Emma Hayes went unbeaten in her first 17 games as USWNT head coach, won Olympic gold in her 10th match, and was crowned Women's Coach of the Year at the Ballon d'Or. Now she's trying to stop a run of six defeats in her last eight games — and the questions are getting louder.
The latest U.S. Soccer tax filings put Hayes' earnings in sharp focus. In the tax year running from April 2024 to March 2025, she pulled in a base salary of just under $745,000, plus $700,000 in bonuses — the bulk of that tied to the Olympic title — bringing her total to just under $1.5 million for her first 11 months in the job.
When her appointment was confirmed in November 2023, U.S. Soccer billed her as the world's highest-paid women's soccer coach. That framing still holds — but context matters. Mauricio Pochettino, hired to run the men's team in September 2024, had already earned just over $5 million by the following March. The gap between what the federation pays its men's and women's coaches is not subtle.
From Olympic gold to back-to-back beatings
Hayes is contracted through the 2027 Women's World Cup, which gives her time. But the form curve is steep. After that flawless Olympic run — six wins, four clean sheets in the knockouts, a 2-0 win over Brazil in the final — the USWNT now sit in a very different moment.
Spain came to Washington D.C. on Saturday and left with a clean 2-0 win. Patri Guijarro and Eva Navarro scored in the first half. The Spaniards managed it with an xG of just 0.67 — which is exactly the number Hayes put in front of her players on Monday.
"If you give up two goals with a 0.67xG, you can't expect to win games of football," she told reporters. "You can't do that at the top level."
That's a coach who knows her team's problem isn't chance creation — it's defensive concentration. Three defeats already in 2026, and the CONCACAF W Championship is right around the corner. Spain's clean sheets market looks solid ahead of Tuesday's rematch.
Tuesday's rematch in Chester
The second game of this double-header takes place at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania — kickoff 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT, live on TNT, HBO Max, Universo and Peacock.
Hayes' message was simple: "We have to tighten up." The USWNT dominated the second half on Saturday and still couldn't score. Against a Spain side that can punish anything, that conversion problem is just as dangerous as the defensive lapses.
"Once you go 2-0 down against them, you are faced with chasing the game. In the second half it was all about us, but you also have to score to win games."
