NCE Soccer founder John Curtis believes Emma Hayes will provide US Women’s soccer with fresh hope and optimism.
He believes she will be an outstanding appointed for the USWNT team but ONLY if she is given the time and cooperating she needs to succeed.
Coach Curtis has long been warning US Soccer to wake-up to the decline that they have reigned over.
The failure to invest and properly organize youth soccer for girls – and boys – mean’t the dismal showing at the World Cup was nothing but inevitable.
Emma Hayes OBE is arguably the world’s top female coach and leading US Sports broadcasters Fox Sports and others report this is a done deal.
Dominated English Soccer
For 12 years she has dominated English soccer with Chelsea, winning six titles, five FAC Cups , six WSL Manager of the Year titles and in 2021 was crowned best FIFA Football Coach.
But she can only work with the players she has – no doubt her talent has enabled her to squeeze more out players than others could achieve – but the production line in the United States is running dry.
Coach Curtis, said: “It would be fantastic if the USWNT have secured the signature of Emma Hayes. She is an English coach with a rich history of success.
“If she can be successful with the USWNT it will be her crowning achievement, but she has a very difficult job.
“I think her job is a thankless one. She’s taking over a declining superpower, that’s showing no signs of matching the pace of development in Europe and around the World.
“To have success she has to do two things. First, do a great job with the USWNT and second, positively impact the pathways for domestic talent.
“She must restart the conveyor belt of talent and hope there are a few rough diamonds who have flourished, despite their upbringing in the US system.”
Lions Den
Emma knows that she is walking into the lions den – but maybe does not realize the full extent of the problem.
She started her coaching career in the States with the Long Island Rough Rides back in 2001 and before moving onto Iona College in New Rochelle between 2003 and 2006.
She left to return to the UK with Arsenal leaving the US riding high on the crest of a wave for US Women’s soccer.
The women’s team were leading the world, winning both the World Cup and Olympic Games four times, nine CONCACAF Championships, six SheBelieves Cup titles and inspiring millions of girls to take up the sport.
“The problem was there were few quality coaches or proper structure to catch this huge influx of girls wanting to play soccer and very little quality control,” John added.
“I spoken before about this, the girls are left to play in a fragmented system that prioritizes winning over development, with poor coaching at the highest levels (ECNL & GDA) and ridiculously bad coaching in the lower levels at High School – which when you consider this accounts for more than 25% of player development time is outrageous.
“The players will train four-to-five months-a-year over four-years without proper structure or quality coaching. Don’t get me wrong, the teachers are doing their best, but without structure and guidance they can be doing more harm than good.
Colleges
“We then have the issue of Colleges selecting the best players at 16, when anyone who has worked in football knows that the best players at 16 are very rarely the best players at 21.
“What happens to those girls who aren’t the best at 16 but could, given the right opportunity, be the best at 21? You guessed it…nothing!
“Emma Hayes first task will be the USWNT but the US youth system needs drastic improvement for the US team to stand a chance.
“It will take time, and unless there are enough US girls being developed properly in the soccer hotbeds of Europe, this may be a task beyond even that of a super coach like Emma.”
NCE Soccer has been picking up the slack left by the US System by providing supplementary coaching for girls in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and now in Southern California.
The very best girls are selected via tryouts and they follow a highly structured program created by NCE Soccer founder John Curtis and the result has been the production of some top female talent now attending top US Colleges and representing their national teams around the world.
Maybe one day Coach Emma will be selecting former NCE Soccer graduates, maybe members of the NCE Soccer team that lifted the Gothia World Cup in 2019!
* NCE Soccer will be hosting tryouts for the Winter Programming in December and, this year, thanks to support from the NCE Foundation can provide funding for families and financial need and will be donating FREE places to those who need help most at EVERY venue. Click here to explore funding options and click here to view tryouts.
