NEW YORK — Emma Hayes has finally arrived, and the United States women’s national team’s new head coach faces a formidable task: She has two months to prepare the team to win an Olympic gold medal. Winning, as she knows, is the longtime standard for the USWNT.
But on Thursday, during a small media roundtable that included ESPN at the National Women’s Soccer League’s offices in Manhattan, Hayes stressed the importance of processes and performances.
“If we can perform at our best level, then we have a chance of doing things,” Hayes said. “But we’ve got work to do. The realities are that the world game is where it is, and the rest of the world do not fear the USA in the way that they once did and that’s valid.
“It’s our job to grasp quite quickly what we need to do to get close again to those levels.”
Hayes was critical of the USWNT as an analyst during last summer’s World Cup and said it would be difficult for the team to return to the top. The USWNT won back-to-back World Cups in 2015 and 2019, and four of the first eight editions of the tournament. At the 2023 World Cup, however, the Americans only narrowly got out of the group. Winning an Olympic gold medal for the first time since 2012 will be a tall order.
“Tell me a coach that…
