USWNT icon Sam Mewis issues immediate verdict on start of Emma Hayes era
The USWNT's hiring of Emma Hayes as their new head coach has been tipped to be the "perfect marriage" following the ex-Chelsea manager's first two games in charge.
Hayes, 47, ended her 12-year reign in west London at the end of the most recent Women's Super League season to take over as the new head coach of the USWNT.
The seven-time WSL title winner was tasked with reinvigorating a global powerhouse that had slipped into a concerning malaise. The four-time world champions suffered an ignominious Round of 16 exit at last summer's Women's World Cup, marking the team's earliest exit from the showpiece event in their history.
A heady transformation was needed to return the U.S. back amongst the global juggernauts, and while Hayes has only taken charge of two matches thus far, many believe the signs are increasingly positive that the English coach can achieve the feat.
" We've only seen two games with Emma really coaching so I can't get carried away but it was good!,” former USWNT midfielder Sam Mewis told the Counter Pressed podcast. “I think it's really exciting, we do have a ton of really young and exciting and developing players right now who can have a huge impact on the world stage.
"So to imagine them being coached by this perennial winner, who is really flexible tactically, who can kind of let them do their thing, I think is an exciting new chapter for the US women’s national team."
Hayes guided her side to successive victories over South Korea in a friendly double-header, winning by an aggregate score of 7-0.
The scorelines told only part of the story, however. Both displays were defined by fluidity, ingenuity and versatility. Hayes named the youngest USWNT starting XI since April 2022 in her first match against South Korea, with an average age of 25.5 years and 45 caps per player. Hayes then proceeded to make nine changes to the starting line-up from the initial 4-0 victory for the second contest some days later.
Emma Hayes won her first two matches in charge of the USWNT
Despite the plethora of changes, the U.S. needed little time to find its groove and claim a comfortable 3-0 victory. In it, then-16-year-old Lily Yohannes not only won her first national team cap but scored her first national team goal. At 16 years and 358 days old, the Ajax forward became the third-youngest goalscorer in USWNT history.
Yohannes is a microcosm of the new Hayes era: a fearlessness to not only entrust talent but to do so immediately. The Hayes era has long been hailed as a fresh start but the former Chelsea manager is ensuring that such claims are not nominal slogans.
The previous USWNT era was defined by a reluctance to let go of an ageing generation, to stick with convention and refrain from invention due to the inherent risks. Hayes has replaced the operational manual with a new energy.
“I have a lot of nervous energy and excitement about the potential of Emma coaching the national team," said Mewis, who announced her retirement from football at the start of the year due to a long-standing knee injury.
"I think it has the potential to be this kind of perfect marriage of a team with a history and a standard of winning and competitiveness and a coach who has kind of created the same thing," Mewis
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