USWNT coach Emma Hayes confident in Olympic line-up choices: ‘I’m paid to do this job’

PARIS — The U.S. women’s soccer team is through to the Olympic semifinals following its 1-0 extra-time victory against Japan at Parc des Princes thanks to Trinity Rodman’s left foot, a heaping dose of patience and confidence in consistency.

It wasn’t pretty football, but it was what the U.S. expected. When the players walked through the mixed zone, they didn’t care how it looked. They cared about moving on to the semifinal against Germany in Lyon. The same went for head coach Emma Hayes.

“I’m paid to do this job,” Hayes said. “What I’m interested in is what we do in-house. I’ve been coaching football matches a long time. I’ve said it from the beginning: connections help. I don’t believe we’d have gone through if we’d have made too many changes.”

With Japan in a low block and content to allow them to possess for most of regular time, the U.S. could only try pushing the ball horizontally across the back line from Emily Sonnett to Naomi Girma to Emily Fox and back. Their brief forays forward were generally rebuffed, and Japan shut down most attempts at creating any pockets of space.

By the second half of Saturday’s game, the isolated whistles from the crowd at the conservative passes between the USWNT back line had escalated into stadium-wide jeering, countered every time with chants of “U-S-A”. That discontent never dissipated, even after Rodman scored at the end of the first period of extra time, a beautiful effort to the far post that her coach called “a world-class finish” after the game.

TRINITY RODMAN TAKE A BOW. 👏

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. THE USWNT LEADS IN EXTRA TIME.#ParisOlympics | 📺 USA and Peacock pic.twitter.com/rNlebzAyOo

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 3, 2024

It was not the most fun game to watch, and Rodman said it wasn’t the most fun game to play, either. But matches like this in an international tournament setting are inevitable.

“It was going to come down to something brilliant like (the goal), if it came from me or anybody else on the field,” Rodman said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be tiki-taka in the box. It was one moment that we had to capitalize on and that’s what happened.”

There were questions all game about the tactical plan, about tired legs, about Hayes’ rotation across the starting XI and the lack of substitutions. In every previous media availability, she had committed firmly to her plan of keeping the same group of players together. Hayes has done it all week regarding the team’s lack of rotation, most strongly on Friday before the quarterfinal.

“I will not change anything I’m doing,” she said. “We can’t play football like that. We just have to be prepared and deal with whatever comes with it.”

Hayes did it again on Saturday, not wanting to encourage even a question about her first knockout victory as the team’s head coach counted as a big moment.

“I’m a coach used to winning, so no,” she replied.

Despite the victory, questions about the team’s last tournament performance at the 2023 World Cup lingered. Forward Sophia Smith brushed it off again Saturday afternoon, reiterating that the team has moved past the round-of-16 exit.

If you’ve been online for any length of time on sports-related social media, you’ve probably seen the clip of ESPN commentator Stephen A Smith saying, “We don’t care. I’m here to tell you, we don’t care.” That clip might as well be playing on a loop with the USWNT as they brush off every attempt at tagging them with a narrative they don’t like or don’t agree with.

And it starts with Hayes, who has been around long enough to know just how much to push back and shut down something before it starts. Before the Olympics, she consistently reframed the discussion from a potential gold medal to the team’s performance and what she needed to see. She did so after the group stage victory against Germany, laughing a little as she reminded everyone it was just three points.

There is an expiration date for how long a strategy like this can last. But no matter what happens on Tuesday in Lyon, the USWNT will have a chance to play for a medal. Under a new head coach, that feels like at least meeting expectations.

In the meantime, even if Saturday’s result wasn’t the flashiest, it was what the U.S. needed to keep its tournament going. There will be more questions. Another match against Germany awaits in Lyon. This one won’t likely end 4-1 in the USWNT’s favor like the group stage affair, and there will be fears about the health of two starting defenders now in Tierna Davidson and now Fox.

But there won’t be any changes to Hayes’ approach. And on Saturday, this new version of the team showed that if they get their chance, they’re not just capable, they’re ready to take it.

(Top photo: Alex Gottschalk/Getty Images)