Alex Ferguson, who led Manchester United to 13 unprecedented titles in the Premier League in 21 seasons, insisted that the coaches learned less in victory than in defeat.
It would seem to suggest that Ferguson learned little during his stay in England. However, if he is right, then Emma Hayes“Education as a trainer of the national female team is just beginning because until last month, it, like Ferguson, had known nothing only of success.
She took the post of manager last spring, about two months before the Paris Olympic Games, then won the six games of this tournament to bring the United States to the top of the medal for the first time since 2012. It was part of a sequence of 17 undefeated games that ended three weeks ago in a 2-1 defeat against Japan in the Shebelieves Cup. But for Hayes, the result did not taught him as much as the opponent.
“When you play against the best teams – Japan could very well be the best in the world right now – I'm going to know more about players in the challenges of this game that I am sometimes in victories,” she said. “You have to experience first to really know and understand what it takes to play at the highest level.”
In this case, Hayes and his players learned a lot from Japan because seven of the 17 women who appeared in this match were not part of the Olympic team. For them, the game was an alarm clock.
“I lived so many players who came out of the field playing” Wow, it's really a high level “, said Hayes. “Then, it is, more importantly, what steps will we set up to make sure that we integrate this learning in order to continue to improve.”
The next step in this progression occurs on April 5 when the United States will face Brazil at the Sofi stadium in a rehearsal of the Olympic final last summer. It will mark the first appearance of the team in the most expensive stadium in the world, which will welcome eight games during the male World Cup next summer.
Brazil and the United States will meet three days later in San José.
“Regarding the importance of the game (s), we play a high -level opponent, the next World Cup host,” said Hayes.
The two teams will differ from those who met in Paris. Brazil, who played for the last time on December 1, will be without Marta, who retired from the international piece after the Olympic Games. The United States will miss the striker Sophia Smith, who announced his pregnancy last week, and could be without the defender Naomi Girma, the striker Mallory Swanson and the Rose Lavelle midfielder, among others.
Hayes did not have his first choice list from the Olympic Games, but she considers it more as a blessing than a curse.
“Our group will only be different due to the availability of players,” she said. “But I think it gives our less experienced players another opportunity to see where we are measured.”
Because Hayes' commitments to Chelsea, her former employer, delayed her arrival in the United States until last May, she had little time to fully assess the United States talent swimming pool before the Olympic Games. So, with the next major international tournament over two years old, it does it now.
In January, she invited 24 U23 players to a “long -term camp”, which was held in collaboration with the first calls from the national team of the year. And the list she has gathered for the Shebelieves Cup included three teenagers and three players who made their international senior debut in the tournament.
“In coaching, you have never obtained scenarios from the ideal world in anything,” said Hayes.
Sometimes it means taking a step back before it can take two. Simply ask Alex Ferguson.
“You cannot always measure development only by victories and losses,” said Hayes. “I always try to compete to win, but I also understand development. And the importance of development is that (i) must take these difficult lessons from the start, then work with players to continue growing. ”
