eager

When Emma Hayes took the reins of the women’s national soccer team in 2024, one of her first goals was to plumb the depths of the team’s talent pool. She knew what she had on the surface with veterans such as Rose Lavelle, Naomi Girma, Lindsey Heaps and Trinity Rodman. But what about the players under them? Who could step in in case of injury, absence or a lack of form?

Twenty months later, Hayes still hasn’t reached the bottom of that pool, making this month’s training camp in Carson an important one with World Cup qualifying looming in the fall.

“Some of the pool players are going to get an opportunity to shine,” she said. “Some are high-potential prospects. I think about Hal Hershfelt or Croix Bethune, players who have not had a lot of opportunity with us. I get a chance to really see where they’re at.

“My message is these players really have to take these opportunities because they will become few and far between.”

Hayes has given 27 players their senior national team debuts and has used 50 different starters in her 30 matches as coach. No other U.S. manager has named more than 36 starters over a similar span. And the number of debutantes could grow since three of the 26 women called up are still looking for their first international cap — something they could earn this month since the training camp will end with friendlies against Paraguay on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park and Chile at UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 27.

Saturday’s matinee will include a pregame tribute to Christen Press, a two-time world champion who announced her retirement last fall.

But as valuable as the continuing auditions may be, the decision to call up a roster of young, NWSL players was made out of necessity, not design. Because the camp falls outside a FIFA window, Hayes was unable to summon European-based players such as Girma, Heaps, Alyssa Thompson, Crystal Dunn and Catarina Macario. Also unavailable were Jaedyn Shaw, Jaelin Howell, Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and Lavelle, U.S. Soccer’s women’s player of the year, who will all be playing for Gotham FC in next week’s FIFA Women’s Championship Club in England.

U.S. coach Emma Hayes, center, speaks with players after an international friendly match against Italy in December.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

“If the European-based players and the Gotham-based players were here, this would be a completely different roster,” Hayes said. “But that’s not the case.”

It’s also nothing new. The coach hasn’t had what she considers her first-choice roster since taking over the national team.

Injury kept Macario off the team that struck gold in the Paris Olympics, Hayes’ first tournament as coach, while forwards Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson have been on maternity leave since the Olympics. Injuries have limited Rodman, another forward, to one game over the past 18 months.

Despite that, the U.S. has lost just three of 20 games since climbing off the medal stand in Paris. So while she would prefer to start the new year with the veteran core of her 2027 World Cup roster in uniform, that didn’t happen. Instead, the 26 invited players — among them Rodman, Angel City defender Gisele Thompson and Santa Clarita’s Olivia Moultrie — average 24.1 years of age and 6.6 caps of senior-team experience.

“What I’ve learned since the Olympics is I can never, ever pick the best roster because I’m always going to be without players,” she said.

With the World Cup a year away, the tryout period will soon be ending. Hayes said she and her staff have mapped out how they’d like to see 2026 unfold, and that plan includes narrowing the potential player pool to about 35 women ahead of the SheBelieves Cup in March.

“Once we get to SheBelieves, if everyone is available to me, it will be the group that are strong candidates to be [part of World Cup qualifying],” she said. “It will be an extremely competitive roster.”

Yet it will be one that still won’t include Wilson or Swanson, who combined for seven of the team’s 12 goals in the Olympics. Wilson gave birth to a daughter in September, two months before Swanson did the same. Hayes, who had a son in the spring of 2018, doesn’t plan to rush back either player.

“I know how long it takes to recover after having a baby. That’s why I don’t like putting time frames on it,” she said. “Hormones play a big part of it. And you don’t actually realize that until you’ve had a baby.

“For some the recovery is quicker than others. Depends on your age, depends on type of birth, sleep. Loads of things.”

In the meantime, Hayes will keep dipping into the talent pool she has.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Through tears, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza thanked every member of his family after becoming the first Hoosier to ever win the Heisman Trophy. The Cuban American quarterback recognized his family for believing in him throughout his career.

He was a two-star high school recruit who drew little attention before finally landing an opportunity to play at California. After three years with the Golden Bears, including a redshirt year, he transferred to Indiana. On Thursday, the No. 1 Hoosiers will take the field at the Rose Bowl, where they will face college football traditional power Alabama in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

Pressure is familiar for Mendoza. He’s faced challenges throughout his career — from proving himself as an overlooked high school athlete to earning his starting role at Cal.

Anytime Mendoza has met a hurdle, he considers how to help those around him shine.

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza holds back tears while accepting the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 13 in New York.

(Todd Van Emst / Associated Press)

“I know that’s my responsibility to my coaches, to my teammates and to the entire team, to be able to be sharp mentally and not have outside influences, pressures and noise able to impact my game,” Mendoza said. “I think one thing is just keeping the process on how I got here, how the entire team got to this place, which is keeping the process that I’ve kept for every single game.”

The Hoosiers finished the season undefeated. They will play for their first Rose Bowl victory in 57 years and it’ll be the second year in a row Indiana has reached the College Football Playoff.

“His leadership has increased in those crucial moments and I think that’s what makes him such a special player — because when the stakes are the highest, he steps up and gets the team going,” Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones said. “He’s a guy that people want to get behind and run a play for.”

Mendoza became the third player with Latino heritage to win the Heisman Trophy. His grandparents on both sides of the family were born in Cuba and during his acceptance speech, he made sure to thank them in Spanish.

In the NFL, Latino players have become a growing demographic. From 2021-25, representation jumped from 12 to 47 players who identify as Latino, with 32 on 53-man rosters at the start of the season. Mendoza is not in the league, but his elevated presence in the college football world has come with extra pressure of representing a culture and proving Latinos can succeed in football.

“To be able to play in this atmosphere in the Rose Bowl, it’s a special moment for myself, for my family, and I would say just being able to play in front of a Hispanic and Latino crowd, it’s what I do,” Mendoza said. “I want to inspire young Latino kids and I want to always represent my culture to the highest.”

On Thursday, Mendoza will take the field for the first time as a Heisman winner, adding another layer of intensity to his game. The award winner is expected to do many national media interviews and Mendoza recently was a prominent voice during a “60 Minutes” segment about Indiana.

“What you see on camera is who he is,” Jones said. “Whether it’s in the locker room or out to eat with some of my teammates, he is one of the more genuine people on the team.”

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti hopes the expectations that come with the Heisman Trophy don’t change the quarterback’s style.

“It’s really critical now that he develops a sharp edge in his preparation and doesn’t play like, ‘Oh, I’m the Heisman Trophy winner and I’ve got to do this or do that,’ because we’ve all been following this game long enough to know we’ve seen some of those performances,” he said.

Cignetti understands the difficulty of the opponent standing in front of Mendoza. The Alabama defense works to throw the quarterback off balance. The Tide have great players who play hard and fast. In order to win, Mendoza and his teammates need to play the way they have all season.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about execution, left tackle doing his job, running back, receiver, and Fernando being on point,” Cignetti said.

Mendoza said he is up to the challenge. When he takes the first snap in Pasadena, he won’t be thinking of personal statistics or awards, he’ll be thinking about the national championship.

“Now we have to get the ultimate team award,” he said.