The U.S. women’s national team that faces South Korea on Tuesday night will look quite a bit different than the side that faced the same opponent on Saturday.
That is according to USWNT head coach Emma Hayes, who promised “a lot of changes” for the second of two friendlies between the teams.
The USWNT began the Hayes era with a 4-0 win over South Korea in Colorado on Saturday afternoon, and will face the same opponent in Minnesota three days later.
Though the match will only be the second for Hayes in charge of the USWNT, it will be her final chance to evaluate the team before she names an 18-player Olympic roster next month.
So it wasn’t entirely unexpected to hear Hayes say in her pre-game press conference that she will shake things up on Tuesday.
“We’re going see a change [at goalkeeper],” Hayes said Monday, meaning either Casey Murphy or Aubrey Kingsbury would start after Jane Campbell played on Saturday.
“I think it’s important that we see a lot of changes to be honest with you,” she added. “Because as I’ve explained already, training has been teaching us to play as us, and that’s been every single player. So even though there’ll be lots of changes in this game, I feel confident that everybody’s been training as us, therefore it’s just translating it into the game.”
Hayes admitted that fans should not expect perfection at Allianz Field in St. Paul, as the team continues to take on new concepts and new players are thrown into the mix.
“I think it’s important to manage expectations, because while we are building off of our first game as a whole group, some people are going to get their first exposure to that tomorrow. The connections might be different,” she said.
Hayes added: “I stick with what I’ve said all along, which is there’s a process. We focus on the steps to get us there. I expect there will be bumps again tomorrow. My job is to close the gap on that at the end of this camp.”
Hal Hershfelt and Lily Yohannes are the two uncapped players remaining in camp after Sam Staab got her first USWNT appearance over the weekend. Hayes also hinted that Alex Morgan would see time on Tuesday after missing out on Saturday with pelvic floor issues.
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