COMMERCE CITY, Colo. —
Emma Hayes has been on the job less than a week yet she’s already learning some valuable things about the players she’ll be coaching with the women’s national soccer team.
“Well, their names, for starters,” she said.
Saturday she got to match some of those names to performances for the first time, with the U.S. beating South Korea 4-0 in Hayes’ international coaching debut before a sun-splashed overflow crowd of 19,010 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in suburban Denver.
Hayes auditioned 17 players and many gave favorable first impressions, with Mallory Swanson getting two goals and an assist, Tierna Davidson scoring twice, and Sophia Smith, Catarino Macario and Rose Lavelle adding assists of their own.