Emma Hayes and USA: the story so far

How have the USA performed so far under Emma Hayes? Ahead of Tuesday night's semi-final against Germany, Chloe and Rachel discuss the story so far!
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[@vincentdagen1812]

Girma has been playing unbelievable football

[@ZingaroXIV]

Don't forget - Alyssa Naeher has routinely blocked 2-3 pens AND scored pens herself in tournament play. She and Berger seem to have been created from the same GK mold.

[@Catherine-kt9jt]

I think mixed is fair, but I also think we need to really remember how different International football is to club football - they are totally different ball games (pun intended). I'll be honest and say historically I have not been a fan of EH, but I would give her some slack here. It's been a tough tournament for everyone - I think we are really seeing the effects of fatigue. It feels like the teams that have performed - I would say the USA in parts and Brazil in parts - have relied on individual brilliance rather than tactical acumen. I think that has been throughout the tournament - there hasn't been a standout tactical performance from a manager to me. Maybe the Japanese manager had their plan worked until the end, and Brazil would be a shout adapting to such a new team and having to play without Marta. I will say though that the USA has reminded me of Chelsea. How many times last season did they manage to pull a 1-0 out of a shaky performance? From my recollection (again, not a chelsea fan) quite a few times! It should be a great final. I think scoring early will be the key for Brazil - and not letting the US sit back and run down time like they have done against Japan and Germany. If Brazil don't score by the hour mark, I can see the US winning the game. Can I also just point out one thing that irks me - when people say the US have not won a gold (I think this is the stat) since 2012 like that was eons ago. It was 12 years ago, which was only 3 Olympics' ago. Some US fans are talking like England did about 1966.

[@alansmithee8831]

Hello Chloe and Rachel. Your analysis made sense about the football and the teams. I watch a fair amount from other counties, speaking French and German, so ordinarily the expectations on a new manager would be like you discussed. The difference with USA however is that even the pundits admit to having an expectation of the US team winning. Anything less will be seen as a failure. They paid for Emma to win and when she talks up the opponents, as we all might, thinking it realistic, to an American this is failing to talk up your own team and defeatist. They cannot stand it. They really, really hate it and if Emma does not win gold, having talked up the opponent, it will be seen as her being a useless weak defeatist foreign good for nothing, who got her excuses in first. If you need evidence, just watch some stuff from US channels. There is nothing between being seen as a winner or a loser from what I can tell.

[@paulinamena8404]

great episode as always ladies! please comment ext about the france defeat against Brasil...... I mean Brasil didn't play well nut some defending from Rafaelle xas amazing, but France blew it again....

[@UpfrontPod]

We're so glad to hear you enjoyed it! Have a listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts as Chloe and Rachel actually spoke about the Brazil v France game!

[@alansmithee8831]

@@paulinamena8404 France were my expected winner. They seemed to have turned a corner and the young and fit players of Paris FC this season showed there was a lot more to French football than PSG and OL. I had been watching Barcelona and Bayern Munich since they got English players, but I also started watching some French games on DAZN.

[@Zhenn9413]

Oh my. Please don’t mistake our media for the opinions of the public in the USA. We are all enjoying Hayes and her frankness. The media pundits are a bunch of tosspots. They get paid to say stupid things. 😊

[@alansmithee8831]

@@Zhenn9413 I toured US by Greyhound for three months. There were plenty of folk who displayed common sense as they had to be self reliant. There were also a few who were so patriotic as to think US had to win everything, but I have been to enough other places to know there are folk like that in other countries too.

[@midgebattelle9084]

all the teams are tired. US vs Brazil on Saturday.....Marta will be on fire....as will the US....both teams will be giving everything they have....the gold is anyones right now.,,,in the end Emma Hayes is the true winner no matter what happens

[@aboynam3dblu3]

It’s much easier to overperform when everyone thinks you’ve moved out of the real competetors’ tier. The narrative for a year has been the US has been overtaken and European football is light years ahead of the USWNT. So….maybe not all that left behind are the US. Maybe they’re still one of the best 3 or 4 teams in the world, huh? Alyssa Naeher has saved 2 and scored 1 twice in PKs recently, so AKB had a pretty nice role model for it. Just saying. One of them was in the tournament where the US beat Brazil in an international tournament. I know no one, including me, thinks much of the Gold Cup, but that tournament had the US, Columbia, Canada, and Brazil, who have all been top sides in this Olympiad.

[@booroque4138]

lol another gold medal USNWT still dominating the women’s game😊

[@booroque4138]

Oh and you saying winning a bronze would be an accomplishment no it would of sucked