There was no hiding the emotion on her face, but Emma Hayes was doing everything in her power to fight it. Her eyes darted up and to her right repeatedly, which she must have hoped would prevent the tears from flowing. She shook her head, bit her lip, scrunched her cheeks, forced a smile.
"It's just love," she told NBC after leading the U.S. women's national team to an Olympic gold medal in just her 10th game in charge. "I come from a place of wanting players to enjoy themselves and I've been at a club [Chelsea] for 12 years, where I've had huge success. But I was desperate to do well for this country. And I'm so emotional because it's not every day you win a gold medal."
"I love America," she added. "It made me. And I always say that. It definitely made me."
Hayes fell in love with America years ago, and 2024 was the summer that America fell back in love with her, too. She was painted as a saviour from the minute she was appointed coach of the USWNT, and she lived up to the hype.
In the space of just 10 weeks, Hayes restored confidence, pride and, most of all, success to a program that was arguably at its lowest point coming off the disappointment of the 2023 World Cup. Hayes knew the job's difficulties and, from the start, embraced them. And the American soccer community has returned the favour.
Her players seemingly embraced Hayes from the start, as well. All tournament long, they traded references to her as part-coach, part-mother, part-older sister. Seemingly across the board, it was an instant connection, one that was very apparent throughout the glorious run through the Paris Games. By the end, players had become family, almost literally - there was celebratory group photo, in which Hayes' son Harry was perched on Sophia Smith's lap. He, too, was along for the ride, one that has only just begun.