Emma Hayes' consistency carries U.S. women to Olympic soccer semifinals
New U.S. coach Emma Hayes hasn't always made the predictable choices during her short tenure with the team when it came to Alex Morgan, but she has been amazingly consistent with one thing during the Paris Olympics: her lineup.
Hayes has used essentially the same starters in every game. Her few variations have been made only because of injury, as was the case with Tierna Davidson, or ineligibility, like Sam Coffey's yellow-card suspension for the quarterfinals.
Hayes said that it's partly about building chemistry within the squad, and partly because she just took over the U.S. team in earnest in May after finishing out the season with Chelsea.
"I don’t believe we’d have gone through if we’d have made too many changes. It’s those relationships that are developing that are putting us in a situation against a world-class opponent in a very, very short space of time," Hayes said ahead of her team's semifinal match against Germany on Tuesday in Lyon.
"I haven’t had much time to work with the whole squad. I’m still learning about everybody."
Hayes was hired by U.S. Soccer in November after Vlatko Andonovski stepped down in the wake of the Americans' early exit from the Women's World Cup.
Hayes' consistency has paid off when it comes to the team's front three: Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith, who have clearly formed a close bond.
Rodman, Swanson and Smith have accounted for eight of the team's 10 goals through four games in France. Swanson and Rodman each have three, while Smith has a pair.
"She wants everyone to be creative in their own ways, and she lets that happen while also trying to put her structure and her principles sprinkled in there," Rodman said of Hayes. "But allowing us to play free I think has been extremely successful for this team."
Brazil plays Women's World Cup champion Spain in Tuesday's other semifinal for a spot in the title game at Parc des Princes in Paris on Saturday.
The United States, the winningest team ever in the Olympics with four gold medals, reached the last four with a hard-fought 1-0 quarterfinal victory in extra time over Japan. Rodman scored the game's lone goal. Over the course of the tournament, the Americans allowed opponents just two goals, the fewest of the teams remaining in France.
Germany prevailed on penalties after a scoreless draw with Canada. German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, who plays in the United States with Gotham FC, stopped a pair of Canada's attempts and then converted a penalty of her own to win it.
The United States, undefeated in the Olympics so far, already beat Germany 4-1 in the group stage.
"We have to be better than the last game, that’s for sure," Berger said. "We have to learn from our mistakes, and I think we really have to focus if we have goal-scoring opportunities to take them — because I think that was the worst bit from the first game against the U.S.
"And we all know that because we all know that the U.S. have a really, really good attack, but we can exploit them on top as well."
Reporting by The Associated Press.
