emma hayes' arm around the shoulder hasn't worked, now what

The USWNT has been here before. In 2017, North Carolina Courage fullback Jaelene Hinkle (now Daniels) refused a national team callup for matches during Pride Month to avoid wearing rainbow numbers. Hinkle wrote a blog boasting about her decision, and later appeared on The 700 Club, hosted by Pat Robertson—whose bigoted views can be found under the ‘Controversies’ section of his Wikipedia page—to discuss her decision. She promoted homophobic hate, ran to extremists for publicity and comfort, and Fox News naturally gobbled up the story¹. After all that, then-USWNT head coach Jill Ellis extended her another national team invite.

Hinkle didn’t make that final roster, and never received another callup. This was at a time in which the USWNT, through injury and poor development, was starved for fullback talent. The current iteration of the team is in a similar situation with Korbin Albert, who promoted homophobic and transphobic message through her Instagram account. After it was discovered and disgust grew too big to ignore, she posted an ‘I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’ apology as an Instagram Story, which disappear after 24 hours. That was a year ago this month and she hasn’t spoken about the situation since.

New USWNT coach Emma Hayes elected to put a proverbial arm around Korbin, and has continued calling her up to every camp in which she’s available. Albert has heard boos across the country (and world) when subbing into matches, and Hayes has stated that she’s sat down with her “to make sure that self-development piece is there." Nearly a year-in, receipts are either misplaced or nonexistent. One year is not enough time to unlearn bigoted beliefs, but it is long enough to signal an intent to do so.

Despite a precedent and standard seemingly being set with Hinkle—not that, as conservatives will whine, every player has to think the same (they should meet Carli Lloyd)—that welcoming the promotion of anti-LGBTQ ideologies is too high a price to pay in an environment that relies on and celebrates lesbian and gay players and fans. Now, with Korbin Albert, not only has that standard been discarded, it’s seemingly been done so for no good reason.

With Hinkle there were several purely soccer-related arguments for her continued presence on the team. Comparatively, she was miles better at her position than Albert is in the position(s) she’s still learning to play. That last part is key. Throughout all this you could be forgiven if Hayes’ insistence on Albert has hidden the fact that she’s not a natural central or defensive midfield player. Her best and more natural role is as a goal-scoring attacking midfielder, and is in just her second full season of trying to adapt to roles further away from goal at Paris Saint-Germain, and a national team with four World Cup trophies in its cabinet. A privilege seemingly earned through hatred, not performance.

Regardless of anyone’s feelings about Albert off the pitch, it’s becoming impossible to argue that she’s one of the best midfielders in the USWNT’s player pool right now.

In the Première Ligue, one of the least competitive domestic competitions, these numbers aren’t all that promising, particularly at the stuff the national team needs. The defensive work rate is there but not to the realm of a pure defensive destroyer. Additionally, her progressive passing, key pass and turnover numbers are unimpressive-to-worrisome for a midfielder playing on the second most talented team in that league (by a large margin).

These trends continue at the national team level. Albert has become known for frequently passing backwards and being unable to execute turns or half-turns from pressure to complete progressive passes. This also leads to turnovers in poor positions, and prevents the team from being able to build attacking sequences from midfield.

During this SheBelieves tournament we’ve been able to compare her fit on the USWNT with other central and defensive midfielders. Seventeen-year-old Lily Yohannes had a breakout game against Colombia, pinging passes around and getting the hockey assist for a sweet move involving Yazmeen Ryan and Catarina Macario. Nineteen-year-old Claire Hutton started alongside Albert against Australia. The midfield struggled to find consistency against The Matildas, particularly compared to Yohannes and Sam Coffey, but Hutton was able to kickstart both goalscoring sequences with progressive passes from deep midfield.

Albert, meanwhile, struggled the majority of the match.

Now we’re at a point in which Hayes’ insistence on Albert is limiting the growth of other players. Despite Hayes’ intended goal to see how inexperienced national team talents would adapt to high pressure situations against top competition, she opted for Albert—who she should already be familiar with—over Hal Hershfelt or Nealy Martin. Both Hershfelt and Martin had better seasons in a much more competitive league, with Hershfelt having proven she can play multiple midfield roles at a high level.

If Hayes continues insisting on Albert the number of more talented players to miss out on opportunities could grow. In their first year as pros Hershfelt and Hutton’s performances landed them on the USWNT’s radar, and a similar thing could happen with Hannah Bebar, Maggie Graham, Macey Hodge, Taylor Huff, or any other USWNT-eligible rookie or non-rookie who cooks in 2025.

The whole thing feels like a waste. The legacy and standard of the USWNT was compromised for Albert, and in return LGBTQ+ fans and allies feel discarded while the team fields a player who doesn’t do much to help them win. Korbin created the situation in which she’s currently in, and if internal work has truly been done, could at any time attempt to build a bridge by speaking on what she’s learned. Beyond that, there’s no public evidence that Hayes’ arm-around-the-shoulder approach has benefited Albert off the pitch, or the team she’s coaching on the pitch.

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¹Not hyperlinking to that site. If you’re interested, Google.