Lindsey Horan, USNWT captain, just wants to talk soccer (theathletic.com)

To illustrate her point, Horan brings up that many viewers will take a television commentator’s analysis at face value.

“American soccer fans, most of them aren’t smart,” she says. “They don’t know the game. They don’t understand. (But) it’s getting better and better.”

She takes a brief pause, sensing that those words, too, will cause a stir.

“I’m gonna piss off some people,” she continues, “but the game is growing in the U.S. People are more and more knowledgeable, but so much of the time people take what the commentators say, right? My mom does it!” She breaks into laughter. “My mom says, ‘Julie Foudy said you had such a good game!’ And I’m here, just going, ‘I was f—ing s— today.’”

She’s not wrong. And I admire her for being so candid. In the era of spinning (out-of-control sometimes) PR-speak, she was refreshingly honest. She spoke from a player’s point of view, which was exactly the point of the interview.

If anyone, U.S. fans included, read the quote in context, it’s hard to find fault in her logic.

Yet, she gets blasted for it. To the point where she (read: her PR team) felt she had to publicly apologize. Sigh.