New national team coach Emma Hayes ready for sideline debut as US women look ahead to the Olympics

Emma Hayes said the groundwork has been completed ahead of her debut with the U.S. women's national team. Now it's all about the details.

Hayes will be on the sidelines with her team for the first time Saturday when the United States plays a friendly match against South Korea in Commerce City, Colorado.

Hayes was named U.S. coach in November but she finished out the Women's Super League season with Chelsea before joining her new team in-person. Assistant Twila Kilgore coached the U.S. in the interim, but Hayes was involved from afar.

“I think there’s been a better tactical understanding than I anticipated. But for me, the most important thing has been their ability to grasp information really, really quickly. Sponges, unbelievable sponges,” Hayes said of her experience with the players this week in training camp. “No matter what we’ve thrown at them this week, they’re taking it on, they’re absorbing it.

“This team is desperate to improve, and it’s focused on the performances and the processes to do just that.”

Hayes replaced Vlatko Andonovski, who stepped down last year after the United States got knocked out of the Women's World Cup in the round of 16, the team's earliest exit ever.

Hayes, 47, arrived in the United States last week after winning a fifth straight WSL title with Chelsea. After a whirlwind of media appearances and interviews, she headed to Colorado for her first training camp with the team as it prepares for the Olympics this summer.

Asked Friday what she's learned about the players since her arrival, Hayes quipped: “Well, their names, for starters.”

“What you get on the field, it’s awesome. You get some some jokes here and there, but just demanding a lot out of us and and keeping the standard,” captain Lindsey Horan said in describing Hayes. “Also the positive encouragement and feedback and giving voices to us, as well.”

Forward Alex Morgan has been through coaching transitions before.

“I think it's something where you just expect the unexpected. You know that change is coming, now change is here," Morgan said. “Just having that willingness and openness to learn at any stage of your career is extremely important. And we've been learning a lot.”

Hayes said Kilgore put in the “building blocks” for the last six months.

“My job this week is to fill the detail. Is there going to be a transition away from that? No, it's being built upon that,” Hayes said. “I think there are lots of different things, but the differences are the details as opposed to major structural changes.”

Following Saturday's game against South Korea and a rematch Tuesday in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hayes will be tasked with selecting a tight 18-player roster for the Olympics.

She is expected to name the roster before the team plays a pair of send-off friendlies, the first against Mexico at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey on July 13, and the second against Costa Rica at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., on July 16.

The United States opens the Olympics with Zambia on July 25 in Nice.

AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Commerce City, Colorado, contributed to this report.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

United States national women's soccer team player Alex Morgan talks to reporters before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team player Alex Morgan talks to reporters before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team player Lindsey Horan talks to reporters before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team head coach Emma Hayes, right, talks with reporters at a news conference before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team head coach Emma Hayes talks with reporters at a news conference before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team head coach Emma Hayes talks with reporters at a news conference before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

United States national women's soccer team head coach Emma Hayes jokes with reporters at a news conference before a practice to prepare for a friendly match against South Korea, Friday, May 31, 2024, in Commerce City, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The U.S. women's soccer team practices Tuesday, May 28, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via AP)

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes celebrates with the trophy after winning the English Women's Super League soccer match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Old Trafford, in Manchester, England, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)

New coach Emma Hayes, center, leads the U.S. women's soccer team in practice Tuesday, May 28, 2024, in Boulder, Colo. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via AP)

FILE - Chelsea's coach Emma Hayes gestures during the Women's Champions League quarterfinal soccer match between Ajax and Chelsea at the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Coach Emma Hayes has selected her first roster for the United States ahead of a pair of friendlies as she prepares to lead the women’s national team at the Paris Olympics. Hayes, named U.S. coach last November, finished her final season as coach of Chelsea on Saturday, winning the team's fifth straight Women's Super League Title with a 6-0 rout of Manchester United. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.

Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early.

The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up toward a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft's AI ambitions.

“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military," Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. "Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”

The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk while it was being livestreamed from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft's founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft said Suleyman calmly tried to de-escalate the situation. “Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” he said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.

A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.

Aboussad, based at Microsoft's Canadian headquarters in Toronto, was invited on Monday to a call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being fired immediately, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.

An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.

In its termination letter, Microsoft told Aboussad she could have raised her concerns confidentially to a manager. Instead, it said she made “hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations” against Suleyman and the company and that her “conduct was so aggressive and disruptive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security.”

Agrawal had already given her two weeks notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, but on Monday a manager emailed that Microsoft "has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today.”

It was the most public but not the first protest over Microsoft's work with Israel. In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.

“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”

Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action, but Aboussad and Agrawal expected it was coming after both lost access to their work accounts shortly after the protest.

Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests over a contract it also has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.

The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.

CORRECTS DATE - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Ibtihal Aboussad, is escorted away by security as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)