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

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.

“Making sure we take care of every little thing,” Horan said on Thursday about what the USA’s leaders, which include co-captain Alex Morgan, are doing behind the scenes. Horan spoke to the media Thursday as another part of her captaincy duties.…