Alex Ferguson, who led Manchester United to an unprecedented 13 Premier League titles in 21 seasons, insisted coaches learned less in victory than they did in defeat.
That would seem to suggest Ferguson learned little during his time in England. Yet if he’s right, then Emma Hayes’ education as coach of the women’s national team is just beginning because until last month she, like Ferguson, had known nothing but success.
She took over as manager last spring, about two months before the Paris Olympics, then won all six games in that tournament to return the U.S. to the top of the medal stand for the first time since 2012. That was part of a 17-match unbeaten streak that ended three weeks ago in a 2-1 loss to Japan in the final of the SheBelieves Cup. But for Hayes, the result didn’t teach her as much as the opponent did.
“When you’re playing against the very top teams — Japan might very well be the best in the world right now — I’m going to learn more about the players in the challenges of that game than I am sometimes in the wins,” she said. “You have to experience that first to really know and understand what it takes to play at the top level.”
In that case, Hayes and her players learned a lot against Japan because seven of the 17 women who appeared in that game were not on the Olympic team. For them, the game was a wake-up call.
“I experienced so many players coming off of the field going ‘Wow, that’s really high level,’” Hayes said. “Then it’s about, more importantly, what steps are we going to put in place to make sure we embed that learning so we keep improving.”
The next step in that progression comes April 5 when the U.S. faces Brazil at SoFi Stadium in a repeat of last summer’s Olympic final. It will mark the team’s first appearance in the world’s most expensive stadium, which will play host to eight games in next summer’s men’s World Cup.
Brazil and the U.S. will meet again three days later in San José.
“In terms of the importance of the game[s], we’re playing a high-level opponent, the next host of the World Cup,” Hayes said.
Both teams will differ from the ones that met in Paris. Brazil, which last played Dec. 1, will be without Marta, who retired from international play after the Olympics. The U.S. will be missing forward Sophia Smith, who last week announced her pregnancy, and could be without defender Naomi Girma, forward Mallory Swanson and midfielder Rose Lavelle, among others.
Hayes hasn’t had her first-choice roster since the Olympics, but she looks at that more as a blessing than a curse.
“Our group will be different purely because of the availability of players,” she said. “But I think it gives our less-experienced players another opportunity to see where we measure up.”
Because Hayes’ commitments to Chelsea, her former employer, delayed her arrival in the U.S. until last May, she had little time to fully evaluate the deep U.S. talent pool ahead of the Olympics. So, with the next major international tournament more than two years away, she’s doing that now.
In January, she invited 24 U23 players to a “futures camp,” which was held in conjunction with the first national team call-ups of the year. And the roster she put together for the SheBelieves Cup included three teenagers and three players who made their senior international debuts in the tournament.
“In coaching, you never got ideal-world scenarios in anything,” Hayes said.
Sometimes that means taking a step back before you can take two forward. Just ask Alex Ferguson.
“You can’t always measure development just by wins and loses,” Hayes said. “I always try to compete to win but I also understand development. And the importance of development is that [I] have to take these hard lessons early on, then work with the players to keep growing.”