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Emma Hayes made an impressive first impression by winning Olympic gold in just two months, but her real work as head coach of the US women’s national soccer team now begins with this year’s camp in January.
While the January camp is a fixture on the USWNT schedule, this year’s edition of the weeklong training session has a unique twist. Hayes named a 26-player squad on Tuesday, made up of players from senior teams, but will host around 50 players in total by simultaneously running a futures camp as she begins to map out the roadmap to the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
“[We’ll] We have a week of training to really dig into the things that we haven’t really had a lot of opportunities to do,” Hayes said at a news conference on Tuesday. ‘I’ve said this to people so many times – I do the job the other way around, to have 75 days [in charge] and an Olympic Games and now I get the opportunity to build the program and develop the playing pool.”
This camp marks Hayes’ most extensive attempt to explore the USWNT’s large player pool, and perhaps her last major attempt to do so. The head coach said the team’s autumn friendlies were opportunities to work with less experienced talent, while February’s SheBelieves Cup will be “the first camp where I can confidently say that I have the vast majority of players seen what I wanted to look at.” I feel like we’re in a good position to really move on to the next phase,” said Hayes.
That’s not the only fundamental element of this month’s camp, which will take place Jan. 14-21 at Dignity Health Sports Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson. Hayes will lay the ground rules for the next three-plus years as she begins to reimagine how the USWNT functions in an increasingly competitive women’s soccer landscape.
One week, two camps
This month’s camp falls outside the FIFA international period, so Hayes will not be working with players from European clubs this month and will be running a preseason camp of sorts to some extent. Players will only participate in one session per day and undergo fitness tests that are normal for the first week of preseason, but that doesn’t mean Hayes will have few opportunities to learn more about her players.
Certain absences from the senior national team left Hayes with the opportunity to call up six uncapped players to that roster, while the futures roster will likely consist solely of players who have limited experience at senior international level. She will essentially coach two teams for one week, giving her a real opportunity to explore the wider player pool.
“The way we’ll do it – [senior] The national team will train on one field,” said Hayes. “Let’s say we start at 11:30 a.m. and end at 1 p.m., that’s when the future begins, so I’ll go from one field to another and coach all over the world . different pitch. [I’ll] giving sessions [on] both parties, but I will be supported by so many staff from [the youth national teams] as well as WNT. For example, if the WNT is having a bad day, the future is training. Then I’ll be running some classroom sessions at both places, so I’ll be extremely busy, probably significantly busier than either camp.”
The concurrent camps will allow Hayes to introduce senior national team practices to the less experienced players, providing a strong foundation for them as they target selection spots at the 2027 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games.
“We will train one training session per day with all training in and around the WNT methodology and our playing principles,” said Hayes. “The January camp, after the first week of preseason, is an opportunity to deepen the connections and communication in our playing style and do this in a way where we don’t have a pressure match at the end of the week.”
Introduction of the 2027-2028 strategy
Hayes will use her January 1st camp to present a project she calls the 2027-28 Strategy, which will take a broad look at new practices the USWNT would need to introduce to be successful at the major tournaments that will take them in a few years to wait. She will present the strategy to the senior and youth national team staff on Saturday before showing the players at a conference once camp starts, and she teased that it has a strong focus on developing young players.
“I think one of the things I would like to see in the future is the development of the U-23 program,” Hayes said. “I’ve already alluded to the fact that there are fewer U-23 year olds playing on a regular basis in the top countries than anywhere else, on top of the fact that we simply haven’t had a camp program at 23, twenty years and under the rest of the top countries. Our first goal is: we have to bridge the gap with that. The second is: can we do it in a way that we can create maximum exposure?”
In her first months on the job, Hayes was a frequent critic of her predecessors’ excessive preference for experienced players, which left little room for younger players to earn valuable minutes at the international level and make a real impact on the USWNT.
“I’ve always felt like we’ve had a bit of a lost generation that maybe hasn’t had the risks that, like I said, some of the best countries have had,” Hayes said. “I’m desperately looking for ways to bridge that gap because we can’t wholeheartedly rely on domestic play to do that. We need to give players international experiences… You can’t just expect a player with zero caps or With less After five international matches we go from a dominant youth player to a dominant national team player at the highest level.”
Hayes plans to make the simultaneous camps an annual event and hopes to spread them out on other occasions throughout the year, but especially hopes that the U-23 and U-20 national teams will serve as a place for players can develop if they are not immediately ready. to join the senior team.
“If you’re preparing for something in ’27, ’28 and beyond, you have to create the right situations, a situation where a group of players can build a way of playing together, but also side by side. In addition, build a group,” she said. “I really hope that the 23s program will really play an integral role in what we do in ’27 and ’28.”
Compete to become number 1
With Alyssa Naeher retiring last year, the USNWT is looking for a new first target choice. Casey Murphy is the most experienced player in January camp, but Hayes is using this month as her last chance to explore all her options.
“Yes, I’ve seen Jane Campbell, Casey Murphy and Mandy Haught in detail, but beyond that I’d like to see at least three others be able to say, ‘Okay, where are we in that group of people?’ six?’” Hayes said.
She will start locking in her preferred choices as early as next month, but expects the fight to be the starter for the rest of the year.
“[By] SheBelieves, I hope I got that down to three,” Hayes said. “I want to create chances, maybe not always for all three of them, but maybe for two, to see how they do against different oppositions and opponents. then try to give them the exposure they need over the next few years, but always keep the door ajar for players… It will probably take the rest of this year to find out.”