Emma Hayes tries new tricks – and succeeds – in first game in charge of USWNT – Equalizer Soccer

After the U.S. girls’s nationwide staff soundly defeated Korea Republic in a pleasant on Saturday, June 1, former USWNT star and present ESPN commentator Julie Foudy remarked on the informal confidence she noticed on the sphere. “Emma Hayes introduced swagger again to the staff,” Foudy mentioned within the post-game recap. They didn’t appear overly confident they usually didn’t play with conceitedness, however, per Foudy, they confirmed the followers that “we’re the USA, and we’re right here to set the world order.” 

That world order – by which the USA comfortably sits atop the desk of world girls’s soccer – was fairly simple for a lot of the twenty first century (particularly within the 2010s). However the staff has didn’t carry out to requirements in the previous couple of years, and notably suffered its earliest exit in nationwide staff historical past, within the spherical of 16, within the 2023 FIFA World Cup. So it’s no marvel that new head coach Emma Hayes, who joined the staff simply days after lifting Chelsea to the Girls’s Tremendous League championship, needs to shake issues up. 

One among Hayes’s first orders of enterprise on Saturday was setting her lineup. Notably, no starters from the 2019 World Cup closing appeared in it (sure, you learn that proper – Lindsay Horan didn’t begin that closing match 5 years in the past). A handful of gamers from that World Cup-winning squad nonetheless stay on the nationwide staff. A few of them, like Tierna Davidson, performed a second-string function then however have grown into beginning positions now. And different older members of the 2019 squad akin to Crystal Dunn might now discover themselves in substituting roles.

For the previous couple of years, the USWNT, underneath former head coach Vlatko Andonovski, suffered a substantial amount of criticism for holding onto USWNT veterans maybe previous their prime and never at all times making house for the youth to develop. Interim head coach Twila Kilgore moved the items round over the previous couple of months to open up new avenues for youthful and fewer skilled gamers. Hayes already seems poised to not solely proceed in that fashion however maybe additionally to  reshuffle the items much more (Crystal Dunn performed ahead!) 

Hayes, who carries a 65% win proportion all through her 23-year teaching profession, has lengthy been recognized for her artistic attacking methods. Per The Guardian, throughout her time with Chelsea, “Hayes grew to become recognized for a willingness to change her staff’s method to use the opposition’s largest weak spot.” So, whereas it will be a stretch to accredit the USA’s 4 targets on Saturday to the methods of a coach who solely joined the staff weeks in the past, it’s reasonable to say that Hayes’s selections helped create these alternatives. 

Mallory Swanson’s two targets within the thirty fourth and 74th minutes – her first nationwide staff targets since struggling a knee damage over a yr in the past – re-asserted the striker’s dominance on the prime of the sphere. However a brace from defender Tierna Davidson, who scored within the thirty eighth and forty eighth minutes, was unlikely to be on anybody’s bingo card. If Hayes’s tactical shifts as an attacking-heavy coach are encouraging even defenders to get on the board, it’s thrilling to think about the daring alternatives that could be created within the Hayes period.  

To create extra alternatives, Hayes additionally opened up the floodgates of substitutes. Subbing in a pleasant is to be anticipated, and particularly as Hayes prepares to set her Olympic roster. It’s additionally not so consequential when the staff is up by 4 targets. However opening up alternatives for subs to make a distinction meant gamers like Jenna Nighswonger, who continues to be accumulating caps within the single digits, and Sam Staab, who earned her first-ever cap on Saturday, might see motion and show themselves. 

Within the leadup to the Olympics, Hayes is clearly taking part in round with completely different formations and combos and seems to be giving her finest effort in direction of evaluating everybody on the roster, not simply the beginning squad. It’s early but, but when Tuesday’s re-match in opposition to Korea Republic consists of simply as a lot success, dynamism, and, per Foudy, swagger, Hayes’s quest to winnow down her Olympic roster will grow to be a bit of bit more durable. 

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