U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes has a reputation for always thinking ahead, and her first post-Olympics roster announced on Thursday shows why.
Rather than clinging to the group that won Olympic gold in August, with her first call-ups since, Hayes is taking a clear first step toward building depth and identifying new players for the buildup to the 2027 World Cup.
Eight new players join the 18 available players who return from the Olympics, including six who are uncapped. Three of them are earning their first call-ups to a senior USWNT camp. The USWNT’s October camp — which begins next week in Austin, Texas, before friendlies against Iceland and Argentina — has plenty of intriguing subplots.
Rewarding good club form rather than past USWNT play
Hayes made it clear on Thursday that she wanted to reward players in strong form in the NWSL, and that players won’t earn call-ups based on prior USWNT performances.
“The importance of what you’re doing week in, week out, at the club level, it absolutely matters,” Hayes said, “because you have to perform consistently, or you have to be in environments where you’re challenging yourselves every day. That’s the big message for me.”
The returns of forward Alyssa Thompson and…
