NEW YORK — Football teams competing in the Olympics will now have more flexibility to rely on their alternates, who will now be made available temporarily through a rule change instituted by tournament organizers.
New U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes confirmed the update at a pre-Olympic press conference at Nike’s House of Innovation in New York hours later her French counterpart Hervé Renard did the same.
“The reality with substitutes is that if there is a temporary injury to a player on the squad, within the 18, as long as we give six hours’ notice we can make a temporary change and we can then change that. ” for another game,” Hayes said.
The previous rule for the four alternates included in a squad was that they could only participate in the Olympics if someone in the main squad suffered an injury that would keep them out of the rest of the tournament. It’s not the first rule change in recent years for alternates, who could effectively participate as full members of an Olympic team at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Games.
Hayes noted that the change, while significant, does not necessarily change how she will prepare her squad in the weeks before their opening match against Zambia on July 25.
“I watch [it as] the fact that there are 22 players going to the Olympics, we have to prepare each player to perform if necessary,” she said. ‘From my perspective, nothing changes. Maybe it gives us a little more flexibility, but there are 22 players.”
Coaches have traditionally complained about the size of the roster at the Olympics, saying it represents a dramatic drop from the number of players competing in a World Cup. Squad sizes are typically limited to 23 players for the FIFA-sanctioned tournament, although at the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar, coaches allowed coaches to select 26 players as part of a pandemic-related policy.
The Olympics are essentially a more hectic version of the World Cup, not just because of the shortened selections. There are twelve teams in the women’s competition, compared to the 32 that took part in last year’s Women’s World Cup, while in the men’s competition there are sixteen teams, far fewer than the 48 that will take part in the 2026 World Cup. Teams that won the gold and bronze reaching medal matches play six matches over the course of 17 days, while teams reaching a World Cup final do so with their seventh match in about a month.
“The tournament is crazier,” said American forward Crystal Dunn, who will compete in her third Olympics this summer. “There are back-to-back games, a small squad. They expect us to play, I think, six games in a shorter period of time. It’s crazy, it’s wild, but you need everyone.”
Adding to the madness for the U.S. women’s team, new head coach Hayes only coached her first two games a month ago and has only two more games to prepare before heading to Paris. The short ramp is far from ideal for a team eyeing its first gold medal since 2012, especially with a lot at stake after their first exit from the World Cup last year. Yet the team exudes a sense of calm and confidence that harkens back to the USWNT of old.
“We handled it really well,” Hayes said of the rapid preparations for the Olympics. “We had the opportunity to camp at the end of May which was very helpful and the off-field staff have worked together to create a program for the Olympics from now on, so I feel like we are very prepared to tackle it regardless starting this tournament. from the short run-up… A lot of that work has been done over the last year, reflecting the World Cup and then building the squad bit by bit over the course of the year, so much of that has been done.
US captain Lindsey Horan said the team was keen to put the World Cup behind them once the disappointing trip to Australia and New Zealand was over. Her optimism heading into the Olympics also comes from the team’s potential after assistant coach Twila Kilgore oversaw a team overhaul that led to several young players gaining a foothold on the team.
“I think after the World Cup we’ve really regrouped and we’ve worked extremely hard over the last year, especially the last few months. With Emma coming in and everything she’s done and contributed, I think it’s a really exciting time . ” Horan said. “You look at the young players coming in, the leaders of this team, the great diversity of what we have. I think what you’re about to see and what lies ahead is incredible. Ultimately, we want a gold medal of the day and that is what we are aiming for.”
Despite the high stakes to return to the top amid unprecedented competitiveness in women’s football, the team managed to find the one thing they say they were missing at the World Cup: joy.
“Obviously we left the World Cup not feeling too great about our performance, but I think we knew that at the end of the day we had an incredible opportunity to regroup and get back at it,” Dunn said. “I think the Twila coaching staff has done a really good job of keeping us focused, but also letting us have a little bit of fun with it. At the end of the day, we are here to win football games, but we have to have fun with it and that means we create a competitive environment that brings out the best in us and not just makes us so anxious about making mistakes and fearing failure.”
Dunn, who worked with Hayes at Chelsea from 2017 to 2018, said the new head coach was the perfect fit to maintain the balance between competition and fun.
“When I first heard she was in the running to get this job, I remember reaching out and thinking, ‘You would be so perfect,’ just because she really cares about the player,” Dunn said . “It’s not just about winning, even though that’s Emma’s definition, it’s just about knowing and finding ways to win. She’s so competitive and really gets the best out of players and I think that’s exactly what this team needs, that investment in the individual player so you know how best to motivate them and so she’s been great. If anyone can come in at the twelfth hour and get us ready for the Olympics, it’s definitely Emma.”