ST PAUL, Minn. — U.S. women's national team head coach Emma Hayes is still learning the lingo of American sports in her first few weeks on the job.
As steady rain reminded the English coach of home at Allianz Field on Tuesday, Hayes implored his team to beat a South Korean team that had hardly threatened the Americans but was trailing by just one point at the time.
“'I want you to put your foot on the gas,'” Hayes recalled telling his team. “And then [assistant coach Denise Reddy] He told me: 'Don't ever say that again!'”
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It may have been a bit awkward, but it worked, as the U.S. Women's National Team scored two more goals, including one by 16-year-old midfielder Lily Johannes on her debut, to win the game 3-0.
To use a phrase from American sports, this is moment of truth for Hayes. After two games in charge and just over a week of training, she must select the 18-man Olympic roster in the coming weeks. Tuesday's performance made that task even tougher.
Johannes rocketed to the top of this list with an immediate impact in her highly anticipated debut, and her late goal highlighted 20 minutes of solid passing in the midfield, including a pass to Trinity Rodman who earlier fired a shot off the crossbar.
But the midfield was already crowded before Johannes even took to the field. The U.S. women's starting trio of Corbin Albert, Rose Lavelle and captain Lindsey Horan helped control the game Tuesday against a South Korea team that again played a low block of five defenders. Hayes has praised Horan as a team leader throughout this camp, and Lavelle, who notably earned her 100th cap on Tuesday, is arguably the team's most creative player.
Though Albert has only recently joined the team, the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has quickly proven he's capable of competing at this level. On Tuesday, Albert and Horan worked together to control the pace of the game, patiently waiting for the right moment to break down South Korea's defensive formation. They weren't always perfect, but when they were right, they were effective. And above all, they were patient.
“The key for us is to be more patient on both ends of the ball instead of going forward every time,” Lavelle said. [being] “They're patient with our movements, they're patient with the ball moving side to side, they're breaking down their forwards, they're breaking down their midfield, they're finding different ways to break them down.”
Hayes made nine changes to the lineup that beat South Korea 4-0 three days ago in Colorado. He said Monday the goal was to give his new players a chance to process the “information overload” his staff has been throwing at them all week and show they can apply it in a game. Of all the players whose Olympic spots are on the line, Albert played that role more than anyone else on Tuesday.
But her on-field success comes with a backstory. Albert's previous social media activity, revealed in March, appeared to support anti-LGBTQIA+ content and downplay an injury to former U.S. winger Megan Rapinoe. Albert apologized, and the team held internal discussions at the April training camp, the contents of which were not made public. Albert remained with the roster and was invited back to this training camp.
Hayes' pointed comments on Saturday came after Albert was booed by the home crowd at Colorado on Saturday, saying he expects a tolerant environment in the locker room and that players need to feel supported when they take the field.
“I ask people to be patient,” Hayes said Saturday. “We have a lot of young players. On the pitch they are learning but they want to give everything for the shirt and for their country. Off the pitch, some of them are going to make mistakes. Some of them have to learn. My job as coach is to teach them and guide them.”
From a pure soccer standpoint, Hayes and his staff seem to value Albert's versatility, and the midfielder's performance on Tuesday reaffirmed that. How Albert, Johannes and the others fit into the U.S. Women's Olympic roster is something Hayes will be pondering over the next few weeks. Horan and Lavelle are veterans with World Cup titles under their belts. Defensive midfielder Sam Coffey has become a regular, playing alongside Albert in the team's CONCACAF World Gold Cup victory earlier this year, and is the best pure defensive midfielder in the pool.
Then there's the question of where to deploy versatile attackers Catarina Macario and Jaidyn Shaw. Macario started as the No. 10 for the U.S. women's national team on Saturday, while Shaw started in a hybrid winger role on Tuesday. She struggled to get going in the first half but came alive in the second, including when she moved into the No. 10 role. This again illustrates the trend that while Shaw is clearly best suited to the No. 10 role, the same can be said for other players of comparable talent.
Defensively, Hayes was further convinced on Tuesday that Jenna Nyswonger is the real deal as a left-footed left back who can press high up the front line. Nyswonger assisted Crystal Dunn on the U.S. Women's National Team's opening goal, starting as a forward for the first time in nearly seven years. Nyswonger was a charmer on the ball on Tuesday, and along with Horan, she was one of just two players to start both games against South Korea.
She played on the left wing next to center back Sam Staab, who was making her first international start. Her consistent play in the National Women's Soccer League had long made her worthy of a call-up, which finally came in recent camp. She adapted smoothly to the role on Tuesday, nearly scoring a goal on a first-half set piece.
“I think it was worth it and I couldn't imagine it any other way,” Staab said of the long wait for his first international appearance.
Coach Hayes has no shortage of talent to choose from, and she has frequently spoken about the need to balance these rising young stars with the veterans who got the team to where it is today.
That includes forward Alex Morgan, who started in the No. 9 role on Tuesday and was praised by coach Hayes for playing hard despite having limited touches against South Korea's low block. Morgan's spin turn sparked the transition play that led to Dunn's early goal.
A flurry of substitutions by the USA women's national team players over the first 60 minutes opened up the game, and the chemistry between Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson was clear, but they all came in fresh against a depleted South Korea defense.
Hayes sounded exhausted and hoarse after Tuesday's game. She said she had been playing nonstop for 10 months, noting that she spent the entire European season with Chelsea before joining the U.S. women's national soccer team just days after her job ended in May. She said she would meet with her staff on Wednesday morning and then need to rest for the rest of the week before heading to U.S. Soccer headquarters in Chicago to help plot the team's path to the Olympics.
“[The group’s] “They're not afraid to let go of things that they need to let go of,” Hayes said Tuesday in praise of his players. “They have the audacity and courage to do whatever it takes to get better. I've been very impressed with the character they have.”
Hayes now has to step on the gas by deciding who he will invite on the journey to the 2024 Olympics, which start next month.
