How USWNT coach Emma Hayes is rebuilding U.S. Soccer's women's program through female lens ahead of World Cup

ATLANTA -- When Emma Hayes took the job as U.S. women's national team manager in 2024, she took it head-on, knowing the clock was ticking toward the 2024 Summer Olympics. She and the USWNT achieved quick success and made history by returning to the top of the Olympic podium for the first time since 2012, with roughly 80 days officially on the job.

After the gold medal win, and between planning for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, Hayes has done more than coach players; she has built an ecosystem dedicated to the growth, support, and development of women and young girls in soccer.

This isn't exactly breaking news. Hayes has been vocal about her broader ambitions in her current role to push the game forward. She launched the strategy "The WNT Way" in 2025, a vision that began by centering women at the heart of all processes in U.S. Soccer and beyond.

Before the USWNT gathered for training camps ahead of friendlies against Spain, Hayes and U.S. Soccer co-hosted the 2026 herLENS conference, a two-day event highlighting the work already underway with sessions on research and data. Whenever building culture, part of that is through developing and educating the principles, and in the second edition of the conference, Hayes and other session speakers did just that, and spoke with media about the importance of normalizing goals and processes through the lens of a woman.

"I know that the legacy of the WNT, the impact of the WNT, the importance of the WNT to everyone across this country goes beyond just the team that wins on the field and winning gold medals and winning World Cups, because of course, winning is an important part of the culture," Hayes said in her remarks at the conference.

"But as far as I'm concerned, winning is about creating a world so that by the time we get to four, five years down the road in 2031 ... That we have not only just reimagined that world, but we've built it collectively, so that everyone across the landscape is in a better position."

U.S. Soccer and Hayes aligned beyond 2028

A familiar theme over the second edition of the conference was Hayes and her staff's forward-thinking approach. Everyone is tapped into the "Female 360" approach, which includes plenty of player surveying, one-on-ones, and individual programs for each athlete, including overall health check-ins from hydration to nutrition strategies and menstrual cycle tracking to help players improve performance and overall health.

While Hayes was vocal in 2025 about building and implementing women-focused research and support for athletes, it's been a bigger vision with her since her days with Chelsea. She points to the 2016 FA Cup final loss with Chelsea, a 1-0 defeat against rivals Arsenal at Wembley Stadium, as a turning point that drove her toward a more women-centered approach to game prep and individual player planning. She noted the players' slower reaction time and coordination that day and that it looked like she was watching a group of people separated from their bodies.

"I remember at the end of the game, one of my staff saying, 'You know, we have the vast majority of our players are in phase four, beginning of phase one.' I was like, 'What does that mean? And then I, honestly, my own, like, awakening was, I don't even think I understand my own period,'" Hayes quipped.

Phase four refers to menstrual cycle tracking, and it isn't unique to the Hayes era of the USWNT. It was a significant part of the team's preparations for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, led by former performance coach and sports scientist Dawn Scott. It's one mechanism U.S. Soccer is building on in the Hayes era, as the coach pushes for more development in women's coaching and leadership positions and investments in sports medicine, and is also trying to think beyond winning.

Hayes has been open and transparent about her previous battles with stage five endometriosis, all in an effort to help normalize the conversation around it and to potentially help others in the long run.

"We can only do it as a collective. That's what I realized. Using it as a competitive advantage when I was at Chelsea is one thing. Using it as a competitive advantage when the U.S. Women's National Team, yeah, there are things that I definitely won't reveal because I want to win. But I want every little girl and woman, no matter what your practice is in our sport, to feel like, I don't know, this is more than just playing the game. I actually think we can impact society in a profound way."

Emma Hayes' presence a key factor

Between planning for competitions, it's been about setting up the program and its youth teams for future, sustainable success. From planning "futures camps" to reestablishing the U23 program to being a vocal advocate for the U20 team's tournaments, Hayes is making sure that, no matter what, coaches, staff, and leaders in the space work toward the same goal, centering all processes on women.

It's a simple concept: take processes and protocols that have already been copied and pasted from the men's game to the women's game -- smash them, and rebuild and reimagine them specifically for women and girls. It sounds far simpler than it actually is, as support and resources for the women's game are decades behind what has been built for men.

Eighteen months after launching the WNT Way, direct support for players through the "Female 360" approach remains in full effect, adding new layers like a bigger herLENS conference in year two and a strategic partnership with Kang Women's Institute for the herLENS Research Consortium. The partnership will focus on key questions in women's and girls' soccer, from how performance data is collected and used to why girls step away from the game.

Creating the environment has gone beyond a 2027 cycle, as the World Cup is now just eight months away, with the 2028 Olympics set to follow. The U.S. Soccer Federation is expected to host the 2031 World Cup alongside CONCACAF partners Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica, and discussions around a longstanding female-centric ecosystem led by Hayes are spoken of as the normal long term, though her initial managerial contract was announced through 2027.

"This was always the plan from the beginning. When we hired Emma, it was about six months until she started, and we knew she was going to be coming in right before the Olympics. And I always said, this is not a short-term thing. Like we want to win the Olympics, but we want someone who's going to lead our federation on the women and girls side for a long period of time," said U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone.

"So, this has always been in the plan. And so, if you only look at the cycle now, you're not developing for the future and putting things into place more long term. So if you scan out and say, 'Okay, where do we want to be in '31? Okay, if that's where we want to be, where do we want to be in '27 and '28? How do we build towards that? So Emma has my full support. I'm like the plow in front of her, making sure she's got a clear runway."

Building into the World Cup

The biggest difference for Hayes and her staff implementing and operating in their Female 360 approach now versus when she first arrived is time. Hayes had from June until reaching the top of the Olympic podium to troubleshoot some of her approaches. She retells a funny story about realizing the short window of time and what she and her staff could realistically achieve between her arrival and August 10—the day of the Olympic final.

"I always go back to what's the most important things: sleep and food. Okay, how can we not f--- that up? You've got to get sleep right. You've got to get nutrition right. When you've got so many male-lens approaches to things like traditional performances, we put weighing scales outside the room, or the meal prep will be exactly the same. I'll be like, 'Do you realize the stress levels that's going on for that athlete as she comes in here knowing she's going to be weighed in and it could be moving in a direction that's going to impact her whole day?' And that might be like that because her period is coming? And she's got a bit more water retention, and she's got a bit more inflammation? She might already have the overthinking that's going on. Now I've got to coach that player."

Hayes goes on with her example that depending on the player, they might be self-conscious about the scale and therefore second-guess her nutrition throughout the day. She recalls being in France, and the plate sizes of the hotel being smaller and how that alone could affect a player's serving size as they approach the meal room to serve themselves.

"They're not going to fill the small plates. If the plate looks small, they're going to put half an amount on that. So something as simple as changing the plates, so we get the right amount ... But you kick that scale out of the way. You don't make everything about data, data, data. You ask. You see. You build that connection," Hayes explained.

"That's what we're doing. Because that's what a traditional performance lens has been. If I'm looking to volleyball, I'm looking to basketball on the women's side. I'm looking for innovation to be able to do it better. But what I found most useful is -- listen to the players; they'll tell you. But only if they're not in a situation where it's feeling like you're gathering data for data's sake, or there's judgment because maybe they don't, you know, want to do something. I'm very much about, like, you have to meet the individual where they are, and they are all very different."

In 2025 alone, Hayes used 44 different players in lineups, the most of any coach in the 40-year history of the USWNT program. In her first 32 matches, 32 different players earned first caps, and 60 different players have taken the pitch since she took over. The 26-player roster she named for the October friendlies already has some adjustments to it, with defender Naomi Girma and midfielder Sam Coffey now unavailable for selection due to injuries.

Hayes has mentioned that less experienced players are unlikely to start against Spain in the upcoming matches, though she expects them to be ready when called upon. Jaelin Howell and Kate Del Fava have already been called in as replacements, as the U23 squad, which features all active NWSL players, will face the Dominican Republic.

What's next

The U.S. women's national team will take on Spain in a two-game series beginning Saturday, October 10. The matchup is one of the most anticipated sets of friendlies between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the world. The team is currently training at the national training center in Atlanta before heading to Philadelphia for the first match, then to Washington, D.C., to close out the international window on October 13.