Emma Hayes began with a powerpoint, but soon ditched it and spoke from the heart. She was outlining her paradigm-shifting vision for U.S. soccer. She\u2019d been refining it for months, but really, she said, \u201cI feel like I’ve worked on this my whole life.\u201d She\u2019d lived it as a London girl, in an age when boys\u2019 teams were her only soccer outlet; and as an aspiring coach, in courses designed for and taught by men<\/a>. \u201cWithin our game,\u201d she said, everything \u201chas been centered through a male bias and a male lens.\u201d<\/p>\n And that, now, in her role as U.S. women\u2019s national team head coach<\/a>, is what she wants to change.<\/p>\n She also wants to win, of course, \u201cbut for the WNT,\u201d she told a small group of reporters via Zoom this week, \u201cit goes further than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ever since she returned from Paris, where the USWNT won Olympic gold<\/a> in her 11th week on the job, Hayes has been constructing a plan to revolutionize women\u2019s soccer. She wants to use her power, as the highest-paid coach<\/a> of the sport\u2019s most popular team, to fundamentally rejigger how everyone \u2014 from coaches to performance scientists to data analysts to U.S. Soccer Federation marketing execs \u2014 approaches the women\u2019s game. Countless customs, rules, tactics, systems and so on have been copied or adapted from men\u2019s soccer. Hayes has been asking provocative questions that boil down to one: If they weren\u2019t copied, and were instead designed principally for women, how would they be different?<\/p>\n And she has been \u201cchallenging everybody across the federation, internally,\u201d to reflect on \u201chow they’ve been viewing the women’s game through that male lens.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayes wants to replace it with a \u201cfemale lens\u201d that, she believes, could reshape the sport \u2014 and keep the USWNT atop it.<\/p>\n That is the vision and \u201cmission\u201d she\u2019s presented, powerpoint and all, to youth national team staff and U.S. Soccer leadership: \u201cArchitect a \u2018Female blueprint\u2019 to win and set the bar for the global game.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cmale lens\u201d is a legacy of centuries-old sexism, and when Hayes urges you to look for it \u2014 humbly, intentionally \u2014 you realize it\u2019s ubiquitous. Nearly every aspect of soccer, from the size of the field to the lexicon to the strategies that teams employ, was developed by men, for men in the 20th century, when most women were banned or strongly discouraged from even playing the sport.<\/p>\n So, as women\u2019s soccer grew<\/a> in the 21st century, it was funneled into the mold of men\u2019s soccer. The formations and training programs and league structures that worked on the men\u2019s side were the natural reference point. The commercial schemes and passing techniques and footwear were replicated, or at least became the women\u2019s starting point. And the experts came, too, often without considering that the starting points might be faulty.<\/p>\n \u201cSo often, so many people come into the women’s game, and they have little to no knowledge of females whatsoever,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cNone. They have knowledge of their area of expertise, which is crucial. \u2026 But there are real differences between men and women. And \u2026 they just get dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, Hayes explained, is the U-14 coach who knows how to run a defensive drill, but has no clue what to do when one of his players starts her period.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the pro coach who idolizes Pep Guardiola, and espouses the same ideals, but has never even pondered that the pace or spacing of women\u2019s soccer might be different. \u201cIn the men’s game, a left back can hit a ball in behind an opposing left back. But you [typically] can’t do that in the women’s game,\u201d Hayes said, by way of example. \u201cSo, it alters the way I might think, in terms of how I might set a team up defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also the rehab regimens<\/a> that haven\u2019t accounted for female physiology. It\u2019s the facilities that might be gorgeous, but don\u2019t fulfill a woman\u2019s needs. It\u2019s the administrator who, for a road trip, picks a hotel simply because the men\u2019s team loved it. It\u2019s the analytics and Expected Goal (xG) models that have transformed modern soccer \u2014 but were based on data from the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n It\u2019s even the social media intern who posts a seemingly innocuous photo to Instagram, but doesn\u2019t understand how society has conditioned women to think about body image.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re taking that photograph in exactly the same way you do a male player, and you share that at the wrong angle \u2014 let me tell you, as a coach, I could be spending weeks and months on that,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cI might need to get clinical support. Over a photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n These are the types of conversations Hayes has been having with the ever-expanding staff at U.S. Soccer.<\/p>\n \u201cI want people to be uncomfortable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n And some have been. \u201cI have people even within my staff that are so unaware of their own biases,\u201d Hayes noted. \u201cAnd they’re not living in Zambia, nor Spain; they’re living in the U.S. And they’re working in the best program in the world. And they’re like, \u2026 \u2018I’m ashamed of myself for some of the things I’ve been doing, just because I hadn’t even reflected on that as a woman, and [the potential] impact.’\u201d<\/p>\n Hayes also knows, though, that her staff is but a small sliver of a sprawling soccer ecosystem. To truly revolutionize the sport, \u201cwe know we’ve gotta get down to the younger age groups as quick as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n To do that, she hopes that U.S. Soccer will create a distinct women’s coaching education department, rather than looping the women\u2019s game into courses that, traditionally, have been rooted in men\u2019s soccer. In the redesigned system she envisions, there\u2019d be a Pro License, a B License, a C License and so on specifically tailored \u2014 \u201cphysiologically, anatomically, technically, tactically, psychologically, socially, emotionally\u201d \u2014 to women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can’t talk about creating the best environments for our girls, women, all over the country, until we prioritize the systems that are there to support us,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n She also wants to work with professional leagues \u2014 namely the NWSL and USL \u2014 on what she calls a \u201cpro game advisory board.\u201d<\/p>\n She wants to work with Nike, and with universities, to develop \u201cresearch projects\u201d and \u201csports science degrees that are specific to females.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d also love to spread her gospel to the ECNL, the Girls Academy and other prestigious youth leagues, but \u201cthat,\u201d she admitted, \u201cwill be a humongous challenge.\u201d U.S. Soccer has long struggled<\/a> to control those independent, profit-driven amateur clubs \u2014 where soccer-playing teens do most of their learning.<\/p>\n Still, though, Hayes is optimistic. She\u2019s energized. \u201cThis is the single most exciting project I’ve ever been involved with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In between USWNT camps, she is working long hours with the federation on things like coaching education and \u201cstakeholder engagement,\u201d both of which she called \u201cabsolutely essential.\u201d<\/p>\n She is also managing a player pool. She\u2019ll lead the USWNT to the 2027 World Cup. She wants to win it, and to host the 2031 World Cup, and to win that one, too.<\/p>\n But she has these grander ambitions, the impact of which \u201cI doubt will be felt in its entirety until I’ve gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve worked my entire career,\u201d Hayes said, \u201cto get to a place where I’ve got the ability to influence, and the power to influence something much broader and much bigger than me.\u201d And she intends to use it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Reshaping the men’s soccer mold<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Hayes’ push to rebuild the system <\/strong><\/h2>\n