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The primary activity for Emma Hayes as head coach of the USA ladies’s nationwide crew was to transition from the golden technology of legends like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn into a brand new one which’s brimming with potential. Hayes has embraced this problem with a concentrate on nurturing younger, recent expertise.
The current retirements of Morgan, Sauerbrunn and Alyssa Naeher in 2024, following Rapinoe’s farewell in 2023, opened the door for a brand new wave of gamers to enter the highlight. Amongst them is Portland Thorns’ ahead Sophia Smith, who has drawn comparisons to Morgan herself.
“She does what she needs to do … I feel like Soph is a little bit ruthless in terms of how she plays, but she does it super gracefully, and she’s pretty fun with it. So I could see a little bit of myself in Soph,” Alex Morgan instructed TODAY earlier this month.
What qualities make Smith such an apparent goal of comparability to Morgan and why can she be much more influential than Morgan to Hayes’ brigade?
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