Emma Hayes seems to have The Elder Wand from Harry Potter. How else could she turn the USWNT from their worst World Cup run in 2023 into gold medal champions at the 2024 Paris Olympics? Well, USWNT player Naomi Girma has the answer to this.

When managers are hell-bent on choosing rigorous methods for training, Emma Hayes is different. Don’t get us wrong. She wants her players to train hard. But the camaraderie within the USWNT squad speaks volumes about her management in the game.

“I think she just came in and allowed us to be ourselves and play freely and express ourselves. I think we have such a good group and to just have that freedom helped us to gel quickly and be successful,” Girma stated while speaking to Olympics.com.

The words ‘freely’ and ‘express’ ring a bell. Those are the two massive factors that instill confidence in a player. Think about Arsene Wenger- the great manager of Arsenal. Years ago, when the English soccer club faced financial issues due to a new stadium, Wenger stayed put. He spent almost nothing on improving the playing squad and replaced players with cheaper ones. He created players, gave them belief, and allowed them to express themselves. Put Emma Hayes into that bracket now.

Belief. Freedom. Fun.
Hayes successfully incorporated these concepts in her training, and the results are right before us. But it is not just Girma who had great things to say about the manager.

Sophia Smith shared, “I know we’ve gone through our fair share of ups and downs, but I do feel like we’ve finally found our footing and a lot of that is credit to Emma. I think she has come in and helped us rediscover who we already knew we were, but we just needed a little bit of guidance.”

What’s impressive about Hayes is that she was just two months into her new role as USWNT’s manager when they won the Olympic gold in Paris. One can only imagine how much more players will improve if she stays with the team for a long time.

Emma Hayes took over the USWNT after Vlatko Andonovski’s reign, which had its fair share of controversies. When people say a world-class coach changes their team’s fortunes in the flick of a switch, we must put Emma Hayes in the same bracket.

How Emma Hayes brought back Olympic glory!

The United States women’s national team, in its eight appearances in the Games, won five Olympic gold medals: 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2024. However, after the London 2012 Games, the team couldn’t produce the same results in the 2016 Rio Games and, later, Tokyo.

It looks like Emma Hayes was the answer to the team’s woes. The gap witnessed between the American team and the rest has gone from being extremely obvious to almost zero in quite a short period. How was all this possible?

As per Hayes, the team changed their approach. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, the head coach and her team took on a game-by-game basis approach and didn’t try to think too far ahead. That being said, while everyone was still talking about their World Cup loss last year, the team had moved past that and focused all their energy on the Olympics.

“I think this time is past that [and] is firmly focused on creating new history together,” Hayes has shared. It looks like mental preparation was very much a part of their training sessions, as the players looked confident and strong. In fact, while discussing the mental aspect, the manager said:

“For us, it’s so important we continue to focus on our progress. We focus on the things we can control and just build on all the work we’ve been doing ever since I’ve taken over.”

Now, that’s something to ponder upon! What do you think?