hayes' headaches: the tough decisions emma hayes has to make ahead of the olympics

Now that meet & greet funsies time is over and new manager Emma Hayes’ first callups, camp and matches are all complete, the serious business is about to begin. The next squad Hayes names will be headed with her to Paris for the Olympics, the tournament that served as an omen for what was to come during the last cycle.

While I, a Chelsea fan who’s delighted that Hayes finished the season and rightfully got to lift another trophy for the program and team she built, appreciate the need to delay her start, it severely truncated important timelines. A primary one is player assessment. While Hayes’ first callups showed a wider net than expected, many deserving players were left out, and even among those who got the call, many tough decision must be made.

Hayes has never shied away from making tough decisions, and is one of the reasons she’s suited to national team management. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be headaches, and there are quite a few.

To Korbin or not to Korbin

First things first, it is my opinion that given the sharing of homophobic and transphobic posts, and liking a post wishing injury on USWNT legend (who notably coined the phrase that you can’t win without gays) Megan Rapinoe, this shouldn’t even be a question.

Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan said there was work being done internally, and the USWNTPA put out a statement on social media reaffirming heir support for the targeted communities, but the only thing Albert has done publicly is post a half-assed IG story apology that lived for 24 hours and has long since vanished.

I’m old enough, and Black enough, to remember Crystal Dunn saying she was scared to kneel to support Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial inequity. I also remember that same Megan Rapinoe kneeling and being dropped from the team for it. All of this is important because of the place the USWNT holds in society and the marginalized communities that look up to them. It’s clear Albert wasn’t prepared to wear the shirt, but that hasn’t stopped her from being called into every camp since, which in itself sends a message that U.S. Soccer has to own.

Making this even more curious is that Albert has not been in good form over the past few months. At her domestic club, PSG, her run of early starts became more sporadic. Before January, she’d only missed five available starts out of fifteen, but managed just one start in PSG’s final three matches of the season.

Also, across Emma Hayes’ first four halves of soccer in charge, Albert was part of the worst 45-minute midfield performance. A truth highlighted even further by the total vibe shift of 16-year-old Lily Yohannes making an 18-minute debut and using the brief time to cement herself as a star capable of standing out on an international stage.

This is also where Hayes’ delayed arrival comes into play. Surprise callup Hal Hershfelt didn’t see a minute of play, Andi Sullivan was only called in as a training player, and other deserving midfield talents like Vanessa DiBernardo and Claire Hutton didn’t get chances at all. Albert can surely play better than she showed but she didn’t, and hasn’t been, and several players are in better form.

IMHO: Never Korbin. At least not this iteration of Korbin, it should be fine to tell a young player that she must improve – on and off the pitch – before securing a spot on the national team. Lindsey Horan and Sam Coffey are locks, but the latter left the Thorns match early over the weekend and reappeared with a boot on her foot.

Andi Sullivan, Lily Yohannes and Hal Hershfelt are more deserving, and more ready to step in if Coffey can’t go or isn’t prepared for 90s by the start of the tournament.

The Alex Morgan conundrum

The role Alex Morgan is likely to play during this Olympics should be much different to the one she played during last Olympics, and even in the 2023 World Cup. Emma Hayes, like a smart coach who enjoy winning, seems to already love the front three of Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman. Also, Catarina Macário is back on the pitch and can play in attacking midfield or false 9.

Morgan’s form over the past couple years hasn’t been great. In fact, over the last calendar year she’s tied in goals scored with center back Tierna Davidson, who scored a brace last week against South Korea. There’s certainly a place in soccer for a central striker who does thankless work that sets up players around her, but that also doesn’t seem to be what’s happening.

She was key to a goal, but when breaking that down there are several things to note. Morgan’s turn away from pressure was slick, but after she missed a chance to play Jaedyn Shaw in behind, and a chance to play a reverse pass to an unmarked Crystal Dunn.

She eventually played a short safe pass wide to Jenna Nighswonger, which gave her a defender she had to beat 1v1 and a more difficult cross than either pass available to Morgan beforehand. Also, Dunn attacked the space Morgan should have. It all worked in the end, but it wasn’t a sequence that stands out as replicable.

In the end, given the direction of the attack, the role Alex Morgan is auditioning for is a limited one. Of course, this is another situation in which Hayes’ delayed arrival left her with zero competition, when I have to believe that a manager who picked out Hal Hershfelt and Kate Wiesner might have also taken a window or two to assess Bethany Balcer and/or Ella Stevens.

IMHO: Given all I’ve said this may come as a shock, but Morgan should probably go to the Olympics. It’s not ideal, I wish she had more competition for the role, but she’s the most experienced. As long as her role is defined as secondary, and she’s comfortable with that, it’s the best case scenario for right now.

Do the goalkeeper shuffle, maybe?

Alyssa Naeher’s thigh injury ahead of Emma Hayes’s first matches in charge made the decision to bring Jane Campbell, Casey Murphy and Aubrey Kingsbury quite easy. With Naeher back between the posts, the Olympic decision becomes a lot more complicated.

Naeher had been experiencing a renaissance ever since the infamous penalty kick shootout with Sweden at the World Cup.

She’s helped the USWNT win every penalty shootout since, by taking and scoring pens of her own. It’s been incredible and fun, and her no-nonsense demeanor adds to the lore.

But the USWNT has tried to move on before, and Murphy even became the #1 for a time. But she picked up an injury, struggled to recover her best form, and they hadn’t given Campbell or Kingsbury enough experience to step in, and back to Naeher they went.

However, at least in the NWSL in 2024…

IMHO: As much as the Naeherassaince has been extremely fun and meaningful, cause losing a World Cup shootout over a millimeter is absurd and didn’t deserve to be the end of her story on the national team. However, it feels like this Olympic tournament is time to move on. The competition between Campbell and Murphy will keep both ready, and give them a chance to begin making their cases to be the #1 option for the next phase and cycle of the USWNT.

Who wants to be Naomi Girma’s CB BFF

This is the question that has already had several answers. First it was Becky Sauerbrunn and Abby Dahlkemper, but neither were part of Hayes’ first callups, and Tierna Davidson has seemed to claim the spot. It would seem settled, especially after Davidson did one of Hayes’ favorite things and scored from two set pieces.

But whomst will be a third center back called up just in case? Davidson has struggled with injury throughout her career so it might not be wise to subject her to the full rapid fire schedule of Olympic games. The USWNT play group stage games July 25th, 28th and 31st, and should they progress, knockout rounds August 3rd, 6th, 9th (🥉), & 10th (🥇,🥈).

Sam Staab finally receiving a callup and playing well, and displaying the kind of passing that Hayes loved from center backs at Chelsea, can’t be ignored. Abby Dahlkemper has significant passing range as well, and plays next to Girma for their club team San Diego Wavé.

IMHO: As much as this pains me, because I am a conductor of the Sam Staab to USWNT Hype Train, I feel her callup came too late. This is becoming a theme, but it is just a real fact that Hayes’ late arrival has interrupted some player assessment that could have led to different decisions being made for the Olympic team, and I think this is another. If she’s healthy, leaning on the club connection seems like the safest bet.