Emma Hayes' USWNT rebuild is just getting started

If there was any doubt about how much the most recent United States women’s national team roster deviated from the historical norm of consistency, the starting lineup for Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Argentina provided confirmation.

USWNT head coach Emma Hayes followed through on her promises of player rotation and handing out first caps by making 10 changes to the XI that beat Iceland 3-1 three days earlier and starting three players in their first senior international game. The USWNT had not seen three players debut as starters since it fielded an inexperienced squad in 2001 during the preseason of the now defunct WUSA.

Seven players made their USWNT debuts over the three games in the past week, which hadn’t happened in eight years. The list of rare feats went on throughout the week for the USWNT, including forward Emma Sears tallying a goal and an assist in her debut, which hadn’t happened in 10 years.

The past week was unequivocally the start of a new era for the USWNT. The message was reiterated coming into this victory tour for the 2024 Olympic champions and it was reinforced by every action on the field against a disciplined Iceland team and a beleaguered Argentina squad. Nothing was a given and — to recite a common refrain from players and coaches alike during the week — everyone was there for a reason.

Hayes was never afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and experiment as head coach of Chelsea over the past 12 years, and her innovative thinking is why U.S. Soccer sought her to become the USWNT’s new head coach. Change was needed after the USWNT’s historic collapse at the 2023 World Cup in the round of 16.

The federation was immediately rewarded with a fifth Olympic gold medal in August, and Hayes with the first Ballon d’Or Coach of the Year award earlier this week.

This international window was like a delayed honeymoon for the USWNT’s Hayes era. She was thrust into high stakes under a seemingly impossible timeline when she coached her first USWNT game on June 1, less than two months before the Olympics. Hayes could not fully test players and tactical concepts the way she might have with more lead time.

With an Olympic gold medal in hand, however, the end of October was a rare moment for a prestigious USWNT program. It was a celebration of another trophy but was also the start of a very public and potentially drastic rebuilding process from the ground up. Nothing and nobody, no matter their role at the recent Olympics or historically with the USWNT, is guaranteed anything going forward.

And as easy as that is for many coaches to say, Hayes has already shown she will follow through. She left legendary forward Alex Morgan at home for the Olympics; she benched creative midfielder Rose Lavelle for the Olympic gold medal match in favor of a different tactical approach. This month, Hayes gave first caps to players who had never even been in a youth national team camp, a further implication that résumés don’t matter.

This three-game window for the USWNT gave Hayes a look at just about everything. There was Argentina’s low block, which a far less experienced USWNT lineup on Wednesday handled much better than the squad that was held to a frustrating, scoreless draw against Costa Rica in July’s Olympic sendoff match. That was subtle progress. The Americans even trailed for the first time under Hayes in a choppy first half of the rematch against Iceland. It was a moment Hayes relished, and as she switched to an aggressive 3-5-2 in the second half, her team responded with an impressive 45 minutes.

The three-game circuit started with 19-year-old Alyssa Thompson scoring the first goal in a 3-1 win over Iceland. It was her first international goal in her first game with the USWNT in nearly a year. Defender Naomi Girma scored her first two international goals on Wednesday and played a major role in the USWNT’s third tally (an own goal) to continue the celebratory vibe of the entire week. As Girma said after the match, the USWNT got “all we could have hoped for this window.”

Now, the Americans turn their attention to much more difficult tasks in a month: road games vs. England and Netherlands, the past two European champions. Hayes said again Wednesday that she will bring a more experienced squad to those matches, but the experimentation will continue in January, when the USWNT resumes its traditional training camp in Southern California in addition to an identification camp for young players that will operate simultaneously with the senior camp.

By early spring, when the annual SheBelieves Cup rolls around, Hayes expects to have identified the core of the team that she will develop for the two-plus years ahead of the next World Cup.

“I totally know that the challenges ahead won’t be straightforward,” Hayes said. “But I absolutely want to develop a bigger playing pool, and we’ve demonstrated over three games the use of 26 players, a lot of debutants, a lot with less experience, starting to build that picture. And we’ll continue with that.”

Right now, everything Hayes and her staff do is geared toward the 2027 World Cup. Hayes answered nearly every big-picture question throughout the week by referencing her 2027-28 strategy, which she says is still being finalized and will be presented internally in January. How will the USWNT’s playing style evolve? What can be improved to stay ahead of the rest of the world? Check back in January, was Hayes’ answer each time.

The past week was about seeing new and returning players up close — and several impressed. Thompson scored in the opening match before impressing in a wing-back role in the rematch with Iceland. Sears, who never earned a youth national team call-up, had her “surreal” debut. Even Jaedyn Shaw, who didn’t play a minute at the Olympics due to injury, reminded the world why she could be the long-term answer as the No. 9 or No. 10.

Realistically, not everyone will stick around for the 2027 World Cup and perhaps not even for the January camp. There are plenty of historical examples of players who earned only one or a few caps, even among those who had historic debut goals. There isn’t room for everyone; the USWNT’s talent pool is arguably the deepest in the world — and Hayes still wants more.

Broadening the player pool with a greater diversity of players will lead to more tactical versatility, Hayes said last week. Her goal is to provide a shorter-term roadmap to winning the 2027 World Cup — which would mark a historic fifth title for the Americans — and a longer-term plan to revolutionize and futureproof the program’s tactical style and player development methodology.

“My whole purpose is joining things up,” Hayes said as she discussed her desire to bridge the gap between the U20 and senior levels — one that she says is too large of a jump. She plans to hold more U23 programming to mitigate that concern.

Hayes is articulate about her expectations of players, including her desire for better decision making in the final third and better execution on set pieces. She got that on Wednesday, albeit from an unlikely source in Girma. Hayes is detailed in her tactical explanations, like why she likes playing Lavelle in a deeper No. 8 role as she did during this international window, but Hayes is equally guarded about her observations to avoid showing her hand to future opponents.

“I still don’t believe we’re generating as much xG [expected goals] as I think we can,” Hayes said after Wednesday’s 3-0 win. “We’re still limited a little bit with that, but I think that will come with a bit more time. The team knows the gaps that I want to close, and I think we’re doing that by scoring multiple [goals] in more games, which is an expectation from me.”

Nobody should read too much into the performances of the team or any individual player over the past three games given the circumstances. There was heavy rotation due to the NWSL’s looming playoffs, and while Iceland was organized and relatively dangerous in transition, Argentina offered little going forward and struggled defensively.

Still, the past week offered glimpses of the USWNT’s future — and who might come along for the journey.