A new era
When Lily Yohannes steered in the USWNT’s third on Tuesday, it wasn’t just a goal, it was a symbol of a new era.
Mobbed by celebrating teammates as she made a dream debut as a substitute, the 16-year-old Ajax midfielder’s calm low shot sealed a 3-0 win as Emma Hayes began her managerial tenure with a convincing pair of victories over South Korea.
A DREAM DEBUT FOR LILY!!!!#USWNT x @VW pic.twitter.com/RWlOYpLSjj
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) June 5, 2024
Given the range of options available to Hayes as she prepares to name her Olympic squad it would be a surprise to see Yohannes, who turns 17 next week, make an 18-player roster. Still, she is the youngest player to feature for the US since 2001, the youngest to score in the past 30 years, and, thanks to her goal, an emblem of a side looking to the future under a coach intent on reviving a team that was stale and senescent at last year’s World Cup – a downfall years in the making.
On the limited evidence of a pair of home friendlies against weak opposition, giving youth a chance appears to be the logical choice as well as a philosophical decision. The US looked much sharper and sprightly in the first game against Korea – a 4-0 win in Colorado last Saturday when the average age of the starting XI was 25.5 years – than they did in rainy Minnesota, where Hayes made nine changes and went with a more experienced lineup averaging 28 years old.
The visitors improved for the second encounter but the US were far more dynamic on Tuesday once Hayes hooked Alex Morgan and introduced Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith. They combined for the second goal, scored by Smith from an tight angle, five minutes after coming on as 62nd-minute substitutes.
Forward thinking
After their stilted attacking performances en route to a round-of-16 exit in 2023, Hayes will be pleased that the US mustered seven goals in two games and that some of the movement was zingy – notably in the buildup to Swanson’s goals last Saturday, her second created by an adroit assist from substitute Rose Lavelle, who won her 100th cap as a starter at Allianz Field on Tuesday.
The miserly Olympic squad size limit will force the coach to make some difficult choices. Excluding Morgan, who’ll be 35 during the tournament, would be a bold call given the value of her experience and link play – even if others, such as Catarina Macário, whom Hayes knows well from their time at Chelsea, can offer more versatility and zip. Not that it was all bad news for the veterans, with Crystal Dunn, starting as a forward for the first time since 2017, scoring the opening goal from close range: her first at international level since 2018.
Adaptability could prove decisive. “I have to start thinking about which players might fill multiple positions for the team and of course I’ve experimented as much as I could do in these two games,” Hayes said in her post-match press conference. “I thought Crystal was solid the whole evening in every shape, way and form and I’m happy to be back coaching her.”
Reassuringly familiar
Since the start of 2021 this was the 15th time the US have played a pair of friendlies against the same opponents in the space of a couple of days. Of those 30 matches, the US have won 26, drawn three and lost one, scoring 109 goals and conceding six.
Still, no new manager would ever view a first win as routine. This was in some ways a throwback to the days when the US habitually faced much-inferior opponents who dropped deep, packed the defense and looked to sneak a goal against the run of play. But the balance of power has evolved: the US aren’t as good as they were while other nations have rapidly improved. “Spain is so far ahead of everyone else,” Hayes recently told ESPN.
While her first training sessions and the games against South Korea will have been educational as Hayes prepares to prune her squad, the next match, a friendly against Mexico in New Jersey on 13 July, promises to be more instructive about the team’s prospects in France.
Mexico won the last meeting between the countries, a 2-0 victory in the Gold Cup in February, underlining that regional, let alone global, dominance can no longer be taken for granted. The US then meet Costa Rica in Washington three days later. They kick off their Olympic campaign against Zambia in Nice on 25 July before more daunting tasks against Germany and Australia in Marseille.
Identity switch
Hayes has spoken of her desire to imprint “new heights and a new identity”. That’s hardly surprising given that last year’s World Cup flop and a slew of sunset-bound veterans meant this would be a program in transition regardless of who took charge.
What a new personality will look like under a coach known more for pragmatism than dogmatism remains to be seen. But Macário, who played under Hayes at Chelsea, told reporters in Colorado that Hayes wants a style that is part-regimented, part off-the-cuff: trusting in the players’ individual gifts within a clearly defined overall framework, like a scripted play with a few scenes of improv. “I think something that’s really good about Emma’s style and the way that she wants us to be fluid in our structured principles, so I think she gives us a lot of freedom,” Macário said.
Tierna Davidson referenced “information … overload throughout the week” before the game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Part of that barrage was Hayes emphasizing the importance of set pieces. The defender clearly got the message, scoring twice with headers from corners having found the net only once in her previous 57 caps, back in 2018.
Time limits
While Hayes has plenty to teach, the Olympics are looming so large that there is only time for tinkering rather than transformation. Though the US will chase a first gold since London 2012, France is a gradient on the learning curve, with the 2027 World Cup the eventual target. That much was obvious when US Soccer agreed to wait more than six months for Hayes to start the job while she finished the WSL season with Chelsea.
Twila Kilgore, the interim coach after Vlatko Andonovski departed last August, acted as something of a proxy for the boss. And despite the time crunch Hayes clearly aims to hit the ground running – being too driven and ambitious to know any other way.
“I think you can see we’re building something,” Hayes told reporters after the win in Colorado. “There’s lots of work to do. There’s lots of holes in our play, no question, but it was a good start.”
