The third stage: what to expect from Emma Hayes’s USWNT with World Cup in sight? | OneFootball

When the whistle blows to start USA v Argentina on Sunday in Nashville, a new period of the Emma Hayes era will begin in earnest. The team preparing to play La Albiceleste in Tennessee for the 11th SheBelieves Cup, followed by Canada and Colombia, is the first in more than a year to feature no uncapped players.

For a head coach who spent 2025 setting, challenging or matching all-time USWNT records for capping players, that is a notable shift and it marks the next phase of the team’s World Cup preparation.

The first two chapters: Nearly two years ago, Hayes took hold of the humbled giants two months before the Paris Olympics. While noting she felt like a “heart surgeon in the middle of emergency surgery”, the first phase was a whirlwind redemption run that culminated in the USWNT’s fifth gold medal.

It was slow after the tournament, but last year Hayes worked methodically with her team to develop talent, test a broader pool, foster competition and fold new players into the environment. While securing a record of 12 wins and three defeats, Hayes capped 44 players in the calendar year, the most in the team’s history. She gave debuts to 16 players, the most since 1985, with 38 in all getting starts, the second-most in history and the most since 2001. Since taking over, Hayes has doled out 32 debuts and starts to 55 players.

“You got to create competition,” Hayes said last week. “But to create competition, you got to give people experiences.” Indicating that no one, including those previously in starting spots, was 100% safe in their role, Hayes said: “I expect more competition as a result of the decisions we took last year. But you’ve got to perform. That’s the bottom line.”

The next step: The absence of uncapped players signifies a shift. Rather than trialling and testing an enormous pool, the four-time Women’s World Cup winners are moving toward refining the group Hayes has built as they prepare for the qualifying tournament in November. “I do think there is clarity, a lot more clarity in terms of the squad of players we are building around for the upcoming year,” said Hayes.

Fans can expect a few key themes from this period. For one, as Hayes works towards the Concacaf W Championship (which serves as World Cup qualification), observers can expect healthy experimentation and rotation in the starting XI.

Injuries, as ever, are one cause for this. Catarina Macario, Kate Wiesner, Tierna Davidson, Croix Bethune, Michelle Cooper, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson are absent due to injuries and other fitness precautions, though Hayes indicated they would all compete for roles when fit. As they re-emerge, and club form fluctuates, some in the camp may move to continue their growth with the under-23s or other youth teams.

Another cause for rotation and fluctuation is the necessary balance between perfecting the team’s core while encouraging competition and building experience in the main pool. Hayes illustrated this point while discussing her first-choice center-backs, Emily Sonnett and Naomi Girma, and the cadre of less experienced options around them: “When you’ve got such experience like Girma and Sonnett and then a big gap below, it’s always a balance between developing them and developing the players who are my starting center-back pair.”

There are no uncapped players in camp. But outside five players, no one has more than 42; Riley Jackson has one and 12 players have 10 or fewer. Complemented by a spine of veterans, it is still a notably young squad. Hayes will emphasize gaining experience for all of them before the World Cup: “My job as a coach is to recognize I have to get a group of players ready. And if I just selected 14 players all of the time I genuinely think I’d be failing in this job.”

Another riveting theme this year is the assured competition for starting roles come next summer. Despite the experience gap Hayes illustrated at center-back, numerous players staked their claim last year for roles held firmly by others two years ago. The goalkeeper position feels open. “Triple Espresso” – Wilson, Swanson and Trinity Rodman – stunned for a summer, but the trio have not figured together since. A squad always dense with attacking talent offered other options in the interim. And with Sam Coffey, Lily Yohannes, Claire Hutton, Jaedyn Shaw, Rose Lavelle, Olivia Moultrie, Lindsey Heaps and, when fit, Bethune, all jockeying for lead roles in the midfield, that could quickly become the most interesting part of the pitch to watch.

They will face interesting competition with varied styles in the SheBelieves Cup. Colombia, ranked 20th in the world, are making their second appearance, and have provided the USWNT entertaining, at times technically masterful and often physically challenging tests in recent meetings. Argentina, ranked 30th, are also making their second appearance and will hope to improve on their last-place finish in 2021. Canada, longtime rivals to the US, enter the fray without a number of marquee names (Olivia Smith is a doubt after an injury in the FA Cup, while Adriana Leon and Ashley Lawrence were omitted to give others a chance) after some disappointing results in 2025, including a 3-0 loss to the USWNT.

The US, who finished second behind Japan in last year’s edition, will compete to claim their eighth title on 7 March.

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Header image: [Photograph: Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF]