Emma Hayes' NWSL road trip: Soccer, drums and babies
Full Time: A show about women's soccer
The Athletic
4.8 • 807 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the last few weeks, U.S. women's national team head coach Emma Hayes has toured the NWSL, attending matches, playing the drums and holding babies. While it's not out of the ordinary for coaches to do such scouting trips, the central role Hayes is taking is certainly a different approach. With the 2027 Women's World Cup more than a year away, are these trips relationship-building, marketing-driven, or football-driven? Or a combination of all three.
On this episode of Full Time, hosts Jillian Sakovits and Tamerra Griffin were joined by former U.S. international and current analyst Lori Lindsey to discuss what it's like to have your national team coach watch you perform for your club, especially as a player hoping to jump up the depth chart. The group also takes a look at Hayes' approach and ponders her role as the face of the U.S. women's national team. They also review what she might have seen from certain players along the way and preview her final stop, Saturday's Gotham FC vs. Boston Legacy match.
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HOSTS: Jillian Sakovits, Tamerra Griffin
GUEST: Lori Lindsey
PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes
VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So for those of you who haven't seen it, basically this whole thing kicked off. |
| 0:06.2 | It was a graphic on U.S. soccer's social channels called Emma Hayes NWSL Road Trip. |
| 0:12.3 | Like, sign me up. |
| 0:13.7 | It all started on April 25th. |
| 0:15.5 | It was Denver, San Diego. |
| 0:17.4 | Then she hit up Utah and Seattle, followed by Portland, San Diego, Angel City, and Utah. Then this past weekend, checked out San Diego. Then she hit up Utah and Seattle, followed by Portland, San Diego, Angel City, and Utah. |
| 0:22.9 | Then this past weekend, checked out San Diego and Bay. And then she will finish up this weekend |
| 0:28.2 | when she takes in a little Gotham versus Boston. |
| 0:54.1 | Okay. Hello, everybody. Welcome to full-time. It's presented by Amazon Prime. Jillian Zackavits with you alongside Tamara Griffin on today's show. We're going to be discussing all things, the Emma Hayes tour. That's right. The U.S. Women's National Team Manager has been on quite the tour of the NWSL. So we discuss all |
| 1:00.1 | that's to be gained from her tour, the potential drawbacks. And is this perhaps a glimpse |
| 1:05.7 | into the future of modern management? Tamara, as you have watched this unfold throughout all of the NWSL |
| 1:13.6 | broadcasts, we're five games in, what's caught your eye? |
| 1:18.7 | I share your sort of perspective on how surprised I was when I learned that this was even happening. |
| 1:26.5 | I am not used to a manager of any team, |
| 1:31.0 | whether a club or international, having their visits to club games or any sort of match, be so |
| 1:37.6 | highly publicized. I have definitely had experiences where I've gotten twisted around trying to |
| 1:43.8 | find my way out of a stadium |
| 1:45.5 | after press conferences of games and sort of happening upon secret conversations between |
| 1:50.8 | national team coaches and club coaches that I know I wasn't supposed to see. So contrasting that |
| 1:57.1 | with what we're seeing now, first of all, I was just surprised. And then immediately, |
| 2:06.0 | because I'm a journalist, I was intrigued. I think what has struck me beyond that about this tour is how it's being used. And I think that there are two sort of perspectives on the |
| 2:15.4 | significance of this, especially, you know, I've been calling this a World Cup Eve year for the women's game. |
... |
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