Just 84 days prior, it was Emma Hayes tasting Women’s Super League glory with the club she has guided to a dozen years of success: Chelsea on the Parc des Princes turf.
On Saturday, August 10, the USWNT strung together a nervy 1-0 win over Brazil to take home a remarkable sixth Olympic gold medal. The 47-year-old captain had guided her country to their first gold in women’s soccer since 2012 with a 1-0 win over Brazil.
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This is head coach Emma Hayes’s career zenith so far. In the time here in Chelsea, the English boss has done all that is physically possible to be done in England, but nothing gets quite close to the experience of doing the same with the United States of America.
“Chelsea’s been my love,” she said. “I treasure every trophy I have ever won with that club. “But, this is probably a much, much bigger professional endeavor than anything I’ve ever done.” After ending a 12-year drought for gold for the USWNT, Hayes believes that she has “woken the beast up again.”
“Like the U.S. women’s national team, I’m used to competing for trophies and being in finals,” she said. I’m a citizen of birth of the country, that’s why I love it. The passion was there for all to see when Hayes kissed her American eagle pendant following the win, something that she later explained was for her father.
“This year has been difficult,” Hayes told the press. “My father was dying at this time last year. I didn’t think that I would’ve had the guts to show up and take this. Throughout the whole performance, I could feel him with me.
I just took a moment to reflect on my life and profession and show my thanks to my parents, who are the most important people to me.” When the final whistle blew, Hayes was visibly moved by the moment, hugging her staff on the touchline before celebrating with her players by bouncing up and down.
Hayes has often recalled the 2012 Olympic women’s football final when watching it with her late father, Sid, who assured her that one day she would be the one to lead America to Olympic success. “This year hasn’t been easy for me,”
Emma Hayes said :
I didn’t think I had the courage to come and do this.This team has welcomed me into their family, allowed me to lead them, and loved me.” As she pointed to the sky at full speed in memory of her father, who succumbed to health issues in September of last year, Hayes was recorded on microphone kissing her necklace.
“It’s an American eagle and it’s my father’s,” she explained. “My dad gave me his American eagle jewelry, and I think it’s quite symbolic. This one is for my father. “I just felt that he was there throughout the performance.”
I wanted to just take a moment of coming out to thank all the life that I’ve lived and all the opportunities and this amazing achievement in my professional life to thank my parents who matter the most.
WINNER: Emma Hayes Of course
Some expectations were held for the Olympic Games by Emma Hayes and the US women’s national team. All things considered, this team had won four gold medals in this tournament and happens to be a four-time global champion.
Still, not many had placed the United States winning the tournament 1-0 over Brazil and atop the podium on Saturday.That was due to several factors. First and foremost, the last Women’s World Cup ended in a round-of-sixteen defeat, which was their worst-ever performance.
That was just over a year ago. The second factor of major importance was the experience lost since that disastrous campaign in Australia. This time, Becky Sauerbrunn, Julie Ertz, Kelley O’Hara, Megan Rapinoe, and Alex Morgan were all missing, leaving a youthful group with just a handful who have been there and done it on the biggest of stages.
Of all the facts, maybe the most important was that Hayes had only nine weeks to work with this team before the Games started, having taken over only in late May.
