Emma Hayes eager to see what top USWNT prospects can achieve
When Emma Hayes took the reins of the women’s national soccer team in 2024, one of her first goals was to plumb the depths of the team’s talent pool. She knew what she had on the surface with veterans like Rose Lavelle, Naomi Girma, Lindsey Heaps and Trinity Rodman. But what about the players under their command? Who could intervene in the event of injury, absence or lack of form?
Twenty months later, Hayes still hasn’t reached the bottom of that pool, which makes this month’s training camp in Carson important as World Cup qualifying approaches in the fall.
“Some pool players are going to have the opportunity to shine,” she said. “Some are prospects with high potential. I’m thinking of Hal Hershfelt or Croix Bethune, players who haven’t had many opportunities with us. I have the opportunity to really see where they are.
“My message is that these players really need to seize these opportunities because they will become rare.”
Hayes gave 27 players their senior national team debuts and used 50 different starters in his 30 matches as coach. No other American manager has named more than 36 starters over a similar period. And the number of debutants could increase as three of the 26 women called up are still seeking their first international cap – which they could earn this month as the training camp concludes with friendlies against Paraguay on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park and Chile at UC Santa Barbara on January 27.
Saturday morning will include a pre-match tribute to Christen Press, a two-time world champion who announced her retirement last fall.
But as valuable as ongoing auditions can be, the decision to call a roster of young NWSL players was made out of necessity, not intent. Because the camp is taking place outside of a FIFA window, Hayes was unable to call up European-based players such as Girma, Heaps, Alyssa Thompson, Crystal Dunn and Catarina Macario. Also unavailable were Jaedyn Shaw, Jaelin Howell, Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and U.S. Soccer Player of the Year Lavelle, who will all play for Gotham FC in next week’s FIFA Women’s Club Championship in England.
U.S. coach Emma Hayes, center, talks with players after an international friendly match against Italy in December.
(Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
“If the European-based players and the Gotham-based players were there, it would be a completely different roster,” Hayes said. “But that’s not the case.”
This isn’t new either. The coach has not had what she considers to be her first-choice team since taking charge of the national team.
Injury prevented Macario from being part of the team that won gold at the Paris Olympics, Hayes’ first tournament as coach, while forwards Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson have been on maternity leave since the Olympics. Injuries have limited Rodman, another forward, to just one game in the past 18 months.
Despite this, the United States has lost only three games out of 20 since leaving the medal stand in Paris. So while she would prefer to start the new year with the veteran core of her 2027 World Cup squad in uniform, that hasn’t happened. Instead, the 26 invited players – including Rodman, Angel City defender Gisele Thompson and Santa Clarita’s Olivia Moultrie – average 24.1 years and 6.6 caps of senior team experience.
“What I have learned since the Olympics is that I will never be able to choose the best team because I will always be without players,” she said.
One year before the World Cup, the selection period will soon end. Hayes said she and her team have mapped out how they would like to see 2026 unfold, and that plan includes narrowing the pool of potential players to about 35 women before the SheBelieves Cup in March.
“Once we get to SheBelieves, if everyone is available to me, that will be the group that is the strongest candidate to be [part of World Cup qualifying]“, she said. “It will be an extremely competitive list.”
Yet it will be a game that still doesn’t feature Wilson or Swanson, who have scored seven of the team’s 12 goals at the Olympics. Wilson gave birth to a daughter in September, two months before Swanson did the same. Hayes, who had a son in the spring of 2018, has no plans to rush either player’s return.
“I know how long it takes to recover after having a baby. That’s why I don’t like to impose deadlines,” she said. “Hormones play a big role. And you don’t realize it until you’ve had a baby.
“For some, recovery is faster than for others. It depends on your age, it depends on the type of delivery, sleep. Lots of things.”
In the meantime, Hayes will continue to draw from the talent pool she has.
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