The Games had been performed in England that yr, and Hayes’ father, Sid, fell in love with the Americans. So a lot in order that when Hayes took the pinnacle teaching job with the Chelsea women’s team that very same summer season he urged her to remake the English recreation on the American mannequin.
He did so, lifting 16 trophies. So, with little to win in England, Hayes grew to become a candidate for the U.S. teaching job when it opened final yr — and that led to a different dialog together with her father shortly earlier than he died in September.
This time he urged her to remake the American workforce on the Chelsea mannequin.
“I’ve a 23-minute voice word, my final dialog with my dad, and it was all about 2012,” Hayes mentioned Thursday, midway by his first official day because the nationwide workforce’s coach. “He lastly says, ‘You’re going to get it, proper?’
“I virtually talked to him like I had the job, though I did not, as a result of I needed him to comply with that thought. When October got here and I interviewed for the job, I assumed I might hear it in my head the entire time. “You need to do it.” ”
She did so, even when she needed to wait till her contract with Chelsea expired, which occurred final weekend with Hayes successful her fifth consecutive Women’s Super League title. Now he has lower than 10 weeks to organize the United States for an additional Summer Games, this time in France, the place they may face the perfect area in Olympic historical past.
His work begins in earnest subsequent week, when Hayes gathers his first U.S. workforce in suburban Denver for coaching camp and the primary of two friendlies with South Korea. Then he should select his 18-player squad for Paris .
And after her success in England, she says the challenges of her new job have given her new vitality.
“Working at Chelsea has taken up my entire life for the final 12 years and I actually needed a change,” mentioned Hayes, 47, who will reportedly earn practically $2 million a yr with the USWNT, making her the coach of highest paid girls’s soccer on this planet. historical past. “Just driving to the identical job six days per week, taking part in each three days, the depth of all these issues. I could not do it once more. Not at this second.
Emma Hayes directs Chelsea gamers in the course of the UEFA Women’s Champions League closing in opposition to FC Barcelona in May 2021.
(Martin Meissner/Associated Press)
“I wish to construct belief. I wish to come from a spot the place belief is the muse. I wish to construct a household of their atmosphere the place everybody takes care of one another. And I acknowledge the historical past of this system.
— Emma Hayes, new head coach of the United States girls’s nationwide workforce
“There is a special ebb and movement in worldwide soccer. You haven’t got many alternatives to go to the Olympics in your life.
London-born Hayes arrived in New York on Wednesday to begin her new job and instantly took a stroll by Central Park. She isn’t any stranger to town or the park, having taken her first teaching job with the Long Island Lady Riders of the USL-W League. The workforce completed 11-3-0 and Hayes, simply 25 years previous, was named the league’s coach of the yr.
She would shortly transfer on to Iona University and the Chicago Red Stars, then taking part in within the WPL, earlier than returning to England with Chelsea in 2012. But, she mentioned, she all the time deliberate to return to the United States.
“My journey has been from the underside up. So I actually admire, not simply the panorama, however my journey,” he mentioned. “We all have desires. But it isn’t typically that your desires come true. And I all the time grew up with that concept, this entire idea of the American dream, which you can come to the nation – and as a lady coming from England, belief me, I’ve by no means felt extra supported than once I was working within the United States – and work your approach by the system to now change into the pinnacle coach of your nationwide workforce.
“I’ll give completely every part I can to verify we preserve the traditions of this workforce.”
While subsequent week’s coaching camp shall be his first task, he mentioned the transition from Chelsea to the nationwide workforce started months in the past by watching late-night NWSL video games from England and having common conversations with Twila Kilgore, the interim coach of the US workforce.
“I really feel like I might have simply discovered in regards to the work with out being it In the work. And I feel that is been actually useful,” he mentioned. “I’m preparing. All the camp preparation is finished, all of the periods are deliberate, the June schedule is deliberate by way of our conferences. So everybody is evident on what it is taking place.
Hayes mentioned he additionally plans to satisfy privately with every participant, giving them an opportunity to get to know their new coach simply as the brand new coach will get to know every participant.
“I wish to construct belief,” he mentioned. “I wish to come from a spot the place belief is the muse. I wish to construct a household of their atmosphere the place everybody takes care of one another. And I acknowledge the historical past of this system.
“I’ve admired so many issues gamers have accomplished through the years to assist, not simply themselves, however the issues and causes that matter most. I do not wish to change these issues, however I additionally wish to be sure that everybody understands that in every part we do now we have to ask ourselves ‘does this assist the workforce win?’ This shall be my focus.”
The objective is to get the workforce again to the kind of play that made his father a fan, which will not be straightforward, Hayes admits. Not solely did the United States go 12 years with out an Olympic title, but it surely was eradicated within the spherical of 16 from final summer season’s World Cup, its first elimination at a serious championship.
“What we noticed final summer season is how that hole was closed,” Hayes mentioned. “Sometimes you want one thing like that to remind you that what bought you right here will not get you there. Now is a chance to evolve. In world soccer, particularly in Europe, there’s a number of funding. The groups are actually at a sure degree in comparison with 4 years in the past.
“I’ll by no means inform anybody to not dream of successful. So go for it,” he added. “But now we have to go step-by-step. If we will carry out at our greatest degree, then now we have an opportunity to do issues. But now we have work to do.”
