A new era
When Lily Yohannes sent in the USWNT’s third-place finish on Tuesday, it wasn’t just a goal, it was a symbol of a new era.
Under pressure from cheering teammates as she made her dream debut as a substitute, the 16-year-old Ajax midfielder’s calm low shot secured a 3-0 victory as Emma Hayes started her managerial tenure with a pair of convincing victories over South Korea.
Given the range of options available to Hayes as she prepares to name her Olympic squad, it would be a surprise to see Yohannes, who turns 17 next week, making an 18-player roster. Yet she is the youngest player to play for the US since 2001 and the youngest to score in the US past 30 yearsand, thanks to her goal, an emblem of a side looking to the future under a coach looking to revive a team that was stale and outdated during last year’s World Cup – a demise years in the making.
Based on the limited evidence from a few home games against weak opposition, giving the youth a chance seems like a logical choice, but also a philosophical decision. The US looked much sharper and livelier in the first match against Korea – a 4-0 win in Colorado last Saturday, when the average age of the starting XI was 25.5 – than in rainy Minnesota, where Hayes made nine changes and with a more experienced line-up with an average age of 28 years old.
The visitors improved for the second meeting, but the US was much more dynamic on Tuesday as Hayes hooked Alex Morgan and introduced Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith. They combined for the second goal, scored by Smith from a tight angle, five minutes after coming on as substitutes in the 62nd minute.
Think ahead
After their lofty attacking performance on their way to a round of 16 finish in 2023, Hayes will be pleased that the USA scored seven goals in two games and that some of the movement was spirited – particularly in the build-up to Swanson’s goals last Saturday. her second came courtesy of a nifty assist from substitute Rose Lavelle, who won her 100th cap as a starter at Allianz Field on Tuesday.
The stingy limit on the size of the Olympic squad will force the coach to make some tough choices. Excluding Morgan, who turns 35 during the tournament, would be a bold decision given the value of her experience and link play – even if others, such as Catarina Macário, who Hayes knows well from their time at Chelsea, could offer more versatility. and zipper. Not that it was all bad news for the veterans, with Crystal Dunn starting at forward for the for the first time since 2017with which she scored the opening goal from close range: her first at international level since 2018.
Adaptability could be decisive. “I have to start thinking about which players could fill multiple positions for the team and of course I have experimented as much as possible in these two matches,” said Hayes during her post-match press conference. “I thought Crystal was solid in every way, shape and form all night and I’m excited to coach her again.”
Reassuringly familiar
Since the start of 2021, this was the 15th time the US played a pair of friendlies against the same opponents in the span of a few days. Of those 30 matches, the US has won 26, drawn three and lost one, scoring 109 goals and conceding six.
Yet no new manager would ever regard a first win as routine. This was in some ways a throwback to the days when the US usually faced vastly inferior opponents who dropped deep, occupied the defense and seemed to score against the flow of play. But the balance of power has evolved: the US is not as good as it used to be, while other countries have improved rapidly. “Spain is so far ahead of everyone else,” Hayes said recently told ESPN.
While her first practices and the games against South Korea will have been instructive as Hayes prepares to trim her roster, the next match, a friendly against Mexico in New Jersey on July 13, promises to be more instructive about the prospects of the team in France.
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Mexico won the last meeting between the countries, a 2-0 victory in the Gold Cup in February, underscoring that regional, let alone global, dominance can no longer be taken for granted. Three days later, the US meets Costa Rica in Washington. They kick off their Olympic campaign against Zambia in Nice on July 25, before taking on even bigger tasks against Germany and Australia in Marseille.
Identity switch
Hayes has spoken of her desire to inculcate “new heights and a new identity.” That’s not surprising, considering last year’s World Cup flop and a slew of veterans in the sunset meant this would be a program in transition no matter who took charge.
What a new personality will look like under a coach known more for pragmatism than dogmatism remains to be seen. But Macário, who played under Hayes at Chelsea, told reporters in Colorado that Hayes wants a style that is part regimental and part out-of-the-box: relying on the players’ individual gifts within a clearly defined overall framework, like a play in a script. with a few improv scenes. “I think there’s something really good about Emma’s style and the way she wants us to be fluid in our structured principles, so I think she gives us a lot of freedom,” Macário said.
Tierna Davidson referred to “information…overload during the week” before the game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Part of that barrage was Hayes emphasizing the importance of set pieces. The defender clearly got the message: she scored twice with headers from corner kicks, while in her previous 57 international matches, in 2018, she only found the net once.
Time limits
While Hayes has a lot to learn, the Olympics threaten to become so big that there will only be time for tinkering rather than transformation. While the US is chasing gold for the first time since London 2012, France is on the learning curve, with the 2027 World Cup as the ultimate goal. That much became clear when US Soccer agreed to wait more than six months for Hayes to start, while they finished the WSL season with Chelsea.
Twila Kilgore, the interim coach following the departure of Vlatko Andonovski last August, acted as a proxy for the boss. And despite the time crunch, Hayes clearly wants to hit the ground running – because he’s too driven and ambitious to know any other way.
“I think you can see we’re building something,” Hayes told reporters after the Colorado win. “There is a lot of work to be done. There are undoubtedly a lot of holes in our game, but it was a good start.”