering a face injury in the NWSL, and Abby Dahlkemper has yet to be called back into U.S. camp since returning from back surgery in August. Becky Sauerbrunn makes her welcome return to the roster after missing the World Cup with a foot injury, providing a vital infusion of veteran leadership. But looking beyond 2024, the central defense will need more players with experience to join the depth chart with Alana Cook and Naomi Girma.

Sauerbrunn’s return speaks to the larger cycle refresh now that Rapinoe has hung up her boots. Lindsey Horan, named a captain by Vlatko Andonovski for the 2023 World Cup, suddenly has the third-most caps on the team behind Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan. Morgan has shown how she can galvanize a team around her in San Diego this NWSL season. As the spirit of the team reshapes around younger stars, Morgan will be tasked with connecting with the next generation.

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Alyssa Thompson is the most experienced of the USWNT's youngsters after making the World Cup roster. (Hannah Peters - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Teenage dream

The October roster features three teenagers: 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, 18-year-old Jaedyn Shaw and 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie. Thompson is already a mainstay with the team after making the roster for the 2023 World Cup, and fans will be eager to see how Shaw and Moultrie adapt to the international level after impressive seasons with their respective NWSL clubs.

Shaw has the ability to slot in as a winger, a position where the U.S. doesn’t lack for talent, but she can also drift further back into the midfield to facilitate playmaking in the absence of Rose Lavelle. In September, interim manager Twila Kilgore opted for a defensive midfield shape with Andi Sullivan, Sonnett, and Lindsey Horan. If the USWNT feels comfortable with a more attacking style in October, Shaw will be a huge asset.

Moultrie’s addition is particularly notable based on the position she plays. The Thorns player is a sharp passer and a connecting midfielder who can break lines and set up the attack. In recent years, the USWNT coaching staff has been more comfortable integrating young players into attacking roles and letting midfielders develop through league play. If Moultrie gets time against Colombia, she’ll have significant responsibility as the team’s engine, and the earlier she can get comfortable with the speed of play, the better.

There’s also something to be said about rewarding teenagers who made the leap to professional clubs with serious USWNT consideration. After their World Cup disappointment, USWNT players and U.S. Soccer officials alike have said they want to build a cohesive style of play that prioritizes holding the ball and begins at the youth levels. For Thompson, Shaw and Moultrie, there’s no time like the present, with the hope that more players feel encouraged to follow in their footsteps.

Play the kids

Kilgore was somewhat cautious with the young players she brought in last month, letting Shaw get acclimated to the U.S. camp environment and waiting to play Chelsea striker Mia Fishel until the second game of their series against South Africa. As the U.S. gets further away from the World Cup, Kilgore may feel more emboldened to let players test their mettle against Colombia, a major tournament quarterfinalist.

In September, the USWNT was balancing heavy emotions as they said goodbye to close friends and icons and looked to rebound from a confidence-shaking summer. But preparation for the 2024 Olympics needs to begin sooner rather than later, and reverting to a conservative midfield of experienced players and only late substitute minutes for incoming attackers would be a disappointment in October.

Kilgore could pair Sam Coffey with Andi Sullivan or let the young No. 6 stand alone in a more attacking structure. She could also start Fishel to give Morgan rest in one of the two matches, work Moultrie into the midfield alongside Horan or as her replacement, and have Shaw make slashing runs in tandem with Sophia Smith or relieve her as she builds minutes from a knee injury.

There is a healthy amount of connective tissue for every player new to the U.S. environment this month. But one of the team’s tasks going forward is to worry less about the safety net, and more about the future.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Carli Lloyd doesn’t believe any current player on the U.S. women’s national team roster possesses a championship mentality.

In an interview with “Kickin’ It” on CBS Sports, Lloyd, 41, spoke about her time with the national team, but she also addressed the current state of the team – as she has done often since her retirement in 2021.

Her latest critiques echoed those she has made before, both in the immediate aftermath of her retirement and in her role as a broadcast analyst for the 2023 World Cup. Her biggest gripes revolve around the mentality of the players rather than analysis of their play.

While such analysis could have a place, Lloyd wields it against the USWNT players, some of whom are her former teammates. Lloyd, though, sees even her harshest criticism as an “honest assessment,” sans “fluff.”

One of her honest assessments? There is “so much fundamentally wrong” with the USWNT program, and a fix will require more than a new head coach coming in and switching up the team’s tactics, she told CBS Sports.

“The champion mentality that we’ve had throughout the years, since the inception of this team, that dog mentality, you’ve got none of that,” she said. “The character, the respect — technically, tactically, you could be great and have a coach that comes in, but if you don’t have all those other things, there’s no winning … I look at the U.S. women’s national team, Julie Ertz just left, but aside from her, I don’t see one player that has that mindset.”

She later conceded that World Cup co-captain Lindsey Horan displays a similar mentality. Still, she said, there’s “not many of them that can.” For Lloyd, that reflects a stark contrast from her time on the team, when “a plethora” of players had that determination.

And Lloyd also doesn’t care how people respond when she does speak her truth, or so she claims.

“I lived and breathed it like I feel comfortable and confident to be able to sit here, to be able to be on TV and and say what I said, because I walked the walk,” she said. “I did it every single day from start to finish for 17 years straight. Whether I was a starter or whether I was, at one point in 2019 World Cup for a period of three years I was a sub, so it didn’t matter. I thought that that was my obligation from the previous generation of players to continue to pass that down.”

In reference to the 2023 World Cup, Lloyd called out U.S. Soccer for adjusting the hotel room thermostats to players’ desired temperature levels before they arrived. She also once again took issue with the players for wearing sunglasses and dancing before matches.

“If I saw that, if I was a part of that team, I would raise hell and I would go directly to the players and tell them to take their sunglasses off and stop dancing,” she said.

To her, those actions were a sign of players “taking every moment for granted,” rather than getting loose or remaining steadfast in one of the biggest moments of their careers. Instead, Lloyd questioned their toughness.

“It has to be hard,” she said about playing for the USWNT. “I think all these players want to come in, want to feel comfortable, want to express themselves. It doesn’t work like that. Just do your job, come in, put the work in.”

The U.S. women’s national team brought back its iconic recreation of an annual “Mean Girls” meme just in time.

“On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was,” narrates Cady Heron, the protagonist of the 2004 high school comedy, speaking of her crush Aaron Samuels. “It’s October 3rd,” she replies.

Ever since the movie’s release, that date on the calendar has turned into a veritable internet holiday celebrating the movie. And that scene has become an indelible meme.

Back in 2018, USWNT midfielders Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan acted out the scene, Lavelle in the role of Heron and Horan in the role of Samuels. The USWNT’s official X account reposted the viral video again this year, much to the delight of “Mean Girls” and women’s soccer fans.

UConn basketball player Aaliyah Edwards got in on the fun as well, posting her own version of the meme ahead of the Huskies’ first day of practice for the 2023-24 season.

Megan Rapinoe was just trying to get through her postgame speech on Sunday without crying. Poking fun at Lindsey Horan, she says, helped “a little bit.”

Rapinoe played in her final game with the U.S. women’s national team on Sunday, a 2-0 friendly win over South Africa that served as an emotional conclusion to the forward’s storied 17-year career. Horan, who received the captain’s armband from Rapinoe when she subbed off in the 54th minute, could be seen tearing up as Rapinoe turned around to thank her teammates midway through the speech.

“Pull it together, Lindsey,” Rapinoe joked. “She’s not handling it well. It’s OK. Love you, too.”

Rapinoe said her words to the crowd after the game were both “planned and not planned.” That included her message to Horan, who she later said has been “crying all week.” On Thursday, the team also said goodbye to longtime midfielder Julie Ertz.

“She needs to pull it together. She’ll be fine,” Rapinoe joked to reporters. “But we did have a really special connection on the field from the time she got in this environment. I think it’s tough for her to lose someone who she feels like sees her, especially on the field, just as it is for me to step away.”

Horan, a bright spot for the USWNT at the World Cup this summer, explained what Ertz and Rapinoe have meant to both her and the team.

“It’s cool for our country and for the world to see a player like [Rapinoe] and a player like Julie stay on top of their game for such a consistent time, and just play every single day, show up every single day, play their heart out, score incredible goals and make this team who we are,” Horan said. “So to celebrate them, we do it the right way in the U.S., sending them off in the right way. So I’m so happy that we had that moment for P today.”

Horan, 29, said U.S. players like Rapinoe were role models for her growing up, and that only added to the emotions of Sunday’s game.

“Players like Pinoe, Tobin [Heath], they’re what I looked up to because they’re different. They’re entertaining. They just did things differently on the field,” she said. “And so I think that’s why it’s really hard for me. I’m losing just an idol, and it’s hard. That’s what you looked up to. That’s another reason that you fall in love with the game.”