{"id":141610,"date":"2026-01-20T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141610\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:45:12","slug":"emma-hayes-eager-to-see-what-top-uswnt-prospects-can-achieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141610\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Hayes eager to see what top USWNT prospects can achieve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Emma Hayes<\/a> took the reins of the women\u2019s national soccer team in 2024<\/a>, one of her first goals was to plumb the depths of the team\u2019s talent pool. She knew what she had on the surface with veterans such as Rose Lavelle<\/a>, Naomi Girma<\/a>, Lindsey Heaps<\/a> and Trinity Rodman<\/a>. But what about the players under them? Who could step in in case of injury, absence or a lack of form?<\/p>\n

Twenty months later, Hayes still hasn\u2019t reached the bottom of that pool, making this month\u2019s training camp in Carson an important one with World Cup qualifying looming in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the pool players are going to get an opportunity to shine,\u201d she said. \u201cSome are high-potential prospects. I think about Hal Hershfelt<\/a> or Croix Bethune<\/a>, players who have not had a lot of opportunity with us. I get a chance to really see where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message is these players really have to take these opportunities because they will become few and far between.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayes has given 27 players their senior national team debuts and has used 50 different starters in her 30 matches as coach. No other U.S. manager has named more than 36 starters over a similar span. And the number of debutantes could grow since three of the 26 women called up are still looking for their first international cap \u2014 something they could earn this month since the training camp will end with friendlies against Paraguay on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park and Chile at UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s matinee will include a pregame tribute to Christen Press, a two-time world champion who announced her retirement last fall.<\/p>\n

But as valuable as the continuing auditions may be, the decision to call up a roster of young, NWSL players was made out of necessity, not design. Because the camp falls outside a FIFA window, Hayes was unable to summon 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 Lavelle, U.S. Soccer\u2019s women\u2019s player of the year, who will all be playing for Gotham FC in next week\u2019s FIFA Women\u2019s Championship Club in England.<\/p>\n

\"U.S. <\/p>\n

U.S. coach Emma Hayes, center, speaks with players after an international friendly match against Italy in December.<\/p>\n

(Rebecca Blackwell \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the European-based players and the Gotham-based players were here, this would be a completely different roster,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also nothing new. The coach hasn\u2019t had what she considers her first-choice roster since taking over the national team.<\/p>\n

Injury kept Macario off the team that struck gold in the Paris Olympics, Hayes\u2019 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 one game over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

Despite that, the U.S. has lost just three of 20 games since climbing off the medal stand in Paris. So while she would prefer to start the new year with the veteran core of her 2027 World Cup roster in uniform, that didn\u2019t happen. Instead, the 26 invited players \u2014 among them Rodman, Angel City<\/a> defender Gisele Thompson<\/a> and Santa Clarita\u2019s Olivia Moultrie<\/a> \u2014 average 24.1 years of age and 6.6 caps of senior-team experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned since the Olympics is I can never, ever pick the best roster because I\u2019m always going to be without players,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With the World Cup a year away, the tryout period will soon be ending. Hayes said she and her staff have mapped out how they\u2019d like to see 2026 unfold, and that plan includes narrowing the potential player pool to about 35 women ahead of the SheBelieves Cup<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we get to SheBelieves, if everyone is available to me, it will be the group that are strong candidates to be [part of World Cup qualifying],\u201d she said. \u201cIt will be an extremely competitive roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet it will be one that still won\u2019t include Wilson or Swanson, who combined for seven of the team\u2019s 12 goals in 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, doesn\u2019t plan to rush back either player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how long it takes to recover after having a baby. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t like putting time frames on it,\u201d she said. \u201cHormones play a big part of it. And you don\u2019t actually realize that until you\u2019ve had a baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some the recovery is quicker than others. Depends on your age, depends on type of birth, sleep. Loads of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Hayes will keep dipping into the talent pool she has.<\/p>\n

\u26bd You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week\u2019s episode of the \u201cCorner of the Galaxy\u201d podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Emma Hayes took the reins of the women\u2019s national soccer team in 2024, one of her first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4690,71258,349,48,52,51,47,50,49,71261,3906,71259,9442,39363,71260,427,9084,39616,1557,5393,72],"class_list":["post-141610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-coach","tag-emma-hayes","tag-injury","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mallory-swanson","tag-month","tag-paris-olympics","tag-player","tag-rose-lavelle","tag-sophia-wilson","tag-team","tag-training-camp","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-woman","tag-world-cup","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}