U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said she hasn’t addressed the recent unrest in Minnesota with her players during January camp.
Federal agents have killed two Americans this month amid a widespread immigration crackdown in the state. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, became the second victim over the weekend.
Just hours after Pretti was killed on Saturday, Jan. 24, the USWNT played its first game of 2026, defeating Paraguay 6-0. There was no acknowledgement of the events in Minnesota before or during the game.
Ahead of the USWNT’s game against Chile in Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, Jan. 27, Hayes fielded a question about the events in Minnesota.
“I mean, first of all, my condolences to all the family members for those victims,” Hayes said at her pre-game press conference. “Because it doesn’t matter — I can sit here and talk about the loss of tragic life everywhere.
“It’s not something that first of all, as a mother, I want to see. It’s upsetting on so many levels to see that happen and I think they’re in everybody’s minds.
“But I haven’t spoken about it with the squad, genuinely. I think the way we structure our camps, there’s not a lot of sit-down time. … But we haven’t spoken about it.’
The USWNT has developed a reputation for publicly tackling non-soccer issues, particularly in the team’s recent past when it featured outspoken players like Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press, Becky Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan.
Several of the aforementioned players, who are all now retired, have spoken out about the events in Minnesota. The response from the current crop of players has been more muted, though there have been some acknowledgements on social media from Sam Coffey, Izzy Rodriguez, Mandy McGlynn and Tierna Davidson, among others.
According to Hayes, the relative lack of response from the current USWNT roster may be due to its lack of experience. Trinity Rodman is the most-capped player on the January squad with 48 international appearances, while Yazmeen Ryan is next with just 15.
‘Maybe that’s because they’re all reasonably new to camp and whether they’re unfamiliar with it or not, whether they’re comfortable talking about it or not, I don’t know, but it hasn’t been a topic of conversation this week in camp,’ Hayes said.
“Perhaps they’re having it amongst themselves but they’re definitely not having it in front of me. But I know that each and every one of them would feel equally empathetic and thoughtful about it and it’s not something that any of us enjoy seeing.”
