Its a significant week for Emma Hayes and the US Womens National Team (USWNT) as they prepare to take on England in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening.
The 48-year-old named a rather experimental 24-player squad for their friendlies against the Lionesses and the Netherlands over the next week. Just 15 of the 22 that helped the team achieve a gold medal at the Olympics over the summer have travelled to Europe, while Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith, otherwise known as 'Triple Espresso' are among the big omissions.
The USWNT last faced England at Wembley Stadium in October 2022, when goals from Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway spurred Sarina Wiegmans side to a 2-1 victory. However, just seven of the US players that featured in former manager Vlatko Andonovskis squad last time around are included this week.
That means Hayes faces the difficult task of preparing potentially two debutants, and seven players who received their first cap for the US senior side only last month, for a mammoth clash against the current European champions and 2023 World Cup finalists in front of 80,000 spectators at Wembley.
I was talking with my executive coach yesterday about this, Hayes told the media in a press conference on monday. There's this spectrum around performance, that I myself am a person that has to be at my stretch point to perform. I always felt the bigger the game, that's great for me. For some people, it's comfort that does that for them.
Some people need to be in a complete comfort state. So, I have to factor in that a Rose Lavelle, who has more than a hundred caps, versus an Alyssa Thompson or an Emma Sears or an Ali Sender, who have just come into our group and have very limited caps.
I don't know what their point is. So, internally, all week, I have to create situations where they understand. Everybody's tipping point is different, and I have to understand that. We've come up with a series of things this week to test people's ability to perform under pressure, off the pitch, as well as on it, to see in a short amount of time the stress response stimulus and see who they are under that.
Whether its a spontaneous music performance in front of the entire group, Hayes is confident small challenges throughout the week will test her squad, especially the newcomers, ahead of two difficult games in England and the Netherlands. Her team have already proven they are capable of competing for silverware, as they did at the Olympics, but this new-look lineup for Saturdays clash allows the former Chelsea boss to assess a broader group of players outside of the mainstays.
Of course, I won't know what they will be like until some of them go out and perform, but I know that you have to teach that in people, Hayes continued. You have to create situations, an overload of situations, for people to be in a position to be able to handle that, and some will do it more naturally than others, but that's what my job is as a coach. To not just identify it, but to arm them with the tools and the skills to be able to do that.
Granted, calling three names out in a team meeting and telling them they've got to do an X factor performance in one minute's time is one thing, but walking out and seeing 80,000 plus people is another if the highest level you've played at was in front of 10,000, or if it was a college level.
That's what I'm actually looking forward to seeing, which of our players thrive under that and which ones need more support.
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