Jonathan Tannenwald tells Awful Announcing Podcast: ‘Emma Hayes is an excellent coach’

The 2024 Paris Olympics will be the biggest event for the U.S. Women’s National Team as its biggest assignment under head coach Emma Hayes since the former Chelsea coach took the job in November.

Ahead of the Olympics, Jonathan Tannenwald of The Philadelphia Inquirer appeared on the Awful Announcing Podcast to discuss how he believes Hayes will fare in her biggest task to date, delivering a gold medal at the Olympics.

“I will disclaim that I have known her (Hayes) since her coaching days in Chicago in the old NWS before the NWSL,” Tannenwald told Brandon Contes. “I’ve known her a long time. Not always well, but we’ve run into each other on numerous occasions and recognize each other. I’m very happy for her that she has the job. She is a terrific personality, she is a great coach. She has mostly coached at the club level obviously. But she’s got charisma and she’s got the chops. And the players listen to her and they really like her. She’s a fabulous coach.”

Since taking the job, Hayes has only coached four games for the USWNT. She decided to stay at Chelsea for six months upon taking the job in an attempt to win one WSL championship with Chelsea.

With this in mind, Tannenwald did offer some concerns about the team heading into the Olympics with such little time with Hayes as their head coach.

“They are not there yet,” added Tannenwald. “She is patient. She is there for the 2027 World Cup. Fans are impatient, they would like an Olympic medal. I think she’d like an Olympic medal too. But you know, let’s see what happens because they can absolutely win this group. I think they have talent. That Zambia game is going to be really hard. That is actually the one I have the most circled. I think the U.S. can win the group. And then things get very interesting very quickly.”

Tannenwald then went on to project that the U.S. could have a hard time with Spain should each team be able to get out of their group as he suspects they will.

Either way, it is very clearly not a sure thing as it was in many years recently that the USWNT will be able to medal in the upcoming Olympic Games. There is clearly some growth that needs to come from the team as they get used to life under Emma Hayes.

But with that being said, if Hayes lives up to all of the lofty praise that Tannenwald had for her, the USWNT should be in good hands for years to come.

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