Lindsey Horan has told ESPN the United States were not out for revenge when they beat Canada in the CONCACAF W Championship final but said they were desperate for victory against their longstanding rivals.
The USWNT lifted the W Championship trophy with a 1-0 win against Canada in July, a year after they were beaten by the eventual gold medalists in the Tokyo Olympics semifinals. The U.S. went on to win bronze after losing to Canada.
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But Lyon midfielder Horan denied the idea the Olympics played on the U.S. team’s minds when they faced Canada at the Estadio BBVA in Guadalupe, Mexico.
“You can ask any of us or any of the Canada players, that’s always going to be a rival game and it’s always going to be a huge game and you want to beat them as bad as you possibly can,” Horan said in an interview with ESPN’s Futbol Americas.
“But again I think for us it was just like we want to play the way that we want to play… and actually go out with a bang and especially with that long trip as well.
“I don’t think we were thinking as much about the Olympics but moreso just we always want to beat Canada and we always want to win.
“Not much so like revenge, it was moreso we just want to win — we want to win every single game we play, every single tournament we play in and that was the most important for us but playing the way that we wanted to as well.”
Horan, 28, compared each USWNT fixture to a World Cup game given the finals in Australia and New Zealand are less than a year away.
“We have to do everything we possibly can to make ourselves ready if we’re going to play in the World Cup tomorrow,” Horan said.
“That means every training session, every meeting, every game we’re full focused and we’re focused on this team and what we’re doing to prepare ourselves for the World Cup.
“We know that it’s getting down to the wire and this year is going to go by very quickly leading up to the world Cup so we need to be ready at all times.
“Each game that we play, it’s like we’re playing a World Cup game, and I think that’s the most important for us and we’re building off of every single one and hopefully getting better in the process.”
