United States women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said repeatedly on Tuesday that she wants to increase programming for young, potential international players to make up for a potential “lost generation.”
Hayes was speaking moments after her 26-player roster for January camp was unveiled and one day ahead of the naming of a 24-player developmental roster that will train adjacent to the senior U.S. team outside of Los Angeles beginning next week.
“When you consider how little programming some players have actually had, I almost feel like we’ve had a little bit of a lost generation that might not have had some of the exposures that, as I said, some of the top nations have,” Hayes said. “So, I’m desperate to look at ways to bridge that gap, because we can’t wholeheartedly just rely on domestic play to do that. We have to give international experiences to players.”
