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U.S. women's national team head coach Emma Hayes will continue to explore the wider player pool in the team's friendlies against Brazil next month but is still counting on a handful of veterans to introduce the newcomers to the expectations of playing in the group.

Hayes has used the post-Olympics period as an opportunity to expand the player pool, calling in 11 players with 10 or fewer caps and another six with less than 30 international appearances for the April friendlies. Some of her roster decisions can be attributed to the fact that some major players are unavailable – defender Naomi Girma, for example, has not played since getting injured in her Chelsea debut this month, while forward Sophia Wilson is currently on maternity leave. Hayes, though, has been happy to take advantage of the two-plus year time period between the Paris Games, where the USWNT won gold, and the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

Opportunities will be further extended to U-23 players in April, who will take part in a camp that runs currently with the senior team's training at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif. ahead of the April 5 friendly against Brazil at SoFi Stadium. The set-up will resemble Hayes' January camp, during which she held a first-of-its-kind Futures camp alongside a regular session with the senior team.

Hayes has tasked a group of six players, though, to help bridge the experience gap during these camps – captain Lindsey Heaps, Lynn Biyendolo, Sam Coffey, Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn and Emily Sonnett. All of those players will be in California again in April, minus Biyendolo, who missed the Seattle Reign's game over the weekend with a lower leg injury.

"In the last camp, we sat with about five or six players at the beginning of camp to talk about where we are in the journey and talk about [how] whether people see themselves as leaders or not[is] sometimes largely irrelevant because other people see you as that so how you support that," Hayes said during a press conference on Tuesday. "It's important that we roadmap what that looks like so that one, they can support it where possible but also focus on their own performance where needed."

The group will be entrusted with not only ensuring the newer players understand the demands of playing for the four-time World Cup winners but leading the way in unique exercises during the April camp.

"It's almost a little bit of what that shirt has represented to many, many generations and try and pass that stuff on and we've actually got some really cool sessions that will lead us into the Brazil game in and around getting them to, not only tune into that, but for the leadership and senior players to pass on some of the key things that are absolutely core to this program so I'm excited about," Hayes said.

The head coach hopes the players can translate those lessons into their performances on the field, as well as show growth after February's 2-1 loss to Japan in the SheBelieves Cup.

"I think when it comes to this camp, a lot of the work we're going to be doing is sometimes we just assume that everybody knows what the demands or the standards are for the U.S. women's national team player but as I've mentioned, we've got a lot of new players, lack a lot of experience. We have to transfer that and we have to transfer it in the right way," Hayes said. "Some of that, for me comes, in the non-negotiables and the on-field performance, regardless of results. There's things where, even, I watched in the Japan game and I'm like, 'You know what? They're a top team but there are things in this game, regardless of experience, that we will not negotiate on,' and I have to tune the players into that when they come into camp but some of it's also off the field."

There already appears to be an open dialogue between the younger players and Hayes' leadership council, the latter of which have already interpreted their roles as being a source of guidance while also keeping the standard high.

"I really love when the young ones come up to us and ask a question and don't feel too nervous or scared to do it because I know that feeling," Dunn told CBS Sports during the SheBelieves Cup last month. "The young ones have to see how hard it is to be here. We don't take any moment we're in this environment lightly. I think they probably see in trainings the most that we are so competitive and it's really hard to feel comfortable in this environment but we obviously do our best to make them feel as comfortable as possible, to make them feel like they belong and that they are talented and gifted and good enough to be in this environment and it's always a challenge of making sure there's a level of comfort but a bit of uncomfortableness that's going to promote growth and change."