Vlatko Andonovski, the top coach of the USA girls’s nationwide soccer crew, has resigned, three folks with direct information of the scenario mentioned Wednesday, ending a comparatively tumultuous tenure managing what was as soon as the world’s pre-eminent crew.
The U.S. Soccer Federation plans to announce Andonovski’s departure as coach on Thursday, the folks mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the transfer publicly.
Andonovski’s four-year contract was scheduled to run out on the finish of the yr. U.S. Soccer will appoint an interim coach for 2 pleasant matches this fall however hopes to have a everlasting alternative named by the top of the yr to be able to start preparations for subsequent summer season’s Paris Olympics.
Andonovski’s resignation was not surprising. The US significantly underperformed at this yr’s Ladies’s World Cup after successful the earlier two tournaments. The crew had its earliest elimination in event historical past after shedding a penalty shootout to rival Sweden within the spherical of 16. The US scored solely 4 objectives in a World Cup it entered as one of many favorites, beating solely certainly one of its 4 opponents, Vietnam, and drawing with the Netherlands and Portugal in the course of the group stage.
Andonovski, 46, had been a head coach within the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League for seven years earlier than U.S. Soccer introduced his hiring in October 2019. His predecessor, Jill Ellis, stepped down after 5 years with the crew after the USA gained the 2019 Ladies’s World Cup, making Ellis the primary coach to win back-to-back Ladies’s World Cups.
Andonovski gained the primary 16 video games he coached, together with titles in 2020 on the Concacaf Olympic qualifying event and the SheBelieves Cup. The coronavirus pandemic struck six months into Andonovski’s tenure, pushing the Tokyo Olympics again a yr to 2021 and complicating his first two years on the job. As soon as the Video games got here round, the USA entered as favorites however gained solely a bronze medal.
Because the World Cup started, the USA’ means to seize an elusive three-peat — no crew has gained three titles in a row because the event’s inception in 1991 — was known as into query nearly instantly. The People beat Vietnam of their opening recreation, however by a relatively modest 3-0 margin, nothing just like the 13-0 romp over Thailand that opened their 2019 title run. The People would rating solely as soon as extra, on a header from Lindsey Horan that evened the rating with the Netherlands, 1-1.
A scoreless tie with Portugal was sufficient for the USA to advance however not win its group, spurring the necessity for a “Belief” social media marketing campaign heading into the spherical of 16 and opening the nationwide crew as much as criticism from its personal, with former gamers equivalent to Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd voicing dissatisfaction with the crew’s fashion of play.
Andonovski was criticized for his tactical decision-making, together with his selections on substitutes. He additionally had star gamers like Alex Morgan and Julie Ertz enjoying completely different roles than they’d previously, with combined outcomes. Thrilling newcomers like Ashley Sanchez and 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson barely performed.
In the long run, a millimeter was the edge to let Sweden advance and cease the USA — and Andonovski — miles wanting expectations.