The search for a new U.S. women’s national team head coach will reportedly begin very soon.
Vlatko Andonovski is set to step down as USWNT head coach, 90MIN among other outlets confirmed Wednesday. Andonovski’s departure as head coach comes not long after the USWNT delivered its worst-ever performance at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Andonovski took over as USWNT head coach in 2019 after the second of two-straight World Cup triumphs and only lost five of his 65 matches in charge of the program. However, the program’s underwhelming run in Australia and New Zealand was likely the final straw in the 46-year-old’s stint as head coach.
“I think it’s selfish to think about me, my future, what I’m gonna do, when we have 20-year-old players going through the moment, going through this situation,” Andonovski said postmatch after the USWNT suffered a Round of 16 exit at the hands of Sweden.
“I want be there for them,” he added. “I love them. I love them all. And they’re my players, but they’re my friends. We spent four years together. They got their first caps with me. They got their first national team call-ups with me. We spend times, tough times, good times. So I don’t want to see them like that. That’s all I think about.”
The USWNT opened group stage play in Australia and New Zealand with a 3-0 shutout win over Vietnam, but would struggle in later matches. The Netherlands held the Americans to a 1-1 draw in their second group stage match before a goal-less draw vs Portugal helped the USWNT inch itself over the advancement line.
Portugal came close to eliminating the USWNT from the group stage, striking the post in second-half stoppage time of that 0-0 result. Despite several key veterans such as Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, and Megan Rapinoe remaining in the USWNT squad, the Americans lacked the cutting edge in the final third and struggled to find a way past Sweden in the Round of 16.
Andonovski’s departure would open the door to a new head coaching hire, with several current national team coaches linked with the opening.
The USWNT’s schedule is set to resume in September with a pair of home friendlies against South Africa.
Vlatko has to go but it really needs to go further than that. Just getting a replacement while leaving the rest of the federation untouched is the definition of putting lipstick on a pig. We flamed out during the past Olympics, we got slaughtered last fall when the team took it’s team to Europe. Our youth teams have gotten booted out early in their tournament appearances for many years. Vlatko needs to be held accountable but so do the suits in the federation that are his bosses. Now that Vlatko is gone the burning question should not be “who will replace him” but rather “Why does Kate Markgaf still have a job?”
Markgraf was not named or quoted in the USSF story on their website about Vlatko’s resignation. So I’m not sure what that means but it’s probably not a good sign for her.
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WYT have not be been top quality for awhile U20s haven’t won since 2012 and U17s have only gotten out of the group once.
And out Friday Markgraf will not return.
Coaching career had a rapid ascent to a top international job. Vlatko just never had much flash or sizzle with how he managed or results. Not that flash and sizzle is important but lack of a sense urgency just looked like he was treading water. His narrow roster scope and injuries did him. Rather than DeMelo or Sanchez, Sam Coffey would have provided depth at defensive midfield. You can go on and on with criticism and know it’s up to a new coach to provide answers.
Bye.
A coach who fails to meet the expectations usually does the honorable thing and resigns/steps down after a WC regardless if there is still time on their contract. It allows the coach to begin the search for their next posting and to allow the federation to interview candidates.
Glad to see at least some of the Managers in USSF are still willing to do the right thing. Hopefully some of the other managers can learn from this example.
In the 10 WC cycles since 1990, Qatar was the 3rd best finish and significantly better than the Klinsmann/Arena effort of 2018. That is vastly different from the worst finish ever by the women’s team. Just because your expectations for a team of young players who largely spent the fall either on the bench or in the training room with injury doesn’t mean the manager should resign, and I’m saying that as someone who didn’t want Gregg to return.
Firstly I didn’t state anything about Gregg. You inferred that I was speaking about him.
Secondly, “fails to meet the expectations” is not limited to performance at the WC, where many factors outside a coaches control can contribute to a poor WC. Group opponents you’re drawn against, Last minute injuries before the start of the WC, Poor/scandalous officiating, etc…
Thirdly, since you brought up Gregg’s performance…If you believe avoiding finishing 4th in WCQ on goal differential against what is arguable the weakest generational cycle of CONCACAF teams in the past 30 years was “Meeting Expectations”, or if you believe that selecting players based on “Vibes” and accomplishments/form from 2+ years in the past was “Meeting Expectations”, or if you believe that scoring only 2 goals in arguably the easiest group at the 2022 WC as “Meeting Expectations”….than congratulations you have very Low standards.
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Since we don’t have Qualifications this cycle are the USSF and the Fans going to give GGG a free pass, regardless of how the team performs??
JK was fired after a poor start to the 2018 HEX when he lost to 2 of the toughest teams in our Region….Arena stepped down as interim directly after failing to get a draw in the last match against a weak T&T opponent to Qualify for 2018. Bradley was fired after a GC Final loss to Mexico….
Hopefully there are Real Goals and Objectives to monitor and hold GGG accountable this cycle. Otherwise come 2026 we may be looking back and thinking we’ve wasted 8 years of the international careers of our most talented generation of players to date.
The expectation is to qualify. There’s no trophy to be won in qualifying. In fact Gregg won 2 out of 3 regional trophies. He met expectations. The rest is just sour grapes because some other marginal player you like didn’t get to sit on the bench and not play at the WC like Long and Roldan. Are those two not good enough at the WC level sure, but neither is Johnny, or Tillman or Green or Sabbi or Pefok or Saeif or Gall or whichever flavor of the day the never Berhalter crowd wants to put up there. We saw Brooks in 2021 get torched by Switzerland, Canada, and Honduras twice. If both John and Aaron are going to get burnt I want the nice guy that actually try’s to get back on the bench instead of the jogger with the questionable attitude. I don’t like repeat managers it rarely works even Jill Ellis who won back to back set the locker room in such a bad place that they hired Vlatko to hand out the granola bars and orange slices for four years. Berhalter met expectations for sane people, only the people that looked at the roster that only one or two would even make the team for the Netherlands and thought we should have beaten them.
JR,
“Berhalter met expectations for sane people, only the people that looked at the roster that only one or two would even make the team for the Netherlands and thought we should have beaten them.”
Sane people would not have hired Gregg in the first place.
Until the Wales game, the USMNT was punching below their weight class.
I didn’t think we should have beaten the Netherlands.
What bothered me about it was that there was almost no way that we were going to beat the Netherlands. They were not a great team but they had a far superior manager. Gregg vs Van Gaal was like Aaron Rogers taking on Alex Trebek for the position of hosting Jeopardy.
Gregg made a hard go of getting qualified. He then had a good run with the Group stage but had shot his wad getting to the Netherlands game. He was out of options because of the way he had constructed and managed the roster going back before Qatar began.
The lack of depth meant no rotation, which meant his best players were gassed leading into the Netherlands game. Greg had to know that.
Berhalter is a limited manager. He did a nice job getting the team to Qatar and they performed well there.
But he had the advantage of:
An extremely low bar.
A cheap, politicized USSF who was inclined to not spend money on an outsider and thus have proved inclined to stick with their guy.
Sure he had a lot of bad luck with injuries, scheduling etc. Excuses abound. I don’t see COVID as a disadvantage because it affected every team equally and the USMNT not as bad as most because we had better resources and money to deal with it. Good international managers learn to make the most of the hand they were dealt and my view is that Gregg adapted just enough. Just barely.
This cycle, the bar is dramatically higher. That wave of World Class transformative players were were all promised? It may not be as hot shit as we were told. Diego Luna may not be reminding everyone of that other Diego in time for 2026.
You think the USWNT disappointed people just now? Unless Gregg has had an effective, dramatic makeover, you just wait for 2026.
This was pretty inevitable. It was clear he wasn’t going to be retained so why would he run out his contract to the end of the year. Possibly some discussions with him that they would like to begin the search so resign or be let go. He’s had club success just seemed not to be suited for the international game. The issue might be they’ve set precedent with this extended interview process with men’s team that you need to replicate with the women’s team for equity. There are seven women’s windows before the Olympics including the Women’s Gold Cup so there is a good deal of time even if they use an interim in September which I think is fairly likely.
Good we need a fresh start.