Vlatko Andonovski knows that the U.S. women’s national team has to play better against Sweden than they did Portugal. But the head coach is not concerned about his team’s ability to do so.
His confidence remains unshaken by the recent run of poor play, relative to the USWNT’s high standards. The group stage ended in one of the team’s worst tactical games in a long time.
For example, Andonovski knows that the team wasn’t in sync in Tuesday’s scoreless draw with Portugal, and he agreed that it was not a good performance. But after the match, he would not pinpoint an area of concern.
“I’d have to see the game all over again to see if there is something that concerns me the most,” he said. “I know that the areas that we need to get better from, starting from the back how to connect with the midfielders and from the from the midfield to the forwards how to be more dangerous. … I think that we would have to get on the same page. When it comes down to the final ball, to the final pass and execution.”
Yet when asked if he was concerned about the team’s recent performances, and the fact that the issues seem to remain the same from game-to-game, Andonovski appeared unphased.
“It does not concern me at all actually, I’m very confident with the group that we have,” he said. “They can execute, and some of these things did show in the previous game as well. But also, we also saw how good it looks when we execute it, against the top opponent like Netherlands. So now going forward, like I said, we just have to find and find those moments, get on the same page and execute them in the next game.”
