Every cloud has a silver lining, and it surely must have been true for the roster that Emma Hayes chose for the Paris Olympics. Keeping aside the obvious ones, some selections were quite surprising, while others, despite being expected, were nowhere to be seen—like Alex Morgan. Though it raised a lot of fingers at Hayes, Crystal Dunn has come in defense of her boss, insisting that making it into the team was ‘not easy’ for anyone.

The defender was invited to ESPN’s Futbol W segment, hosted by Ali Krieger. During the lengthy chat, the USWNT icon asked about how things have been under the former Chelsea boss. In response, Dunn had nothing but praise, underlining the challenges that everyone faced. “I’m excited for this summer, it’s going to be a big one. I’m excited because the selection process for this go around was not easy.”

While acknowledging that each player was on their own in the battle of making the cut, the 31-year-old added the hardships Emma went through, “Everyone was committed to the journey and Emma coming in on the later end of the selections was hard for everyone. I know it was hard for her she wanted to be here with us but at the same time, she wanted to close that chapter with Chelsea the way that she wanted to and we were so supportive of that.”

Twila Kilgore took care of the Star and Stripes ft. ladies while Hayes was in the final stages of her career in England. However, that was also the time to start thinking about the 22-player roster that Team USA will be flying to France. Eventually, till the time Hayes finally took the command, not much was left which saw the 47-year-old make tough calls.

Leaving Morgan out was one of them. Even though she had to face a lot of criticism for it, some appreciation also made its way to the English boss.

Crystal Dunn’s star teammate praises Emma Hayes’ tough call to snub Alex Morgan

For those unaware, nine players in the squad were first-time Olympians, a scenario that hadn’t occurred before. Alyssa Naeher, the goalkeeper, believes that selecting a roster without prior Olympic gold experience was key to their triumph. “You always have that one person that’s still around from 2012, but I think that was something very unique to this group. Once we kind of figured that out, it helped,” said the 36-year-old.

Naeher also noted that the shared motivation among the 22 players to bring home the gold medal was what kept the team united. Interestingly, this wasn’t the only time Hayes got praised for this bold call; just ten days earlier, ESPN pundit Sebastian Salazar applauded former Blues boss Emma Hayes for successfully transitioning away from the generation that won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups.

Salazar also mentioned that leaving out Alex Morgan allowed Triple Espresso—the trio of Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith, and Trinity Rodman—to excel in the attack. Be that as it may, even though it’s sad that Alex Morgan didn’t play in what could have been her last Olympics, everything turned out perfectly—just like they say, all’s well that ends well.