Emma Hayes used rival countries' criticism of the USWNT to fuel winning Olympic gold

CHICAGO — It was appropriate enough that U.S. women’s soccer team manager Emma Hayes was back where she earned her first professional head coaching job in 2008.

It was even more appropriate that as she reflected on winning last summer’s Olympics, she said something that recalled this city’s most famous athlete.

Just as Michael Jordan never actually said he “took that personally,” Hayes didn’t say those exact words either. But she definitely felt it, and this moment — speaking to a jammed-to-the-walls crowd at the United Soccer Coaches Convention on Saturday — was the time to let it out.

“Coming from Europe, I knew how Europe was talking about the U.S.” heading into the tournament,” Hayes said. “I knew what the English players, the Spanish players, the French players, the German players were saying about the U.S. Without doubt, all the conversations that you might have even heard from some of you in the media here — writing the team off. ... Yeah, it’s understandable.”

As Hayes spoke, a projection screen near the stage showed the ensemble of U.S. players, coaches, staff, and Hayes’ son, Harry, on the podium in Paris after the gold-medal game.

That’s how they took it.

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“I loved nothing more than the rest of the world writing us off,” Hayes said later in her remarks. “You know I would have used it massively in the locker room. And it’s a lesson to never underestimate this country. Never. Never, ever.”

Hayes’ hourlong session brought out the unfiltered finest from a London native who built her coaching chops in America. The convention has long been one of her favorite stops, going back to her first in 2002 in Philadelphia — where the event will return next year to kick off the biggest year in American soccer history.

“Hello, can you hear me?” Hayes asked when she took the stage this time. “Yeah? Well that’s a f—ing good thing.”

The crowd had already roared for her, and now it roared again. It was so packed that security staff stopped attendees from entering half an hour before Hayes started speaking, making the hundreds inside lucky while nearly 200 more stood were stuck outside. Even U.S. Soccer Federation CEO JT Batson, who had a reserved seat up front, couldn’t get in until a staffer recognized him and ushered him through.

Hayes’ remarks traveled from tactics to psychology to advice for all those coaches. She naturally spent a lot of time on the U.S. women’s team’s return to glory, which the crowd was thrilled to lap up.

“Having grown up in the U.S., having sat there — whether for the WUSA championship in 2001 [the first pro women’s league], to subsequent successes of the U.S. women’s national team,” Hayes said, “I know how challenging it is. The hardest team in the world to play in. Because the expectation is so, so high, on top of the fact that — and quite rightly — we’re on the shoulder of giants.”

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If the summer felt like a mad dash for the team, it was even more of one for Hayes. There were a mere 76 days between her last game of a 12-year tenure coaching English club Chelsea and the Olympics final. She had waited so many years for her dream job, at some points believing she’d never get it, and this was her welcome.

“I remember walking out in Colorado [at her first game in charge] and thinking I was just going to cry,” Hayes said, “I’ve dreamed about this my whole life, and I’ve got the chance here.”

Because of that short time span, Hayes knew she couldn’t go too deep with her playbook. So she focused on the mental side, leaning on captain Lindsey Horan and preternatural young centerback Naomi Girma to bring her messages home.

She also turned to the 1999 World Cup champions for inspiration, When they gathered in New York for a 25-year reunion, Hayes brought them to the current team ahead of an Olympics warmup game in North Jersey.

“I can honestly tell you, when I share a little bit about the ’99ers, that was one of the most amazing moments of my life,” Hayes said. “To be able to utilize the wisdom from not just the winning team, but amazing leaders, that brought so much to the group this summer to put them in the best position to perform.”

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As the summer unfolded, she saw that work start to pay off.

“I saw levels from the players and sides to them I’m not sure they saw in themselves,” Hayes said, “because the power of what we were committing to was so unbelievably inspirational.”

It came together even better than many had expected. The U.S. reeled off six straight wins in the tournament, downing Zambia, Germany, Australia, Japan, Germany again, and Brazil.

“We win gold,” Hayes said, her voice cracking as she repeated the words. The crowd cut her off with more applause.

“When you’re in that situation, it’s a situation you never think you’re ever going to be in,” Hayes said, “you can say, ‘Oh, I dream about these things,’ but I never really thought I’d be standing there for a team I’d coached 76 days, about to win a gold medal.”

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She recalled thinking to herself: “This is how football should be — it should be played with this amount of life and this amount of joy.”

It hasn’t always been, and it won’t always be. In fact, for all soccer’s popularity as the world’s biggest sport, it plenty often doesn’t meet that standard. Hayes’ team endured plenty, from pretournament warmup games to the pressure-packed knockout rounds.

But when those moments do come, the game sways even places long sworn to hate it.

“Yes, the Germany game [in the semifinals] might have felt a little bit tight, but I was having a blast — I really was,” Hayes said. “This team [was] playing with a sense of freedom that I knew we were in a position where we could get as close to we can.”

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Now Hayes turns to the work she was really hired for: a yearslong overhaul of the U.S. program to keep it atop the sport heading into the 2027 World Cup and 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“I am known for being a coach [as] someone who if it isn’t broken, break it,” she said. “Comfort is the death of teams, too much comfort.”

Later this month, Hayes will host the first January training camp of her tenure, with a slew of new names on the field. She’ll also soon unveil a written plan for how she wants to run the national team program, from senior level through the youth squads.

But for now, she had one more moment to bask in the golden glow of a summer when the national team captured the nation again.

“It’s your U.S. women’s national team,” Hayes concluded, before turning to questions from the audience.

It’s hers, too, the fulfillment of all those dreams. The crowd cheered once more, and let her know they knew it.

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