USWNT's British Head Coach Faces England Saturday

Emma Hayes, previously of Chicago Red Stars and Chelsea, takes on her former country at Wembley

By Gary Jordan | Published on November 28, 2024

When Emma Hayes left her dream job at Chelsea FC she said, The time is right. That time was after achieving almost everything there was to accomplish in the Women's game in the English league. After joining Chelsea as their manager in 2012, she led the Blues to 14 major trophies. The only one to elude her was the Champions League – something that she made known was her ultimate goal.

After cutting her teeth in coaching in the United States with the Chicago Red Stars, she went on to take advisory roles on other teams before landing the Chelsea job in the summer of 2012. Her uncompromising style and honesty made her a firm favorite with fans and more importantly the players. The no-nonsense approach, along with the changing face and profile of the Women's game was almost a perfect partnership. Hayes had a canny knack of winning and winning well. This made her a target for some as she would find herself in front of the television cameras more, and her opinion in the game would sometimes cause waves. There is no doubting her passion for the game though, even after a decade of domestic success. And having watched the England team win the European Championship, and almost gain World Cup success, there was no doubt that her name would come up in the international arena.

On November 4, 2023, Chelsea and Hayes announced they would be parting ways to pursue a new opportunity outside of the WSL and club football. Swiftly, the USWNT team put the rumor mill to bed by suggesting that Hayes was deep into negotiations to become their new coach. On November 14, the news became official, and Hayes would take charge after the latest Women's Super League had finished in May this year. She would have to hit the ground running as there were only two short months to prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games later that year.

Such is her solid work ethic, Hayes took to her new task with relative ease, even if she did ruffle some feathers along the way by dropping some well-known names from her first squads. Her vision was one of the future and putting her own style of play into the system. The top brass would've been well aware that this could be the case and had already bought into the 48-year-old's way of thinking. After a handful of warm-up games the team breezed through the early stages of the Olympic tournament and won the gold medal by beating Brazil in the final. Mission accomplished.

Now thoughts go into the more rewarding aspects of being World Champions again. After being humbled in the last 16 in the 2023 tournament in Australia/New Zealand, Hayes will want to dominate the next challenge in Brazil 2027.

England Clash and SheBelieves Cup

Along the way, there is the SheBelieves Cup mini-tournament, held in the USA in February 2025, where Hayes will put her team through their paces against varied opposition from around the world – Colombia, Australia, and Japan. In the more immediate future there is a round of International friendlies which puts Hayes front and center again as they take on the Netherlands on December 3, but before then a diary date against England at Wembley Stadium this coming Saturday, November 30.

England has had some very mixed results after World Cup final disappointment against Spain but will perhaps prove to be the biggest hurdle for Hayes since she took the job 18 months ago. It will be a bittersweet victory if she does win, over the nation that helped her massively on her journey so far.

But Hayes has a winning record for the USA. In her 13 games in charge, the USWNT has won 12 and the other was a goalless draw just before the Olympics. What I've realized is, is that I'm a builder, and when I think back to building anything from my ten years when I was in the United States to building Chelsea, I really enjoy putting an infrastructure together so that when I leave it still stays solid, she told Forbes, so when it comes to being on Zoom calls and developing the 2027, 2028 women's national team, youth national team strategy, I get to use my brain in a different way and I get to use all that experience and knowledge that I've developed over a long period of time to put into good use for future generations of Americans.

Then, of course, there is a conflict of which National Anthem to sing before the game begins, it's something I will hum along to as I always have done, being the English person that I am. I'll also do the same for the American national anthem because I love both anthems. Very diplomatic.

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