photo by Michael Chow/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
The U.S. Women’s National Team may still be reveling in the glory of winning a World Cup, but plans for the future are already being laid out.
U.S. Soccer announced on Wednesday morning that Ellis has signed a contract extension to remain in charge of the women’s program. There is no word as to exactly how long Ellis’ new deal is for, but U.S. Soccer labeled it a “multi-year” deal.
“When we hired Jill, we all knew the great challenge that was ahead of her and the team,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati in a prepared statement. “She met that challenge with tremendous passion and knowledge to win what was perhaps the most difficult Women’s World Cup tournament in history.
“As we look towards the Rio Olympics and build towards the 2019 World Cup in France, we think Jill is the ideal person to lead the next generation of the Women’s National Team.”
The 48-year-old Ellis helped the U.S. win a third World Cup this summer, defeating Japan, 5-2, in a memorable tournament final last month. Ellis had been criticized throughout the tournament for a string of subpar performances from the team, but the Americans got progressively better throughout the World Cup before hoisting the trophy.
Ellis took over as U.S. head coach back in May 2014. She has compiled an overall record of 29-2-9, but that also includes results from two separate stints as U.S. interim head coach in 2012 and 2014.
“I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to continue to work with these great players with the tremendous resources that U.S. Soccer dedicates to the women’s game,” said Ellis in the same statement. “We had a really exciting year, and we are looking forward to more exciting times ahead.”
Ellis is currently focusing on the Americans’ 10-game World Cup victory tour, which begins later this month with a friendly against Costa Rica. After the competition of the tour, she will begin to prepare for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying ahead of next summer’s tournament in Brazil.
“We are going to have some turnover on the national team as we look towards the Olympics and the next Women’s World Cup in France, but that’s always part of the natural evolution,” said Ellis. “It will be the job of the players and staff to keep up the world-class level of effort and intensity to meet the high expectations of this program. It’s a challenge we are all looking forward to.”
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What do you think about Ellis signing a contract extension? Is it a good move by U.S. Soccer? How do you see the Americans doing in their victory tour and in Olympic qualifying?
Share your thoughts below.
I personally don’t think Jill Ellis is that great of a coach but to the victor go the spoils so I can’t begrudge her her raise.
The federation really had no choice but to re-negotiate, extend and enhance the contract. It would be a PR debacle if the WC winning women’s coach got lowballed while the Gold Cup losing coach gets millions.
The contracts of Ellis and Klinsmann are not tied together.
Regardless of the out come of the WC it seems like a bad idea to keep the same coach. I think overwhelmingly when this is tried the results are not good
Yes, leaving a coach in place after winning the world cup usually does not end with a repeat world cup victory. But hiring a new coach after winning (or losing) the world cup also usually does not end with a world cup victory.
A lot of teams, the majority even, lose at the world cup.
What a loser coach. How easy we forget the poor performance by the team in the critical friendly matches leading up to the WC.
LOL
WTF????? Winning the WC means nothing. She took over a team that was a mess. As a USSF coach myself I think she absolutely made the right adjustments along the way. Got the team to improve and peak at the right time. She did not stick with the old guard. She infused youth and blended it with experience. She sat one of the best female players has ever seen without any ill effects to over all team chemistry. She dealt with the train wreck better known as Hope Solo. I could go on and on but apparently winning friendlies is more important to you. YIKES!!!
I think shorembo was making a joke…….
Is that you Jill’s mother?
LOL…
funny 😉
The US looked pretty bad at Pearl Harbor and for quite a while after but the war ended up okay.
That’s cause the German’s couldn’t manage it for the long haul
The Germans did not bomb Pearl Harbor.
Indeed. Come to think of it, we bear the Germans in the semis and the Japanese in the final back then too.
I think Sunil never learns from his mistakes and he should retire. He did the same thing with Klinsmann and it would be very expensive to undo it. Ellis got lucky and now we’re stuck…again
Yes Ellis won the WC but does anybody remember the runup and group stage. She was far less than brilliant and only suspensions and injury, forcing her to change her formation and players, saved the day. Thus the turn around. This is not a good thing for women’s soccer.
Klinsmann got an extension before the World Cup, Ellis after winning it. I’m not sure how that’s doing the same thing.
Jack… you left out a word:
Klinsmann got an extension before WINNING the World Cup, Ellis after winning it. I’m not sure how that’s doing the same thing.
You are taking for granted the World Cup win.
Germany looked a lot better leading up to the semis but they didn’t win it. Should their manager get paid more than Ellis then?
When the extension happened is not the point. Its the fact that you are locked in
The USA looked like crap leading into the WWC and through the group stage and it was Ellis’s mismanagement that was solely at fault. She was forced to look else ware after Holiday was suspended and all of a sudden she discovered O’Hara and Brian rotting on the bench. So she finally moved Lloyd higher and then we started to look like something. Brilliant coaching? Brilliant coaching would have identified them as the best options and used Lloyd where she belongs.
The fact is that we find a way to succeed in spite of Ellis contiguous blunders and most people see it. Pay her more if you want but why lock her into a long term contract? She’s not going anywhere and now we’re stuck.
I would take a lot of this back if I see any evidence that she is going to rebuild at this point. That may mean having to part ways with aging stars and that should be done after the Cha Ching tour
Hamster.. concur.. Ellis hand was pretty much forced when she lost Holiday to YC’s.. It was definitely going to be more of the same had her roster not been impacted beyond her control. It never even appeared that she knew what she had in Megan Bryan until she fell into the result. It will be interesting to see how she plays her midfield during the 10 game tour, and especially as Loren Holiday is no longer going to play with the WNT.
Heard that Aby Wam is adamant to play in the Olympics this cycle also. Wonder how she’ll get used.
I obviously wish Ellis the best but I have a hard time believing that she’s the best answer in coaching our WNT and I think our talented ladies excelled in winning the WWC in spite of Jill!
Obviously the USSF should have fired Ellis for not winning stylishly enough.
In fact the US should be stripped of the Cup and have it awarded to the team with the most attractive style of play.
The committee will be lead by Hamster , Danko, et.al.
Some people don’t seem to understand that you pace yourself through a tournament where the matches are a few days apart. Kind of like how Klinsmann thought it was important to keep Dempsey and Bradley on the field so we could run up the score on Cuba.