Emma Hayes brings new energy, fresh outlook to USWNT but with instant sky-high expectations

After six months of waiting for her arrival, the United States women’s national soccer team has its new coach and delivered two wins for Emma Hayes in her first games as a fullback. The team’s two-game series against South Korea were the last before the Olympic lineup was announced.

Rainy weather couldn’t even slow down the show, as the USWNT welcomed Hayes with a four-goal win in Denver and capped it off with a three-goal win in Minnesota, where the conditions made the London native feel as if you were at home.

“I was absolutely dying in Colorado the other day, sweating,” she joked. “So this for me was absolutely heaven. I liked the fast pitch, the nights under the lights, the big crowds that brought a lot of energy. I loved hearing the drums behind the goal. It felt like I was in Europe, so I might as well watch some more Games of MLS while I’m here I loved the atmosphere.

Now, with two games behind him, Hayes’ tour has officially begun. But she would hardly refer to herself as a rock star. She references her disdain for the pompous comparison in her audiobook, “Kill the Unicorn.” She also mentioned that she hates operating, as she puts it, in silos, so it was no surprise that 2024’s most anticipated US Soccer project included not just Hayes, but several members of his former Chelsea team, as the program foresees new processes.

“I’m just developing what we’ve already presented to the players and it doesn’t matter if [they] play in Europe or the USA. It’s irrelevant. It’s making sure there’s complete clarity from me to them about what their expectations are. And I think it was a really good week of training from all the coaches to convey the information succinctly,” Hayes said of his first international window with the team.

“But I couldn’t have asked for anyone else this week. And for that I feel happy. But it’s between now and the next camp. You have to analyze all the things. You have to get it absolutely right before the Olympics.”

A coach different from his predecessors

Hayes has been outspoken about how his coaching models differ from time to time. She mentioned admiration for her friends who are head coaches of other women’s sports, such as University of South Carolina women’s basketball Dawn Staley and Duke University’s Kara Lawson.

She is authentic and proud of the personality she brings to her new adventure as head coach of the USWNT. She may bring a layer of intimidation to some football players with her superior football IQ, but that’s almost refreshing for a 40-year-old program that now seems to be welcoming new ideas.

During former coach Jill Ellis’ time as manager, she referred to a changing of the guard during her tenure, that players reaching 150 or 200 caps for the national team would be a rarity in the future and was met with speech. She featured some young players who are now staples, notably Rose Lavelle, Mallory Swanson, Tierna Davidsonroc and Lindsey Horan, but her group of players was full of current talent and won another World Cup in 2019 despite the 2016 Rio Olympics. disaster.

The Hayes era already looks different. There have been 11 different players making their debut since the 2023 World Cup exit. Hayes’ line-up in his first game out of the line had an average age of 25.5 years and in the second game an average of 28 years. While the principles for ensuring a balanced roster existed before his arrival, we are watching this happen in real time.

The beginning of the USWNT program began with talented teenagers who grew up with the team and became legends. Young players were slowly integrated, typically through collegiate systems and time in youth programs, until a passing of the torch came with players who had hundreds of appearances to younger players who would also end up earning hundreds of caps.

The perception of not wanting to rush or burden players with too much too quickly has also become part of US soccer culture, completely different from the rest of the world, but if these same players continued to work hard, their time would eventually come. .

The 2023 World Cup featured a squad with several players competing in their first World Cup and everything happened as everyone expected. Former USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski was met with criticism, not so much for his roster selections, but for the way he utilized them. Failure to use the entire 23-man squad, lack of substitutions in the game and players still trying to figure out their roles during the tournament naturally led to a historic elimination in the round of 16.

So when U.S. Soccer and Sports Director Matt Crocker turned to Hayes, it was with a very specific intention: to get the U.S. women’s program back on the path to success, compete in the Olympic Games and implement its principles. Her qualities as an effective communicator and decision maker are key components of her coaching style.

With Hayes, she’s already checking off items on USWNT fans’ bucket lists. Integrate new players with less experience and play them? Done and still happening. Formative changes? Done and were changed in the game. Rotate players? They used all available substitutions and only two players were not used in this window.

“One thing I learned is that I really realized why this team is so special,” Hayes said in his first week with the USWNT.

“From the outside in, it’s always been that way. But being on the inside is a very, very special place. And when you’re in a special place, you can have a lot of special moments and you saw that again.” [Tuesday]. It’s very, very difficult to play against the same team in such a short period of time. I think the team believed in what it will take for us to progress.”

Looking to the Olympics

The former Chelsea manager has made it clear that mutual respect and understanding between players, coaches and staff will be driven by similar goals. She expressed that before the last game against South Korea, she shared a sheet with all the things that define them, because it is in the most difficult moments that we remember their virtues.

“It’s an adaptive team. It’s a resilient team. It’s a flexible team — those are their words, not mine. And… I’m excited about the growth and I’m excited about our development together,” she shared with the media during the post-game comments.

Hayes now needs to name a final Olympic squad, with a deadline for all teams of July 3, but some national teams are likely to announce before that date.

It has been uninterrupted since arriving in New York on May 30, and the coach revealed that there will be a team meeting after the South Korea matches to reflect and prepare a project plan for the next camp, as well as prepare schedules during the Olympics. It will be a plan for her and the team and will not be shared with the players until the final lineup is selected.

Then she will rest a little, just for a moment, until she returns to New York for the team’s Olympic farewell games. So it’s not much of a relief that she now feels that her first games are in the record books.

“I really feel excitement. When I think about relief, I remember what it’s like to win a title, and you get to the end and think: this is relief. I feel something very different. I feel like I can really have a big influence on this group, in turn, they will have a big influence on me. And I told them this today, that I haven’t stopped smiling all week,” she said.

“Of course, I visualized what it would be like coming here. And I know the importance of this team from the outside, but from being inside. everything, to do my best for the shirt, I feel very proud to do that, but also they welcomed us, you know, I brought employees from all over the world, and we felt very welcome. I’m a newbie. So having to lead, but also being new, can be scary, but I felt supported from the beginning and that gives me a lot of confidence.”

Ready or not, Hayes is here to help push U.S. soccer into the global game in a way it isn’t used to and that’s a good thing. The federation needed to make a landmark hire, and they did so by hiring one of the winningest coaches in Europe, a mega-hire, to show that the program would not remain stagnant, but would still be a leader in elevating the women’s game and reaching even higher standards. for red, white and blue.