“She is a true leader, even though she doesn’t know it,” said midfielder Sam Mewis, Sauerbrunn’s roommate for the Americans’ recent World Cup send-off game. “Every time she speaks in front of a group, what she says is the most important thing that gets said, because you know she wouldn’t speak up unless it really, really mattered. She just knows what the team needs, and she will always speak up when she needs to, even if it makes her a little bit uncomfortable.”