A brief glance at the latest U.S. women’s national team squad would suggest they are in experimentation mode. Head coach Emma Hayes’ selection includes seven uncapped players, and a number of others relatively inexperienced at international level. There is also the Futures Camp, running concurrently with the senior team’s January training camp, where Hayes will run the rule over the country’s most exciting prospects.
With the next FIFA World Cup two-and-a-half years away, it makes sense to expand the player pool before whittling it down once the competition appears nearer on the horizon around late 2026. Still, while some of the players are new, the profiles appear somewhat familiar. It looks increasingly like the attacking system Hayes built at short notice and ran successfully at last year’s Olympics is less a one-off, and more a solid tactical blueprint for the national team’s future.
Hayes has never been a system coach, someone with one specific plan of action. Rather, she is…