This coach is worth the wait for USWNT, even if it puts Olympics at risk

After a World Cup debacle revealed fault lines throughout a program accustomed to setting the standard for the rest of the game, the USWNT doesn’t just need the best coach for right now, or even for the next major international tournament. It needs a coach who can rid the senior team of its on-field malaise, integrate the next generation of players and work with U.S. Soccer to address a development ecosystem that now lags behind the top European teams.

Hayes is that person. And if that means the USWNT won’t have her full time until late May or even early June, so be it.

Chelsea announced Saturday that Hayes will leave the team “at the end of the season to pursue a new opportunity outside of the WSL and club football.” Backheeled and The Equalizer quickly reported Hayes and U.S. Soccer were finalizing details of her contract, and The Washington Post reported that USWNT players had received an email announcing her arrival.

U.S. Soccer’s board still has to approve Hayes’ hiring, but that’s not likely to be an issue.

Hayes is, without question, one of the top women’s coaches in the world, club or country. She’s led Chelsea to six English Super League titles, including the last four, and five FA Cups. She took Chelsea to the Champions League final in 2021, and the semifinals last season.

She’s a six-time WSL manager of the year and was FIFA’s coach of the year in 2021.

Her teams are both exciting and tactically sound. While she has not managed at the international level, she has managed some of the top international players, including Sam Kerr, Millie Bright, Lauren James, Fran Kirby, Kadeisha Buchanan and Zećira Mušović on Chelsea’s current squad.  

Hayes is familiar with the European development system, in which clubs identify young talent and train them at their own academies until they’re ready for the national team and/or a professional career. But she’s also familiar with the pay-to-play system that is dominant in the United States, having gotten her coaching start here, first with the Long Island Lady Riders and then Iona College.

Hayes also worked in the Women’s Professional Soccer league, the precursor to the NWSL, and has contact with the current USWNT staff because up-and-comers Catarina Macario and Mia Fishel are at Chelsea.

Short of poaching England’s Sarina Wiegman, Hayes was the best coach out there for the USWNT.

“Emma has been one of the biggest drivers of change in women’s football,” Chelsea’s co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley said in the statement announcing Hayes’ departure.

Chelsea later posted a photo of the “In Emma We Trust” banner at its grounds with the word, “Always.”

Though Hayes expressed interest in the USWNT job, getting her seemed like a long shot simply because of the calendar. Chelsea’s last league game is May 18 and the Champions League final is a week later, while the Olympic tournament begins July 25.

Before that, there are international windows in December, April and May, along with the Concacaf championship that runs Feb. 20 to March 10.

But U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker was smart enough to realize getting Hayes for the long run is worth sacrificing the next few months. Yes, even if that means a sub-par showing for a third major international tournament.

The U.S. women are four-time World Cup champions and have spent most of the last decade as the No. 1 team in the world. But the team needs some institutional, or at least generational, changes, and Hayes is the right person to make them. Hiring someone else for the sake of expedience, just to get the Americans through the Olympics, would have been kicking the can down the road, and the USWNT deserves more than that.

They deserve a coach like Hayes. She’ll be worth the wait.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.