‘Good begin’: Hayes’ USWNT period begins with win over South Korea

COMMERCE CITY, Colorado — If the US girls’s nationwide workforce’s 4-0 win over South Korea on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Items Park was any indication, the stagnant assault from final yr’s World Cup is totally a problem of the previous.

The period of Emma Hayes as USWNT coach received off to a gradual first half-hour earlier than ahead Sophia Smith turned rapidly and slotted a ball to winger Mallory Swanson for the primary aim of the match within the thirty fourth minute. Swanson made a slashing run behind South Korea’s again 5 and tucked the ball away for her first of two targets on the night time in a play that exemplified each the workforce’s endurance and the entrance line’s fluidity.

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“I believe one thing that is actually good about Emma’s model and the best way that she needs us to be fluid in our structured ideas, so I believe she offers us numerous freedom,” USWNT midfielder Catarina Macario stated after the match.

Macario performed the No. 10 function on Saturday in her first begin for the nationwide workforce in 781 days. She pressed into excessive areas alongside Smith, the USWNT’s No. 9, because the USWNT constructed assaults with 5 gamers throughout the entrance line at occasions. Macario additionally steadily flared out to broad areas to seek out the sport. Swanson would shift inside at occasions, too, and she or he moved into the No. 9 function late within the match after a collection of substitutions. Trinity Rodman rounded out the entrance 4 for the USWNT together with her ordinary persistent effort on either side of the ball on the proper wing. The interchange between these 4 gamers particularly is a welcomed signal for a workforce that was too inflexible — a phrase Hayes used not too long ago to explain what the workforce should keep away from — on the 2023 World Cup, the place the USWNT’s spherical of 16 exit marked this system’s worst end at a significant match.

Swanson and Macario had been each absent from that squad because of damage. Swanson was arguably probably the greatest gamers on the planet earlier than tearing her left patella tendon final spring, and former USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski was creating Macario as the point of interest of the assault in 2022 earlier than Macario tore her left ACL. Hayes now has the good thing about these two gamers wholesome, to not point out the posh of bringing Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw off the bench within the second half so as to add recent legs to the assault.

Shaw, 19, is the USWNT’s main scorer this yr and probably the most versatile and artistic attacking gamers within the pool. On Saturday, Shaw performed primarily in a left-wing function alongside Swanson.

Hayes stated on Friday that she divides her teaching duties like American sports activities groups do, with totally different coaches specializing in numerous areas of the sport. The attacking third is her duty, so Saturday’s entrance line was a primary take a look at how a USWNT pool loaded with scoring expertise may function with Hayes now on the sidelines, following a six-month ready interval whereas she completed the European season at Chelsea.

The brand new head coach praised her workforce’s means to course of numerous new info this week, however she confused on Saturday that there’s room to enhance. The People had been gradual and, at occasions, disjointed within the first half-hour on Saturday. South Korea earned an early nook kick and received close to aim solely as a byproduct of the People’ errors. The USWNT finally settled into the match, and the opening aim got here from a affected person spell of possession that ended with middle again Naomi Girma on the ball in a sophisticated place. She performed Smith, who turned and rapidly slotted Swanson for the aim.

“In phrases what I had requested from the group, what we ready for, the execution of that — we have made steps in the proper route,” Hayes stated. “I felt for the primary half-hour, it was technical execution the place we struggled. We scored in our first three probabilities, so we had been environment friendly, we had been scientific.”

She added that “there’s one other degree” nonetheless to be reached by Smith, significantly in her mixture play with Swanson.

The USWNT faces South Korea once more on Tuesday in St. Paul, Minnesota, within the workforce’s closing match earlier than Hayes should select her 18-player Olympic roster. She is spoiled with attacking expertise to select from, and every determination she makes about easy methods to arrange the entrance line has a knock-on impact on the remainder of the positions. Alex Morgan reaffirmed her function because the workforce’s No. 9 earlier this yr, however Morgan didn’t play on Saturday. Hayes known as it a precaution because of pelvic tightness in coaching on Friday, noting that the employees needed to play a “good and recent” Morgan on Tuesday.

Smith has lengthy been the opposite pure choice in that striker function, however final yr she was shoehorned into a large function subsequent to Morgan and all the entrance line struggled on the World Cup. Smith’s central presence on Saturday underscored why that’s her finest function.

Rodman stays ever dependable, having performed in each USWNT match because the begin of 2023. She was lively all through Saturday’s match, sparking passing sequences after regaining the ball in deep areas and attending to the tip line to serve crosses.

Macario is the maverick throughout the group. She is a generational participant who can thrive as a No. 10 with freedom, or she will pull out defenses as a striker.

“I’ve hindsight as a result of I’ve coached her at membership degree, so I understand how she operates in pockets,” Hayes stated. “She will draw gamers in, she will escape strain — she’s a fairly press-resistant participant, hyperlinks very well.”

Hayes stated that she “actually loved the entrance 4 within the first half.”

“Fluidity” is a typical solution to describe Hayes’ ways, and that was on show in assault on Saturday. Hayes, nevertheless, has additionally persistently tempered expectations, stressing the necessity for processes. She’s pragmatic — and she or he is not practically happy but.

“I believe you’ll be able to see we’re constructing one thing,” Hayes stated. “There’s a number of work to do. There’s a number of holes in our play, no query, but it surely was a superb begin.”