Emma Hayes made an impressive first impression by winning Olympic gold barely two months into the job, but her real work as the U.S. women’s national team head coach begins now with this year’s January camp.
Though the January camp is a regular fixture on the USWNT’s schedule, this year’s edition of the week-long training session comes with a unique twist. Hayes named a 26-player roster on Tuesday consisting of senior teams players but will host around 50 players in total by concurrently running a futures camp as she begins to lay out the roadmap to the 2027 Women’s World Cup and 2028 Olympics.
“[We’ll] have a week’s training to really deepen the very things that we haven’t actually had a lot of chances to do,” Hayes said in a press conference on Tuesday. “I’ve said this so many times to people – I’m doing the job the other way around, to have 75 days [in charge] and an Olympics and now I’m getting the opportunity to build the program and develop the playing pool.”
This camp marks Hayes’ most expansive attempt to explore the USWNT’s large player pool, and perhaps her final major endeavor to do so. The head coach said the team’s friendlies in the fall were opportunities to work with less experienced…
