HARRISON, N.J. – A month after leaving her London residence for a weeks-long spell in the U.S., women’s national team coach Emma Hayes ended the tour on Saturday in her self-described “spiritual home” of New York, where she humbly began her coaching career two decades ago. On each side of the Hudson River, roughly 24 hours apart, twice she found herself in the same building as the city’s newest famous sports fan – Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani checked into Sports Illustrated Stadium to see Gotham FC take on the Boston Legacy, the first soccer game he, an avid fan of the sport, has attended since winning the mayoral race last November. He was there on official business, too. Roughly a fortnight earlier, Mamdani posted a video on social media announcing a batch of 1,000 tickets priced at $5 for Saturday’s NWSL match. The collection sold out in less than an hour, that section of the crowd making up part of the 11,038 official attendance figure, the fourth-highest for a regular-season game in the club’s history. The mayor – and Hayes – was there to take it all in, a day after both attended the New York Liberty’s WNBA opener at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
“I think our sport should be accessible to everyone,” Hayes said ahead of Saturday’s game. “I think being deliberate about being inclusive and being reminded that soccer is and will always be a sport that everybody can access. I think it’s a fantastic initiative for everyone here at Gotham, and obviously, to do that with the mayor, I think, is so New York and so we would like to see more of that, without question, because bringing different audiences to the game, I think, should very much be the future of soccer within the country.”
In some ways, it made for a fitting stop on Hayes’ weeks-long tour of the U.S., which began when the USWNT opened camp in Santa Clara, Calif. for three friendlies against Japan in early April. Once that stretch wrapped up with a 3-0 win on April 17 in Commerce City, Colo., Hayes made the rounds. She popped into a Denver Summit training session, caught up with head coach Nick Cushing and watched a game; she then paid visits to the Seattle Reign, Portland Thorns, Angel City and San Diego. “How could you not love San Diego?” she quipped. Hayes then made a pit stop in Atlanta at U.S. Soccer’s new national training center, now officially open just in time for the men’s national team to open their pre-World Cup training camp.
Mamadani’s discounted ticket initiative was merely a bonus for Hayes during her weeks-long trip, during which she was making a pitch for her long-term vision of the women’s national team – and women’s soccer as a whole.
“Our vision [for] 2031, 2032 is that when the world comes to this country and we witness our World Cup,” she said, noting that the U.S. is slated to co-host the women’s tournament in 2031, “they’re left being reminded that actually leading the way on a global front isn’t just about what you do on the field. It’s about what you do for the very people who access the sport and our goal is to ensure that every little girl in this country and beyond, if they enter the world of soccer, that they stay in that if they choose to do so, that they’re not driven out because there is a lack of knowledge about how best to support them, to coach them, to nurture them, to mentor them.”
Emma Hayes’ check-in with Women’s World Cup in mind
The primary goal of Hayes’ post-camp stay in the U.S. was to get a closer look at her NWSL-based players, who the London native chiefly sees when the national team is in session. She checked off a lot of names, from Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey to the Thorns’ Sophia Wilson and Bay FC‘s Claire Hutton, who faced the San Diego Wave when Hayes was in southern California. On Saturday, she saw Jaedyn Shaw score for Gotham in their 1-1 draw with the Legacy. With a year and change to go until next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil, now is as good a time as any to see the players in a new light.
“I think when you’re monitoring players on a regular basis, we’re looking at things that relate to the very things we’re looking to develop within our game model,” Hayes said. “Of course, when you come and you see things firsthand, you see the behaviors of players in terms of not just their preparation but what it looks like when it’s going well, when it’s not going well, or when they’re involved or when they’re not involved, etc., and I think different players have different responsibilities in their clubs.
” If I think about Claire Hutton wanting to be developed as a leader, as a young player seeing her in a much different setting without, let’s say Lindsey [Heaps] or Sam Coffey is good to see, much as it is to see how much they demonstrate the things that we care about the most. You have to focus on performing all of the time. It’s not a switch and my team, my staff go around the country to watch players on a regular basis because you want the players to understand that consistent behaviors really matter.”
Hayes admitted she also spent a lot of time chatting with the owners of the various clubs she visited, including Angel City majority shareholders Willow Bay and ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger. To them, she shared a pitch that had long become part of her public talking points – youth development. The coach has long believed that American players based in the NWSL are short on experiences at the youth national team level, which slows their ability to transition and succeed at the senior levels in an ever-evolving women’s soccer landscape. While she chiefly makes the argument in sporting terms in public settings, for that group of stakeholders in particular, she pivoted some of her language to suit their needs.
“Let’s take Seattle as an example,” Hayes started. “They’ve got potentially five players that could be selected for the U-20 World Cup but they also have league games and that makes it a difficult situation. In an ideal world, FIFA World Cups are during international windows but that’s not the case so I have a long-term view about player development and I think that of course, it’s far from ideal if a player misses two, three games for their club but you cannot underestimate the experiences of playing at a world stage against nations like Spain, where it’s mandatory for every club to let their young players go to a World Cup. It’s a non-negotiable. It will be the same in England, it will be the same in Germany and I still think we have a lot of work to do here to educate about the importance of these tournaments.
“Not just for U-20s – all WNT – but the importance of building the brands of players and if players’ personal brands are built as a result of excelling in these tournaments, then I think that has a direct impact on the business and on their club games so we’re not there yet. My hope is every player that is selected for the U -20 World Cup, that their clubs support that. That’s very much part of lots of conversations U.S. Soccer is having with each and every one of the ownership groups.”
Hayes will return to London, admitting “I have to remember I’ve got to go home and be a mum after this,” before the USWNT resume play at the start of June. The team will this time take their talents to Brazil for two friendlies against next year’s World Cup hosts, first on June 6 at Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians and then on June 9 at Castelao in Fortaleza. Much like the USWNT’s trip to France ahead of the 2019 World Cup and another to New Zealand before the 2023 tournament, June’s matches should offer valuable insights.
“I think for us as a team getting the opportunity to go to Brazil prior to the qualification is perfect preparation,” Hayes said. “You get a sense culturally [of] what the country is like, everything from food to hotels, training pitches to fans and feeling the temperature of the Brazilian fans, plus play against a very dynamic team that makes it extremely difficult for you to play. I’ve said so many times that Brazil is probably the one team in the world where you’re lucky if you get two or three passes in a row because of the intensity of the press and their deliberate intentions one v. one so to experience that in their home, I think it’s important for us to experience in that and we’re very much looking forward to it. I’m really looking forward to it.”
