NEW YORK – Emma Hayes looked out the window of her third-floor conference room overlooking Madison Avenue, and memories suddenly flooded her across the bustling city where her coaching career first blossomed.
They flooded her upon arrival at Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday. They flowed again as Hayes navigated crowded streets and strolled through Central Park for her first time as U.S. women’s national team coach. “It’s home to me.” She said.
She recalled coming to New York in her 20s with $1,000 and a bag of clothes to work at a Long Island soccer camp. She ran from Port Washington to Manhattan and from the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge to Westchester. She traveled all over the region, as far as Rhode Island, as an anonymous Brit to find a foothold in her beloved sport. She remembers “fighting to stay in the country on a different visa.” She remembers worrying about her rent. And she remembers having a dream, a dream, of being at the helm of the USWNT, which was probably the pinnacle of women’s soccer at the time.
Some 23 years later, here she is. In part, that’s because the USWNT no longer exists.
It fell from the top of a mountain, and Hayes, with a record contract, was hired to lift it back up.
So there is little time to reminisce. “We have work to do,” Hayes said during a 40-minute roundtable discussion with reporters Thursday after being asked about immediate expectations. “The reality is… the rest of the world is not as afraid of America as it used to be. … “It’s our job to figure out very quickly what we need to do to get close to (championship) level again.”
Hayes has been doing it “in the background” for months, having “many long late-night calls” with interim USWNT coach Twila Kilgore in London. “I feel like I could quietly find out about it without having to go to work,” she said Thursday, out of respect for Chelsea, who remained her full-time employer until Sunday. “quietly”.
But she has been watching NWSL games and videos of individual players. She has been providing Kilgore with “change” and “the ideas I wanted to bring.” When she talks about the USWNT’s progress over the past few months, she uses plural first-person language, such as “what we’ve done so far.”
But the work will begin in earnest on Friday. Hayes will fly to Colorado to meet with her staff, who have hand-selected and meticulously crafted the pieces. At least five Chelsea assistants will follow her to the United States to join Kilgore. Bart Caubergh, previously Chelsea’s head of performance, will take over as “program director” for the USWNT, a new position promoted by Hayes in conversations with U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker.
“What I’ve learned over the years of doing this is that there are two different teams,” Hayes explained. “The team is on the field and the team is off the field. And it’s extremely difficult for a director to manage both.”
Caubergh will be responsible for the latter. “He will work with all departments – operations, performance, analytics, technology and of course healthcare – to make sure we are aligned,” Hayes said.
In many ways, they have already coordinated. Hayes said, “All preparations for the May camp are complete.” “Every (training) session is planned. All events for June are planned in terms of meetings, meeting points. “It is scheduled for July.”
But what she hasn’t been able to do is actually coach.
“Now,” she said Thursday, clapping her hands. “Now it’s about being with the players.”
she said later, laughing. “I know the people, the team and the structure behind it. We got it all. It’s time. I need to be with the team.”
She’ll have to do things she can’t do from a distance, on or off the field, when her first training camp begins Monday. She scheduled one-on-one meetings with players to get to know them as people. She is also looking forward to seeing, “feeling” and “sense” their skill sets and “tactical understanding.”
But she’ll have to do it all in a whirlwind. She would live out of her way until she eventually moved to Atlanta. There, U.S. Soccer is building a national training center that is not yet completed. She’s scheduled to run her first training camps in Denver and Minneapolis next week. “I’m preparing for the Olympics,” she said. where? “I think it’s probably a combination of different places. … It will be decided.”
Of course, the Olympics are two months away. Hayes has to name her own 18-woman roster after just two friendlies and six training sessions. She is scheduled to play another camp and two friendlies in July. Then she will fly to France. And as a reporter told her on Thursday, “Fans’ expectations for this team have always been the same.” —
Hayes smiled and interrupted the reporter. “no.” she shouted, spewing out all her sarcastic remarks. “That’s not true, right!?”
The “obvious” expectation is that the USWNT should win it all.
When asked if that was realistic in 2024, Hayes was vague. “I would never tell anyone not to dream of winning,” she said. “But… we have to take it step by step and focus on all the little processes that need to happen to enable us to perform at the highest level.”
She said she would analyze the team’s condition through the first camp and then ask herself, “How much can I close the gap between now and the Olympics?”
But she knows she has to “think realistically.”
Because she needs time. Because it’s time she didn’t really have before Paris. “You have to keep it simple,” she said when asked about her own tactical approach. … Make sure the right message is conveyed. And over time we will improve.”
She will also need energy, which she admitted was in short supply at Chelsea, a club where she is the reigning five-time English champion. “It took a toll,” she said Saturday. She reiterated on Thursday: “Working at Chelsea has taken up my entire life over the last 12 years.”
But she said leaving “felt like a huge rock fell off my shoulders.” She took charge of many women’s matches in England, staying in one place for 12 years. She feels as if she has been liberated. “She feels energetic and excited.”
So she had to take just one day off. On Sunday, she hosted a Star Wars-themed birthday party for her 6-year-old son Harry.
Now she’s inspired. “Because not often do dreams become reality,” she said Thursday.
Now, she said, “I will give everything I have to keep this team’s tradition alive.”
