Lindsey Horan's goal as USWNT captain? Making young players 'as confident as possible'

Editor's note: Lindsey Horan leveled the score in the United States' heated group stage match against the Netherlands on Wednesday. Read about how she became co-captain of the USWNT at the World Cup. This story was originally published on July 21.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Two years ago, Lindsey Horan told Vlatko Andonovski that one of her goals was to captain the U.S. women's national team in a World Cup.

On the eve of the Americans' first match against Vietnam on Friday (9 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), Andonovski reminded Horan of that moment.

"I didn't know that it was going to happen this time around, but it did," said Horan, who was named co-captain alongside Alex Morgan earlier this month. 

She was speaking at the pre-match news conference, one of the various tasks for a team captain at a World Cup.

[ Don't fret if USWNT doesn't blow out Vietnam in World Cup opener ]

Andonovski bestowed this leadership role on Horan and Morgan last month after longtime team captain Becky Sauerbrunn was ruled out of this summer's tournament with a nagging injury. 

Horan, a 28-year-old central midfielder, has played in plenty of major games. This is her second World Cup, she has competed in an Olympics and won a Champions League title with French club Lyon. 

But even with a remarkable résumé, she has never held this much responsibility.

"My teammates make it a little bit easier," Horan said of how she's adjusting to the job requirements. "I would also like to say that I don't change a whole lot from the player that I've been, especially the last two to three years and the kind of leadership role that I've stepped into.

"We have a lot of new players. We have a lot of young players coming into this World Cup. But it's