NEW YORK – Emma Hayes smiled and laughed as she answered questions at the head of a long conference table in a corner room three floors above bustling Madison Avenue. She wore a small American football pin on the left side of her tan jacket as the only visual evidence of her new role as coach of the U.S. women’s national team.
This is the job she has dreamed of earning for more than two decades, and it is the biggest job in women’s football. This is the job her late father and best friend Syd asked her to follow as he lay on his deathbed in September—the job that Hayes discussed with Syd as if she already had it, because she wanted him to leave her with that job. memory.
The USWNT job is also an international coaching position, markedly different from the club Hayes has worked at throughout her career. It is Hayes’ 12-year spell as Chelsea coach that established her as one of the best managers on the planet.
“I’m not worried,” Hayes told a small group of reporters, including ESPN, on Thursday. “I think it’s the same when anyone moves from one organization to another. It’s football – at the end of the day, it’s 11 versus 11.”
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Her view is valid, but how she will handle this transition period is among the biggest questions about her appointment, as she will replace another club coach, Vlatko Andonovski, who has struggled to make the transition to the international game. Under Andonovski — the NWSL’s championship-winning coach — the U.S. Women’s National Team endured a historically poor 2023 World Cup, winning just one game out of four en route to the club’s closest exit from a major tournament.
Hayes’ appointment was widely praised as a step in the right direction for the US side – who won five consecutive league titles and 16 overall during her 12 years at Chelsea. She is undoubtedly among the best coaches in football, but she has never managed a team at international level, where the pace of the schedule means less time spent training and working with the players.
A professional club setup allows coaches to meticulously improve their teams daily in training and see the results of those changes in matches every week. International football is a different beast. The rhythm of U.S. teams’ training camps limits on-field training to a few days every month or two, with two games played in each window.
There is not always an immediate second chance to correct a poor performance, and in the knockout stage of international tournaments – which Hayes will experience for the first time at the Olympics in two months – one poor showing can seal a team’s fate.
There are recent, notable and recent examples of the difficulty of making the switch. Indeed, the transition between club and international play has frustrated many capable managers – Andonovski was honest about how the lack of time with players was one of the biggest challenges he faced in transitioning from a club environment.
“I just love coaching, practicing every day, working with the guys on a daily basis,” Andonovski said upon his recent return to the NFL. “In a national team environment, this is impossible.”
Andonovski won two NFL championships and established himself as one of the best coaches in the league before being named the US Women’s head coach in late 2019. He faced many challenges on his way to the 2021 Olympics and 2023 World Cup – the pandemic the most notable of them all – but he struggled in Ultimately to find the right balance for the team in the way it might be with more regular interaction, such as in a club match.
He’s thriving again in his return to the club: The current Kansas City Chiefs are off to an unbeaten start through 11 games under Andonovski.
Mark Parsons was also a successful coach in the National Football League before taking over as head coach of the Netherlands in 2021. He briefly led the Dutch to a narrow quarter-final exit at the European Championship in 2022 before terminating his contract by mutual consent. Like Hayes waiting six months in American soccer to finish this season at Chelsea, Parsons has juggled the Holland job with his final season at the Portland Thorns throughout 2021.
Hayes has her own personality, a point she is quick to make with her people-first approach. She said she plans to speak with Andonovsky and his predecessor Jill Ellis, among others, as part of her preparation for the position.
1:18
Hayes promises USWNT will play ‘with fire’
Emma Hayes explains the style of play she wants to see from the USWNT under her leadership.
Hayes holds a master’s degree in intelligence and international affairs. She longs to understand how things and people work. She’s serious, not naive or flippant, when she says she’s been watching USWNT videos about the players’ backstories and a recent Netflix documentary about the team to learn more about her team’s personalities.
“When you’re managing people, it’s very easy to get the best results from people you understand and know, and it’s much more difficult when you have to do it with very different people,” Hayes said.
There are few figures like Hayes, another point she jokingly made on Thursday, that a strong presence is certainly needed at the helm of the USWNT.
The USWNT has historically featured some of the biggest figures in women’s soccer, which doesn’t sit well with every coach. The laid-back and easy-going Tom Sermanni was abruptly and abruptly fired as USWNT coach in 2014. Sunil Gulati, the head of the US Soccer Federation at the time, denied that Sermanni was fired because of a player revolt, but it was clear that Sermanni’s style was not appropriate. What the union and the players wanted.
Meanwhile, Andonovski was favored by USWNT players when he was appointed to the role, having worked for some as an NWSL coach, and calling the USWNT players his “friends” during the World Cup. But Carli Lloyd, the player-turned-commentator who criticized her former team during the World Cup, said that when players complained that training sessions were difficult, he made them shorter.
For her part, Hayes describes herself as a good listener, assertive when she needs to be, but always empathetic. She’s also an excellent communicator, a skill she’ll need as she transitions from veteran to the next generation of USWNT players.
“I’m going to work hard on this cultural piece, which I’ve done my entire career,” Hayes said. “Because what I’ve learned is that if you don’t handle that part, that’s what can cause, like in any workplace, what happens in the absence of communication? There’s a conversation, right? And it’s usually the wrong kind of conversation.”
One of the biggest issues the USWNT faced at the 2023 World Cup was tactical. Players were unable to solve problems when opponents like Portugal shut down the USWNT’s initial game plan, and there was a stagnation in their approach.
Hayes is known for her tactical flexibility, which was already evident during the six months she spent overseeing the team from afar as interim coach Twyla Kilgour officially led the team. At the time, the USWNT experimented with different midfield balances, as well as a full-back three and increased density on the wing.
“The framework, methodology and playing principles are very clear, they never change, but the roles may change,” Hayes said. “With the limited time I have, I have to keep it simple.”
1:32
Hayes says the USWNT’s period of individual dominance is over
New coach Emma Hayes says the USWNT is no longer the dominant women’s international force.
Can she successfully execute her tactics in this context, with only two days of rest between matches at the Olympic Games? Will these messages be clear and concise enough to translate at the Olympic Games?
Whatever the case, expectations will likely need to be tempered this summer. Hayes’ appointment by US Soccer, and the decision to wait an additional six months until she could finish her season with Chelsea, was a clear concession to her being appointed to a long term, even at the expense of a short term. condition. US Soccer has learned it only has two months to prepare for the Olympics, which begin in July, but the equipment used in the 2024 Olympics could be the sacrifice needed to win the 2027 World Cup.
One thing is clear about Hayes’ transition from the club environment: a weight — a “rock” — has been lifted off her shoulders. Unlike Andonovsky, who longed for that everyday life, Hayes grew weary of it over time, especially with a son who is now 6 years old. A match every three days, press conferences before each, player meetings every day? Hayes said again Thursday that she “categorically cannot do it again — not at this moment in time.”
Now she’s in Denver, meeting the first USWNT squad she can completely name. After playing two friendly matches against South Korea, she will travel between England and the United States before settling in Atlanta, where the US Soccer Federation is building a dedicated training centre.
Hayes will have some breathing room in late August, if she allows herself. First comes Sprint to the Olympics, Hayes’ first big test in a different kind of arena.
“There are different ebbs and flows in international football, and I think the change has rejuvenated me. I felt it today in particular. And yes, of course, in an ideal world, everyone would love to be that way,” Hayes said. You’ve been sitting on a beach somewhere now for a few weeks, but my point is really clear: you don’t get many chances to go to the Olympics in your life.
