In November, U.S. Soccer made a bet that hiring Emma Hayes would be worth sacrificing a year of continued preparation under a permanent head coach. An interim management oversees the U.S. women’s national team for eight months following the 2023 World Cup. To her credit, Twila Kilgore helped turn the roster around during her time as a reserve and allowed her team to win two tune-up games this spring.
Still, this is a failed year for the project, which desperately needs a clear new vision. There are still two months left before Hayes’ first game as the head coach of the US women’s soccer team in June. The period after the World Cup has been extended to 10 months, and it has been a full seven months since she took office in November.
With the CONCACAF W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup in review, it’s time to take stock. Is the program better prepared for the Paris Olympics than when Sweden was eliminated from the World Cup?
The 2023 World Cup cycle (and the Vlatko Antonovski era) marks the lowest point on the field for the U.S. women’s soccer team.
The belated 2020 Olympics are a warning sign that the health of an aging core is uneven amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The team played every game to empty stadiums, a far cry from the raucous support it often enjoyed at major events, and was eventually eliminated by Canada in the semifinals.
Andonovski did not learn from the lessons of that World Cup and essentially repeated the event at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The team’s style of play often looked weak as they failed to penetrate the final third.Multiple players didn’t see the court for a minute as Team USA advanced from their group Thanks in part to friendly goalposts against Portugal. The lighthearted mood didn’t last long, as the U.S. lost in a shootout in the Round of 16 to another long-time rival, Sweden.
Advanced metrics show Team USA has actually done some good things through four games in this tournament. No team takes fewer shots per 90 than this team’s 4.6, and its 2.14-0.32 advantage in expected goals per 90 is certainly an isolated “contender.” However, the problems of organizing offense and creating chances are obvious.
The team’s forward speed is fast enough, ranking 11th in the game. The direct speed of the ball per second is 1.71 meters forward.
Speed isn’t everything. Tournaments are notorious for prompting small-sample judgments, and trend lines are far from clear-cut. Still, none of the 10 teams ranked higher in direct speed advanced further than the Top 16 in the competition.
Speed moving the ball upfield is a useful tool in transition, but once they encounter an opponent’s defense in the final third, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team seems to be running out of ideas. The four teams that were directly faster were also eliminated in the top 16. Unsurprisingly, all five teams that scored fewer goals per 90 minutes than the United States also failed to reach the quarterfinals or advance further.
Note that direct and incisive final third decision-making should not be viewed as mutually exclusive propositions. Considering the talent the U.S. Women’s National Team possesses, it’s possible to create a near-unstoppable balance in the offense. In hindsight, the Federation wants to ensure teams are better equipped to make smart decisions in order to reliably score points.
“We do have a feeling that we need to run the ball better and have more solutions,” U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker said in September. Federation weighs in on players during coaching search A poll was conducted and much of the focus of tactical feedback related to building the attack, playing through the midfield and “providing creative solutions in tight spaces to allow players and tactics to beat the low post”.
Although the midfield was a prayer circle formation, as Kim McCauley so brilliantly described it, they wanted to exploit their engine room after spending the entire cycle moving the ball.
Enter Hayes, a tactical chameleon who has mastered the art of breaking down low defenses at the helm of Chelsea. She develops plans for her opponents rather than guiding them by dogmatic principles. Each game description is designed with one goal in mind: winning, above all else.
You can see the appeal on the surface, hiring a coach accustomed to overcoming the cynical tactics that sunk the team last summer. The problem: The team had to wait until the end of that season for Hayes to admit that her “full focus was on what I was doing for Chelsea.”
If there’s been a highlight of the past 10 months, it’s the Gold Cup quarter-final against Colombia. In previous group matches, the U.S. women’s soccer team was frustrated by lower-tier opponents like Argentina and Mexico as Kilgore maintained a possession-oriented structure that was perhaps too similar to Andonovski’s. The ball’s circulation pattern slows down the team’s offense and gives defensive opponents too much time to get into their ideal positions.
Last summer, Colombia reached the World Cup quarter-finals and was fortunate to have one of the world’s greatest young attackers, Linda Caicedo, and a team suited to her breakthrough abilities. Kilgore worked hard to capitalize on those trends and get her team playing straight. It achieves two things: more attacking intensity going forward and fewer mistakes in the defensive half, which will cater to Colombia’s strengths. The 3-0 victory showed that the U.S. women’s soccer team is back and it showed.
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A similar scoring initiative was impossible in the heavy rain against Canada in the semi-finals, while in the final against Brazil the team opted for a more controlled style of play, winning 1-0. It bore results, ensuring the team won the inaugural Gold Cup.
Still, the team hasn’t shown the consistent goal-scoring ability necessary to be better prepared for the Olympics than the World Cup. Fortunately, SheBelieves is coming, providing another match against high-level opposition to showcase the “creative solutions in tight spaces” that Crocker desires.
Japan has other ideas. Kiko Seike became the first player since 2003 to score in the opening minute against the USWNT, putting the hosts down 1-0 early. With some savvy high-pressure play, the U.S. equalized 20 minutes later, then sealed the victory 2-1 in a penalty shootout in the 77th minute. This is the result of a professional game, but it is not a demonstration of the principles that U.S. Soccer strives to promote.
Next up was Canada, with Kilgore dropping one of her usual four attacking players to become the second pivot at the base of midfield. Whether intentional or not, the team has reverted to its tendency to practice prayer circles.
Kilgore said before the final: “Our offense doesn’t revolve around one player, and that’s intentional.” “The important thing is that we have the ability to score goals in a variety of different ways. Although we Having these predictable moments that we’re looking for, but it’s important that different guys play different roles and be able to recognize when they might need to act early or be a step ahead of the opposition cross.”
After Lindsey Horan tackled Sophia Smith just over five minutes into the final against Canada, the U.S. women’s soccer team seemed to be working on ways to create chances.
Haha, that’s a relief for Canada. It’s time to prepare for another attack.
Oh no, not a prayer circle.
No no no no no-
Canada opened the scoring just over half an hour later after a miscommunication between goalkeeper Alyssa Neher and the defender. Once again, the United States was forced to react to the game after allowing its opponents to set the terms.
Finally, a new group of Naeher Shootout heroes saw the USWNT become SheBelieves champions once again. The two goals conceded may have been due to individual errors.
Then again, that’s how the U.S. women’s soccer team played last summer: a team that largely controlled the game but didn’t show enough bite to turn possession into goals — while being prone to turnovers.
Is this team really more capable of competing in this Olympics than last year?
If we’re looking for evidence of progress since August, we need to start by looking at individual players. Alex Morgan struggled at the World Cup, but her gritty frontline work was crucial to the initiative’s success against Colombia. Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario return from injuries that limited their participation in 2023 and have largely kept up with the competition around them .
After a World Cup, you always see some of the pillars of a project giving way to the next generation. Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe both played in the send-off game, while team captain Becky Sauerbrunn is no longer involved. Horan has emerged as a team leader, while Naomi Girma is already equally influential despite being only 23 years old.
Young players benefited greatly from Kilgore’s call-up. Jenna Nighswonger is a breath of fresh air at left back as she provides much needed width at left back, a role that was previously directed to be squeezed in under Andonovski. Midfield. Jedyn Shaw is the latest offensive bright spot, showing precocious decision-making in transition and being a capable first-time finisher. Sam Coffey seems poised to be the team’s defensive midfielder of the future, while Corbin Albert’s all-round game makes her look like Horan’s possible successor in midfield (pending on possible implications off-field issues with her locker room status).
Getting promising young players to step up will be crucial to overcoming four years of poor form. But how many players like Neiswanger, Shaw and Coffey will have to re-ready once Hayes takes over? Whether Hayes closely monitors and evaluates her incoming roster remains an open question. If that answer isn’t “with a keen eye,” they will need to improve on their second first impression to stay ahead of more senior alternatives.
Ultimately, whoever makes the roster of 18 Olympians, we have no idea what their competition in Paris will look like. Questions hanging over the plan still have no clear answers.
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In appointing a coach who has been unavailable for more than half a year, U.S. Soccer is betting that her qualities, more than any other, are more irresistible and worth spending half a year in purgatory.
Three friendly matches this summer will take place against South Korea and Mexico, neither of which will compete in the Olympics but will no doubt be hoping to beat one of the most famous sports teams in the world. They will provide testing while Hayes is still working on answers.
On Tuesday, the final member of the U.S. Women’s Tennis Federation’s Olympic division also qualified. Zambia is in Group B along with the United States, Germany and Australia. Australia reached the semi-finals last summer. Germany have a point to prove after failing to qualify from their group, while Zambia are in fine form after their first World Cup appearance. The U.S. had no chance of advancing to the knockout rounds, let alone its medal ambitions.
It would be easy to dismiss PSG’s poor performance as a short-term sacrifice in order to focus on a possible 2027 World Cup on home soil. That said, it’s not a plan to view any major tournaments as a development tool. When the United States enters the Women’s Soccer Championship, its goal is to win. It’s a benchmark that has been established for generations of players and one that fans must abide by.
Every performance from the players will be scrutinized this summer, and their future options will be more up in the air than Hayes’ job (or should be). If the program’s decision to spend so many months under interim leadership backfires, the blame will fall on them — and it won’t be fair.
(Photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
