For the U.S. women’s national team, two 3-1 victories over Iceland and a 3-0 win over Argentina are perfectly ordinary results. But these friendly matches are never about the results; they are about the performances, what is learned along the way.
Going into this latest round of U.S. friendlies, a lot of the focus naturally fell on newcomers to the squad. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that not a single one of them looked at all out of place. Emma Hayes, in her short tenure so far as head coach, has not only won an Olympic Gold medal, but well and truly opened the doors to this team.
During these friendlies, seven players made their debut: Eva Gaetino, Mandy Haught, Hal Hershfelt, Alyssa Malonson, Yazmeen Ryan, Emily Sams and Emma Sears. They followed in the footsteps of Croix Bethune, Sam Staab and Lily Yohannes, taking the total of debutants in the Hayes era to 10. Hayes has been in charge officially for five months. Her predecessor, Vlatko Andonovski, handed out 18 debuts in four years as head coach.
Of course, the timing is different. Hayes took over a U.S. side still shell-shocked from a second round exit at the 2023 FIFA World Cup, whereas Andonovski arrived on the back of a superb 2019 World Cup win. But where Andonovski clung so dearly onto the old stars, hoping they had another trophy in the tank, Hayes clearly viewed the aftermath of this year’s Olympic success as the ideal conditions in which to proactively welcome more new talent. Much easier to fix the roof while the sun is shining, and all that.
