Emma Hayes: Spain are the “best team in the world”
If there were two key concepts that defined how the USWNT approached these friendlies with Spain, it was trust in the leadership of head coach Emma Hayes and willingness to publicly undergo a series of trial and error testing on the pitch.
“They’re the best team in the world,” Hayes said of Spain’s famed The Red. “I didn’t learn anything I already didn’t know.
“They’re world-class. We’re still in progress. They’re deserving of being world champions. Our job is to hunt that,” she explained.
“I think you see the importance of squad depth and how our players are really developing, especially the less one experienced ones,” she added, noting that Kate Del Fava and Tordin stone earned their first USWNT caps on Tuesday.
Their debuts brought the total number of players to wear the Stars and Stripes kit up to 46 this year, a record for the USWNT. Saluting Spain’s depth and ability to work as a unit, Hayes made it clear she wanted to put a larger emphasis on the team as a singular unit, rather than a collection of stars.
“I need to analyze the game to pass comment on the whole game,” Hayes told reporters, declining to make any broad conclusions about the match before having a chance to do her homework, “but a great fight, great determination from the whole group in the second half, especially being two-nil down.”
Looking back on a key change in tactics that bolstered the United States’ attacking ability with some fresh substitutes, she spoke positively of what they provided to the team: “I really admired the fearlessness of the performance of the second half.”
Having left left the first match against Spain “frustrated” and “disappointed,” it seemed as though she was far more pleased with what she saw on the pitch Tuesday night in Chester, Pennsylvania.
“The strength was in the size of our pack,” Hayes concluded.
Source: www.olympics.com
