People may ask whether Emma Hayes is ready for America, but is America ready for Emma Hayes? The new USWNT boss talks to ESPN: 'I'm ready for the adventure of a lifetime.'
It is tempting to imagine Emma Hayes as soccer's Wonder Woman who comes to America to fight for peace, justice and World Cup glory. Fierce and determined, she is imbued with motivational powers, tactical acuity and a mental fortitude that should help her blow past any obstacle in her path until she has achieved nothing less than restoring the toppled majesty of the U.S. women's national team to its rightful place on the global throne.
Soon enough, Emma Hayes will not be able to vanish in an American crowd. When she steps onto the touchline at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver on June 1 for a friendly against South Korea, she will be the most scrutinized, highest-paid and meme-worthy coach in women's soccer.Hayes will be up against the tyranny of expectations that accompanies being coach of the USWNT.
People may ask whether Emma Hayes is ready for America, but perhaps it makes more sense to ask whether America is ready for Emma Hayes? I will speak to previous national team coaches and look for their guidance not only on the transition, which I hope Gregg in particular will help me with, but also Vlatko and Jill Ellis. I want to learn as much as I can as quickly as possible from them.
ESPN: Where would you be today if the U.S. job hadn't opened up? Would you still be at Chelsea, or had you reached that point where you needed a fresh challenge no matter where it would take you? ESPN: When you talk about intensity and pressure, you know what a polarizing flashpoint the U.S. Women's National team is. You recently deleted your Twitter and Instagram accounts because of torrents of abuse in the UK. You have never shied away from making your voice heard on such things as the soccer patriarchy and the fight for equity.
Ignore the noise and just do your job. Do what you're paid to do and spend some time with Harry. Go and do something with him. Switch off. That's what he always said and to be fair to him, he wouldn't have changed. He'd have took the piss outta me. He'd crack a joke and lighten the mood. I come from a family that know how to do that really well.
Yet it lacked the chemistry on the pitch and the cohesion. And it felt like no matter what I could do, I couldn't influence it. So I lost myself a little in that. And look, let's be brutally honest: That Chicago team never went on to win, so it wasn't like it was solely the coach. It's always a combination of things, but I needed it. I needed to struggle. I felt like a hurt dog that needed to be put down. I was relieved.
ESPN: You've written that one of the key things for a coach is to spot when a star veteran has begun to decline. These must be crucial and difficult conversations between you and a player. Do you anticipate having any of these heart-to-hearts with the current U.S. mainstays? Look, there's a team that's been together for a while, and there's a coaching staff behind the team still in place. They know these players inside and out and that will accelerate my understanding of those things. So it's not like I go in there with zero knowledge.
I would've loved to have worked in counter intelligence. I'd have loved to be a part of a covert operation somewhere. There is no doubt. I have definitely applied an academic understanding to being a football manager. And it has served me well.
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