{"id":740025,"date":"2026-06-16T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740025\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:34:14","slug":"womens-soccer-storylines-at-the-mens-world-cup-plus-emma-hayes-saves-the-hydration-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/740025\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s soccer storylines at the men\u2019s World Cup. Plus: Emma Hayes saves the hydration break"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cupdate
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Hydrate and educate<\/p>\n

Emma Hayes is a problem-solver. And the U.S. women\u2019s national team coach might have just solved FIFA\u2019s new, dreaded men\u2019s World Cup feature, the hydration break.\u00a0It only took her 70 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a hydration break?\u00a0Global soccer\u2019s governing body introduced the mid-half three-minute stoppages for this summer\u2019s tournament. They\u2019re supposedly\u00a0meant to combat the heat<\/a> in the host nations of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
\nWhat\u2019s the issue? The break effectively creates a game of four quarters instead of two halves, changing a fundamental element of soccer. But speaking more cynically, the pauses provide chances for broadcasters to sell more advertising spots during FIFA\u2019s biggest World Cup ever. Players like Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk and U.S. men\u2019s coach Mauricio Pochettino have expressed their dislike for the breaks.
\nHayes to the rescue:\u00a0British TV broadcaster ITV turned to Hayes to make the best of a bad situation. From a stunning rooftop in Brooklyn, Hayes used her trusty chalkboard to provide insightful tactical analysis during a break that actually\u00a0added\u00a0to the viewing experience.<\/p>\n

With Spain struggling to find answers for tournament debutants Cape Verde earlier today, Hayes suggested the 2010 World Cup winners focus on their \u201cwide rotations\u201d that produced two strong breakthroughs in the \u201cfirst quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously,\u00a0Spain wasn\u2019t able to hear her<\/a>, leading to one of the\u00a0most shocking results in World Cup history<\/a>. Unfortunately for those in the U.S., the only clips of Hayes you\u2019ll get are on social media or using a VPN.<\/p>\n

Soccer history lesson<\/p>\n

The U.S. men have\u00a0sparked optimism across the country<\/a>\u00a0with their 4-1 win over Paraguay in Friday\u2019s opening match of their World Cup run. But they are still following the lead of a team that has been dominant for decades.<\/p>\n

The reason the men don\u2019t have a superstar\u00a0\u2014 yet \u2014 is the same reason the U.S. women do: culture,\u00a0as Asli Pelit writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though you can\u2019t compare the teams\u2019 experiences in World Cups for various reasons, it\u2019s important to recognize the dominance the U.S.\u00a0women\u00a0have long shown amid any conversation about the growth of the sport.<\/p>\n

You can certainly still celebrate both teams. In fact, many of the U.S. women were in the stands last Friday to witness the men\u2019s impressive win at SoFi. We asked a couple of those players what it was like to experience the game in person:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcac North Carolina Courage midfielder Riley Jackson:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve always dreamed of attending a World Cup. Getting to do so for the first time on U.S. soil in such an amazing atmosphere was more special than I could have imagined.\u201d (Note: The U.S. women won the 1999 Women\u2019s World Cup six years before Jackson was born.)<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcac Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson:\u00a0\u201cI thought the energy and the crowd were electric. It was so cool being able to watch a World Cup game live in our home country. The game was super exciting, our team played so well and I had so much fun. I can\u2019t wait to go to more games and cheer on the guys!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Matt Winkelmeyer \u2013 FIFA \/ FIFA via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The U.S. men will continue\u00a0their World Cup journey<\/a>\u00a0Friday at 3 p.m. ET against Australia. You can catch the game on Fox and in Spanish on Telemundo and Peacock.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the men\u2019s next chance to support the women in a tournament of the same magnitude on home soil will be in Los Angeles at the 2028 Olympics or at the 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup, which will likely be in the U.S., Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cupdate Hydrate and educate Emma Hayes is a problem-solver. And the U.S. women\u2019s national team coach might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,8081,561,82,67875],"class_list":["post-740025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nwsl","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-us-womens-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}