Emma Hayes names her first US Women's National Team roster 🇺🇲
Three days since winning the WSL in England, Emma drops her first Team USA roster. With 65 days until their first Olympic game, the countdown begins.
Though there were days when change felt lethargic, time hurries forth in the end. Emma Hayes is officially in charge of the US Women’s National Team. She named her first official roster today.
Two Saturdays from now, on June first, Hayes will lead the US in the first of two friendlies against South Korea, her first games officially in charge. That pair of looming friendlies (hosted outside Denver and St. Paul) accounts for two of the mere four she’ll have to prepare for this summer’s Olympics.
Just three days ago, of course, Hayes was lifting her fifth straight WSL title and saying so long to twelve years in London with Chelsea. Leaving no daylight between that challenge and her next one, Hayes hinted at a grudge to settle with Spain as she bid temporary farewell to the English press (“See you guys at some point, maybe Olympic gold medal final, I have to go and fucking beat the Spanish at some point”), and was featured in promos wearing USA logo’d hoodies in a matter of two days.
She’ll have time to rest and sleep on the red-eye, I suppose.
The team Emma inherits is far removed from the one that fell short in Melbourne last year. New headaches have arisen, though, and include near-impossible personnel decisions (the 18 player roster offers sparingly few places) but expands well beyond naming names.
With 65 days to go before the US start their Olympic campaign against Zambia in Nice, a smattering of untimely injuries has taken hold of players both in and out of camp.
Most glaringly, Alyssa Naeher, the veteran keeper who’s played the part of penalty hero in both trophies the team picked up this year (W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup) is out of camp with a thigh injury she picked up May 12. Other players that have spent time on the injury list over the past month, but will come into camp in varying degrees of fitness, include Tierna Davidson, Alex Morgan, Jaedyn Shaw, and Naomi Girma.
Injuries played a key role in their disappointment last summer. Will ill-timed injuries smite them again?
Emma’s 23-player roster features only 11 players from the 2023 World Cup, though much of that transition occurred with Twila Kilgore at the interim helm. 19 of the 23 present for April’s seventh SheBelieves Cup victory are back in camp this month. Rose Lavelle, Aubrey Kingsbury, Sam Staab and Hal Hershfelt represent the four new additions. The latter two, alongside 16-year-old Lily Yohannes, account for three uncapped players in Emma’s first roster.
Croix Bethune (Washington Spirit rookie sensation, who plays alongside newly called up rookie standout Hershfelt in DC), 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie, and yet another Washington Spirit rookie, this time defender Kate Wiesner, will train with the squad.
Other things worth nothing include that Crystal Dunn is listed as a forward.
65 days offers so little time to prepare for an Olympics, and players will spend a preponderance of that time with their club. At their best, I do believe this team can beat anyone, and dare I say, challenge for another medal. But they could just as well fall far short. Every team in the tournament presents a unique challenge; every group in the Olympics is a group of death.
In a statement put out by US Soccer, Hayes had the following to say:
“I’m really looking forward to getting started. The preparations have been well underway and I can’t wait to get into camp. We know it’s a short turnaround and we have a lot of work to do, but I’m fully focused on making sure that the performances are at the levels that are required to compete. I want to build on the work that (former interim head coach and now assistant coach) Twila (Kilgore) has been implementing over the last six months. I expect complete commitment from everyone to absorb very quickly the things that I value as the most important so that we can compete this summer. I know they are a highly coachable group and I’m looking forward to challenging them. It’s time to go to work. I can’t wait to meet the fans and it’s really time to get behind the team as we get closer to putting a roster together for the Olympics.”