Emma Hayes earns win in USWNT coaching debut; Swanson, Davidson score twice

Emma Hayes began her tenure as U.S. women’s national team head coach with a win, as forward Mallory Swanson and defender Tierna Davison scored two goals a piece to lift the U.S. to a 4-0 result over South Korea in front of 19,010 on Saturday in Commerce City, Colorado.

“I thought we were controlled in what we did in the first half. We stuck to the structures. We stuck to the coaching,” Hayes said on the TNT postgame show. “Everybody did what I asked of them.”

Swanson’s goals were her first for the USWNT since suffering a torn patellar tendon in April 2023 which kept her out of the World Cup. Davidson, meanwhile, recorded just her second and third international career goals.

The fresh start on the bench came with changes in the lineup. Hayes named the youngest USWNT starting XI since April 2022 with an average age of 25.5 years and 45 appearances per player.

Swanson back on the score sheet

In the build-up to Saturday’s friendly, Hayes was eager to reveal an encounter she had with Swanson at the 2017 United Soccer Coaches convention in Los Angeles. As the manager tells it, she was trying to recruit the then-18-year-old to her Chelsea side in the final months before her NWSL debut.

Seven years later, she finally had a chance to call upon Swanson — and that long-awaited…