Women’s soccer in the U.S. has undertaken a long, arduous journey to reach where it is now. USWNT head coach Emma Hayes revisited that just days before the USWNT took on Brazil at the SoFi Stadium in April—the first professional women’s sporting event to be ever held at the venue. “If you think about how we’ve built our game from Title IX to the illustrious 99ers to the 24ers to being in a position where we got a thriving pro league…,” Emma Hayes recalled. For Hayes, while there are already many achievements to celebrate, there’s also a need to build on the strength and determination that made those a reality. And those in the current USWNT are doing exactly that.

Team skipper Lindsey Horan, now Heaps, is no exception. The 31-year-old midfielder admitted how the entire locker room of the American ladies continues to be influenced and inspired by those who have long bid farewell to the pitch. Heaps made the heartfelt revelation during her appearance on the latest episode of the U.S. Soccer Podcast.

Talking to host and former player Meghan Klingenberg, Lindsey shared how the former USWNT squads have shaped her captaining of the current USWNT squad. “From you guys, it’s that grit, the passion, the standards that we withhold in every single training environment, meeting environment, game environment,” Heaps began.

Being a skipper of the US Women’s National Team comes with its own challenges. Yet, that doesn’t deviate the OL Lyonnes star from her one and only goal while leading her fellow teammates on the pitch: winning. As the former Colorado Rush player insists, that’s all she and her team care about.

“There’s so much talk over these past few years about the evolution of this team, new players, new faces, how we’re playing, the culture change—all these, where the one common denominator for me as a captain that I always want to keep in place is: ‘we go out to win every freaking day.'” added Heaps.

There has been a narrative about the 99ers that they often criticize the USWNT that came after them, with many claiming they even “hated” them. However, Lauren Cheney Holiday debunked that claim, insisting they only did so for the sake of the team, hoping they would succeed. Heaps sort of echoed Holiday as she gave credit to former players like Klingenberg for injecting that winning mentality into the current team. 

USWNT had never been on the right path like this before!

“You are one of those people that drove that into us, and it’s really important because you would get on us if we’re not giving our best every single day,” Heaps told Klingenberg. With that, Heaps also admitted that it was no picnic to be under that level of scrutiny all the time. It was, in fact, quite intimidating.

“I hate saying scared but we were scared coming in. We don’t want to freaking lose and disappoint,” admitted Heaps. But the USWNT captain admitted that this exact fear was what helped her lead the upcoming generation of the American team, hoping the newcomers would realize the gravity of the events and what it actually means to don the red, blue, and white colors.

Meghan Klingenberg found Lindsey Horan’s admission completely natural. In fact, the former left-back willingly clarified why they did what they did. “I don’t think we were unkind. It was just like, this is the standard and you just gotta meet it and if you’re not then come back some other time,” admitted Meghan.

Such has to be the only way for the USWNT to move forward. Otherwise, how else do they plan to defend their 4 World Cups and 5 gold medal wins, don’t you think?