Just six years ago, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team made history by winning the World Cup in France, for the second time in a row. By winning these two titles, the U.S secured their fourth World Cup title, and also their place in history as a force to reckon with when it came to women’s soccer. Since then, however, the team looks a lot different with big stars like Megan Rapinoe, Ashlyn Harris, Tobin Heath, and Alex Morgan all retired, so it’s up to current coach Emma Hayes to transform the current roster into a winning force by the time 2027 hits.

Luckily, before then, Hayes will get a chance or two to get some on-the-ground experience as well as see what her team might be up against. In terms of the latter, the Euro Cups this past month were a real learning opportunity for Hayes and the USWNT. The coach and her team could get a sense of what they might be up for when it comes to the World Cup and the World Cup qualifiers.

In terms of on-the-ground experience, there are a couple of international friendlies approaching this October. Two of them are between the USWNT and Portugal, and one sets the U.S. team against a yet to be determined competitor. The last time the U.S played Portugal was in the 2023 World Cup group stage, the team had a different lineup then, and it will be a good opportunity to play Portugal, who will surely be rebuilding themselves after that dismal performance at the Euros.

On the opposing team for the October friendlies, Hayes seemed to echo the above saying, “Portugal is a growing team that will be highly motivated for these matches, but as always, these three games are more opportunities to work on us,” The U.S. captain added, “I’m very impressed with the progress we’ve made since the Olympics and I want to give a lot of credit to the players for embracing our culture and ideas. But our staff and the players know we still have much work to do before World Cup qualifying next year.” Hayes isn’t sugarcoating anything; it’s going to take a bit of work to get the U.S. back into that World Cup shape.

How did Emma Hayes and the USWNT fare last World Cup?

Back in 2023, when the USWNT found themselves in Group E along with Portugal in the FIFA World Cup, Emma Hayes’ era was yet to begin. The team was then coached by Vlatko Andonovski, who took over from Jill Ellis after the team won the 2019 World Cup.

Though the USWNT was keen on a World Cup three-peat, this didn’t happen. As soon as they tied with Portugal 0-0 in the group round, they were knocked out of the competition by the Netherlands. It was the years before this that the USWNT was in its golden era. Now, however, it’s up to Hayes to recreate that.

Luckily, it seems that the team is confident in her ability to do the same with midfielder Lindsey Heap saying recently when asked how the USWNT might fare against European counterparts, ““It’s so hard [to say] because we’re missing a lot of players, but we have a lot of new young players, inexperienced players that are doing so well,” Heaps added, “It would be so hard to say. Also, Emma would fully prepare us for a tournament and tournament mode.” Thereby showing her confidence in both the team and the coach, and with a little less than two years to prepare, we’ll get a good sense of what that signature Emma Hayes preparation looks like in these October friendlies.