U.S. women's national team captain Lindsey Horan apologized Thursday for critical comments she recently made about fans of the USWNT, saying her remarks were "poorly expressed" and that she loves U.S. fans "so much."

In an interview with The Athletic dated Feb. 1, Horan said: "American soccer fans, most of them aren't smart. They don't know the game. They don't understand. [But] it's getting better and better."

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She added in the same interview: "I'm gonna piss off some people, 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! My mom says, 'Julie Foudy said you had such a good game!' And I'm here, just going, 'I was f---ing s--- today.'"

The midfielder, 29, issued her apology during a conference call with reporters ahead of the Concacaf W Gold Cup, which is slated to begin Feb. 20.

"First and foremost, I would like to apologize to our fans," Horan said during the call. "Some of my comments were poorly expressed and there was a massive lesson learned for me.

"When I think about our fans, I love them so much. This team loves them so much and I can't begin to explain how much they mean to us. Every time we step out and train, every time we step out and play in games, we play for you guys and you are our inspiration, you are our motivation and seeing you wearing our jerseys and seeing you screaming our names and chanting 'USA,' that's what we play for.

"And I never wanted to take any of that away. And continuing on that, the soccer culture in America is changing and growing so much in such a positive way."

She added: "The last thing I ever wanted to do was to offend anyone in that manner. So again, I deeply, deeply apologize."

The comments got considerable attention, especially when set alongside the 2023 World Cup in which the USWNT exited in the round of 16 against Sweden -- the U.S. team's earliest elimination in program history. Horan was one of the captains of that team.

When asked what compelled her to apologize, Horan said the combination of reflecting on her comments and the reaction to them.

"What I had inside of me, how I felt about it and how what I read and my opinion of my own comments," she said. "And also me wanting to express how much the fans just mean to me personally. And again, not wanting to take anything away from that.

"So I think that was just something always within me that I wanted to do."

The U.S. is set to play group stage matches at the W Gold Cup against a team still to be determined, as well as Argentina and Mexico.