castle. PAUL, Minn. – U.S. women’s national team coach Emma Hayes is still learning some of the U.S. sports terminology during her first week in office.
On Tuesday at Allianz Field, with steady rain reminding the British coach of home, Hayes implored her team to finish off a South Korean team that barely threatened the Americans but trailed by just one goal at that point.
“I told the team, ‘Please pedal all the way,’” Hayes recalled. “And (assistant coach Dennis Leddy) said to me, ‘Don’t ever say that again!’”
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It was awkward, but it worked. The USWNT scored twice more, including the first goal by 16-year-old midfielder Lily Yohannes, to win 3-0.
Now it was crunch time for Hayes, to borrow another unique American sports phrase. After competing in two games and completing just over a week of training, she must select the 18-member Olympic roster in the coming weeks. The performance of some players on Tuesday made things much more difficult.
Yohannes has soared up that list after making an immediate impact in his much-anticipated debut. Her late goal highlighted 20 minutes of solid distribution in midfield, including a pass to Trinity Rodman just before Rodman fired a shot off the crossbar.
But the midfield was already full of people before Johannes could even see the pitch. The USWNT’s starting trio of Korbin Albert, Rose Lavelle and captain Lindsey Horan once again helped dominate the game Tuesday against a South Korean team that sat in a low block of five defenders. I gave it to you. Hayes has praised Horan as a team leader throughout this camp, while Lavelle is understood to have earned his 100th cap on Tuesday. She is arguably the most creative player on the team.
Albert is a much newer player in the mix, but the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has quickly proven that he can compete at this level. On Tuesday, Albert and Horan worked together to dictate the pace of the game, patiently waiting for the right moment to break South Korea out of their defensive shape. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was effective at the right moments. Above all, patience was strong.
“I think the important thing for us is not to go forward every second, but to be more patient on both ends of the ball,” Lavelle said. “I think it’s just about being patient with our movement, being patient with moving left and right with the ball and finding different ways to beat the forwards and beat the midfield and break them down.”
Hayes made nine changes to the lineup that beat Korea 4-0 in a trip to Colorado three days ago. Hayes said Monday that the goal is to give new players a chance to show they can handle the information “overload” the staff throws at them throughout the week and apply it to a game setting. Of the players in the bubble ostensibly to make Hayes’ Olympic roster, Albert did as well as anyone else on Tuesday.
But her on-field success has context. Albert’s previous social media activity, which surfaced in March, appeared to support anti-LGBTQIA+ content and downplay the rise of former USA winger Megan Rapinoe. Albert apologized and her team held an internal discussion at camp in April that was not shared publicly. Albert remained on the list and she was called up again for this camp.
Hayes indicated on Saturday that she expects a tolerant environment in the locker room, and her comments about players needing to feel supported when they take the field came in the wake of Albert being booed by the home crowd in Colorado on Saturday.
“I hope everyone will be patient,” Hayes said Saturday. “There are a lot of young players. On the pitch they are learning, but they want to give everything for the shirt, they want to give everything for their country. Off the pitch, some make mistakes, some need to learn. My job as coach is to get them there. It’s about helping teach and lead.”
In purely football terms (no doubt an oversimplification), Hayes and her staff appear to value the versatile Albert and the midfielder’s performance on Tuesday will reaffirm this. How Albert, Yohannes and others will potentially fit into the USWNT’s Olympic roster is a mental gymnastics that will occupy Hayes in the coming weeks. Horan and Lavelle are World Cup winning veterans. Defensive midfielder Sam Coffey became a regular alongside Albert in the team’s Concacaf W Gold Cup win earlier this year and is the best pure defensive midfielder in the pool.
Then there’s the question of where to play versatile strikers Catarina Macario and Jaedyn Shaw. Macario started as the USWNT’s number 10 on Saturday, while Shaw started in a hybrid winger role on Tuesday. She struggled to find her game in the first half and came alive in the second half, including when moved into a number 10 role. This repeated the following trend: Shaw is clearly best suited to the number 10 role, but the same can be said for several equally talented players.
Defensively, Hayes received confirmation on Tuesday that Jenna Nighswonger is the real deal as a left-footed left-back who can press high up in the forward line. Nighswonger assisted on the USWNT’s opening goal, scored by Crystal Dunn, who was starting as a forward for the team for the first time in nearly seven years. Nighswonger had the ball on Tuesday and was one of only two players, along with Horan, to start both games against South Korea.
She played next to left centre-back Sam Staab, who made his first international start. Staab’s consistent play in the National Women’s Soccer League had long seemed to warrant a call-up, but she had not been called up until the most recent camp. She fulfilled her role seamlessly on Tuesday, almost scoring from a set piece in the first half.
“I think it’s worth it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Staab spoke about the long wait for his first cap.
Hayes has no shortage of talent to choose from. She often spoke about the need for a balance between a group of rising young stars and the veterans who led the team to where it is now.
This includes forward Alex Morgan, who started in the number nine role on Tuesday and was praised by Hayes for his hard work despite limited touches on the South Korean’s low blocks. Morgan’s spin turn sparked a transition play that led to Dunn’s early goal.
At the hour mark, a wave of USWNT substitutions kicked off the game. The connection between Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Mallory Swanson was easy to see, but they all delivered refreshing performances against a tired Korean defense.
An exhausted Hayes appeared to lose his voice after Tuesday’s game. She said she had been on the move for 10 consecutive months, noting that she spent the entire European season with Chelsea before joining the USWNT a few days after the job ended in May. She is scheduled to meet with her staff Wednesday morning, and she has a week to rest before heading to U.S. Soccer headquarters in Chicago to make plans to compete in the Olympics, she said.
“(The group) isn’t afraid to throw away the things we need to throw away,” Hayes said Tuesday, echoing his praise for the players. “They are bold, brave enough to want anything to improve. I am very impressed with them as people.”
Now Hayes has to choose who he wants to invite to the 2024 Olympics and step on the gas pedal. The Olympics start next month.
