The sequence changed the game, and it could come to epitomize this team. The Netherlands’ Daniëlle van de Donk knocked down the U.S.'s Lindsey Horan. Horan was most displeased. They jawed at each other. The fact that van de Donk and Horan are club teammates for Lyon was either irrelevant or especially relevant; they would have to say how they truly feel about each other. It was so testy that the ref tried to negotiate some sort of truce. Well, world peace has to start somewhere. But not there, not then. Horan did not go all the way to Wellington, New Zealand, to make peace.
Horan scored moments later on a header off a Rose Lavelle corner kick. The Americans had tied the Dutch, 1–1.
“She gets fouled, kicked, hurt,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski told the media in New Zealand afterward. “It’s a very difficult moment. Instead of crying about it, she just goes and makes a statement and shows everyone the direction the game is going to take.”
