Former U.S. women’s national team manager Vlatko Andonovski received multiple job offers from the MLS and abroad before agreeing to become the coach of the Kansas City Current.

On Monday, Andonovski was named coach and sporting director of the Current, marking his return to the NWSL. According to Andonovski, he also had offers from MLS clubs, other NWSL clubs and other national teams.

“It’s not a secret that I did have offers from the NWSL. I had offers from MLS — it was mainly assistant coaching positions in MLS and even internationally from different national teams,” he said.

Ultimately, Andonovski decided to stay in Kansas City, where he says the community helped to lift him up after his disappointing showing at the World Cup and subsequent resignation from the USWNT. Andonovski previously coached former NWSL club FC Kansas City, winning two titles in 2014 and 205.

“Like I said, the moment that I talked to the ownership group here and they shared their vision and goals for this team, I think that it was very clear to me where I want to be and what I want to do in the future,” he said.

When the Kansas City Current announced they had hired former U.S. women’s national team manager Vlatko Andonovski as their head coach on Monday, reactions were understandably mixed. Andonovski is a coach with an impressive NWSL resume, who nonetheless returns to the league with failures to answer for at his most recent position.

Andonovski currently represents two conflicting reputations: a championship-winning NWSL coach returning to his roots, and the coach who oversaw the worst World Cup finish in U.S. women’s national team history.

Kansas City’s leadership has faith that Andonovski’s ability to shape a roster with more time and communication than was afforded to him at the international level will pay dividends at the club level. There’s no reason to believe that this can’t be a successful partnership, but a few questions do remain.

Where he can turn things around

The Current had an exciting offseason in 2023, looking to create the right balance of veterans and young talent to turn their high-flying attack into a team that can control matches on both sides of the ball. But the season didn’t play out the way they intended. Injuries to top free agents and a few core defenders set Kansas City on the wrong path early, and the quick dismissal of coach Matt Potter did not do much to turn things around.

Based on his time in the NWSL, Andonovski is a good fit to take on the Current project due to a number of strengths. One is in his emphasis on defense, something he can point to as a bright spot of the USWNT’s World Cup campaign. His FC Kansas City championship teams were anchored by Becky Sauerbrunn in her prime, and he maintained the Reign’s defensive integrity in the face of many injuries during his short stint there.

While his strategic pragmatism didn’t always pan out on the world stage, with more time to implement his approach, Andonovski has the opportunity again to create one of the stingier teams in the NWSL. That focus will be welcome in Kansas City, whose hyper-attacking 3-5-2 of 2022 turned into a less effective 4-3-3 in 2023. The team struggled to close out matches without conceding, even as the attack found its footing later in the year.

Andonovski also identified his intended creative playmakers in his introductory press conference. He specifically mentioned Debinha, Michelle Cooper and Lo’eau Labonta as the types of players he wants to have the freedom to create chances. While Labonta and Debinha are seasoned NWSL veterans, Andonovski clearly has a vision for the rookie Cooper. That suggests he wants to retain cohesion in a roster that might otherwise go through some swift changes in the offseason.

Andonovski (and general manager Camille Ashton) will have to attempt to re-balance what has turned into a talented but aging and oft-injured roster. The team carried contracts for players like Sam Mewis, Desiree Scott and Hanna Glas, all of whom are incredibly dangerous players on their best day, but none saw the field in 2023. Morgan Gautrat and Vanessa DiBernardo were similarly unavailable throughout the season.

Andonovski was known for his ability to maintain steady results in the face of absences with the Reign. He’ll have a similar project to tackle in Kansas City, particularly with expansion on the horizon in 2024.

You can’t always go home again

A major point of emphasis in Andonovski’s hiring is that Kansas City is his home and a place where he has been entrenched in the local women’s soccer community for many years. While his familiarity is certainly an asset, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s destined for success in a second stint, albeit with a new club structure.

USWNT dialogue after the World Cup indicated that players didn’t always feel like they had a set style of play, nor were their roles within the team always clearly communicated. From the outside, Andonovski also seemed to freeze tactically in big games and when evaluating talent, presenting a very different image from the calm mind that had such success in the NWSL. It’s possible that he’ll feel more freedom to implement his plans in Kansas City, but his transformative experience at the helm of the U.S. might be something he needs to shake off rather than carry with him.

Andonovski’s appointment is also interesting in the context of a very similar coaching hiring and firing this past year. After the Washington Spirit struggled on the field while dealing with upheaval off of it in 2022, team owner Michele Kang sought out former coach Mark Parsons. Parsons had coached the Spirit in the early days of his NWSL tenure and returned to the club after winning trophies in Portland. In between his NWSL stints, he also had a disappointing run as coach of the Netherlands national team. Parsons’ return made immediate waves, and he was given a fair amount of control of the Spirit’s roster. He notably traded USWNT mainstay Emily Sonnett to OL Reign on draft day before the 2023 season.

Parsons oversaw an improved Spirit season, but one that finished in heartbreak after a Trinity Rodman red card and a loss to the North Carolina Courage on Decision Day cost the team a playoff spot. Nonetheless, it seemed that Washington had their high-profile coach and a foundation to build upon, so long as they trusted in the process. Then last week, Parsons was dismissed in the aftermath of the team’s inability to reach the postseason.

The story of Parsons and the Spirit is certainly a pattern that Andonovski will want to avoid, and it can serve as a warning. Ambitious ownership with the pockets to compete for national team coaches will want the results that come along with their investments. Potter’s quick dismissal as Current head coach earlier this year indicates similarly high expectations for a club that was the first to be eliminated from playoff contention this year.

Giving Andonovski the benefit of the doubt that he’s a coach who thrives in long-term processes with the day-to-day duties of a club manager makes sense. But Parsons’ experience in Washington also lays bare that the right fit isn’t always a place where you have history.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Vlatko Andonovski is back in Kansas City with the NWSL. And he returns to the league a better coach thanks to his experience with the U.S. women’s national team.

The Kansas City Current introduced Andonovski, 47, on Monday as their next head coach. He previously coached in the NWSL from 2013 to 2019, including five seasons with FC Kansas City from 2013 until 2017. He won two NWSL championships with the former Kansas City club, and he has maintained a home in Kansas City ever since.

In 2019, Andonovski was tasked with managing the USWNT, but his tenure with the national team came to an end in August following a disappointing result at the World Cup.

“Coaching the national team was a great opportunity individually for me,” he said Monday. “Selfishly, it was a great growth opportunity for me. When you’re surrounded with the staff that I was around, with some of the best players in the world, you have no choice but to better yourself on a daily basis and to get better in every opportunity that is given to you.

“And there’s no one or two things that I can point out, but the whole opportunity, the whole four-year tenure that I had was an opportunity for me to get better. I certainly believe that I got better and there will be moments in my new job, in my new position that I will use [that experience] and hopefully even do better than before.”

Losing in the Round of 16 at the World Cup was “tough” emotionally and that he “went through a tough time,” he said. While he initially considered taking a more extended break from coaching, the people of Kansas City and the vision of the club made him decide to return to the NWSL.

“One thing that hit me was actually how much this city, the people in the city, the friends and my neighbors were behind me and supportive of me,” he said. “And when I started the talks with [Current owners Angie and Chris Long], I was very happy about the vision and the goals, but I was also happy that all those opportunities were in front of me in the city that gave me comfort in my hardest times. And I’m very thankful for it. And I’m looking forward to repaying them.”

Still, the NWSL has changed since Andonovski last led a team. For one, the league is expanding, with four more teams set to join in the next three years.

There also is increasing investment in the league, with more fans than ever before and teams valued higher than ever before. And Kansas City is set to open the first-ever soccer stadium designed specifically for a women’s team, which is scheduled to open by the start of the 2024 season.

Andonovski understands that the league has changed “tremendously” in the time since he left, he said. But coaching the USWNT helped him stay connected with players. And he’s ready to be part of the league’s evolution.

“We have no choice as coaches, as a team to keep on evolving because the game itself evolves,” he said, noting that it’s changing “a lot more” and more quickly than ever before.

“In the past, it used to be World Cup to World Cup,” he continued. “Now the game moves so fast that it evolves on a yearly basis, and we have to keep up. And it’s not that we just have to keep up, we want to be ahead of it. We want to be ahead of everyone, we want to be trendsetters. We want to be able to create or build something that people will follow.”

Vlatko Andonovski is the new head coach of the Kansas City Current, the club announced Monday.

The move represents a homecoming for Andonovski, 47, who served as the head coach of the NWSL’s former Kansas City club for five seasons and still lives in the area. He resigned in August as head coach of the U.S. women’s national team.

In his stint as USWNT head coach, he led the team to a 51-9-5 record (W-D-L), but his record at major tournaments was 3-5-2. He stepped down after leading the team to a disappointing Round of 16 exit at the 2023 World Cup, the earliest ever for the USWNT.

“While we are all disappointed by the outcome at this year’s World Cup, I am immensely proud of the progress this team has made, the support they’ve shown for each other, and the inspiration they’ve provided for players around the world,” he said in the news release announcing his departure.

Andonovski became head coach of the national team after a successful NWSL career, in which he accumulated a 64-36-39 record across seven seasons. He coached OL Reign from 2018 through 2019, and before that he led FC Kansas City from 2013 through 2017, when the team ceased operations. He won NWSL titles with FC Kansas City in 2014 and 2015.

FC Kansas City’s assets were transferred to the Utah Royals, which played in the NWSL from 2018 to 2020. At that point, the Royals ceased operations, and the assets were transferred to a new Kansas City expansion team: the Current.

The Current made a run to the NWSL Championship match in 2022, though they lost to the Portland Thorns in the title game. But they finished 11th out of 12 teams in 2023 after firing head coach Matt Potter just three games into the season. Andonovski takes the reins from interim head coach Caroline Sjöblom.

“We are thrilled to welcome Vlatko to the Current,” Kansas City Current co-owners Angie Long and Chris Long said in a news release. “We talk all the time about our desire to be the best women’s football club in the world, with Vlatko that brings us one step closer to that goal. His football acumen and his penchant for developing talent will keep this team competitive on the world stage and make Kansas City a destination club for players across the world.”

In the team’s release, Andonovski called Kansas City “home.”

“This club is very ambitious, and they have an ownership group willing to do what it takes to meet their goals. I am grateful to Angie, Chris, Brittany and Patrick for this opportunity to lead my hometown team,” he said. “The fans here have always been passionate, and it has been so exciting to see them grow and make Kansas City one of the best atmospheres in the NWSL, and it will only get better in the new stadium.”

Former Angel City FC head coach Freya Coombe is in line to become Andonovski’s top assistant with the Current, the Washington Post’s Steven Goff reported.

When Mia Fishel scored the opening goal in her Chelsea debut, it felt like a Hollywood beginning. Fishel has been in the U.S. women’s national team conversation for months, she’s representative of a new wealth of club options for women’s soccer players in the U.S., and she is now proving herself on one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Fishel is a known goal-scorer. She can make connective passes and probing runs in behind the defense, and she can use her height to gain advantage in the air in front of her opponent’s goal. None of those assets are new now that she’s at Chelsea, but with a Women’s Super League contract and a first cap for the USWNT behind her, she appears to have unlocked another level in her game.

Even though she’s just 22 years old, Fishel’s ascension to international prominence has been a long time coming. She’s already played professionally in two leagues after a stellar college career at UCLA, and she has become a fan favorite among U.S. fans. But she’s also taken a path less traveled in the women’s soccer landscape, and it’s taken some time for decision-makers to catch up.

Drafted by her former UCLA coach, Amanda Cromwell, to the Orlando Pride in 2022, Fishel instead opted to join UANL Tigres in Liga MX Femenil. Liga MX Femenil began play in 2017 and has been rising in stature since its inception, but at the time was considered a developing league compared to the NWSL. Fishel dominated in Mexico, becoming the Liga MX Femenil’s top scorer with 47 goals in 64 games and the first foreign player to win the league’s Golden Boot. She won two league titles with Tigres and continued to develop as a young scorer, before making the leap to Chelsea.

“What I did was historic,” she told Goal.com in 2022. “You don’t see U.S. players coming to Mexico. This hasn’t been done yet. The rate at which the league has been growing was very appealing. They’ve only been here for five years or so, and the global media recognition, the passionate fans, playing in [large] stadiums, you just don’t get that in the U.S.”

Fishel’s jump to Liga MX Femenil was prescient, as other well-known internationals begin to follow suit. Spain star and World Cup champion Jenni Hermoso now plays for CF Pachuca, and former France national team player Kheira Hamraoui currently plays for Club America. Fishel’s decision to sign with Chelsea is perhaps an indication that the world of women’s soccer is bending toward the European game, but she’ll long be remembered as a trailblazer in choosing her own path.

Fishel landed at Chelsea this season as an expected backup to Australian superstar Sam Kerr, who missed the team’s WSL opening win over Tottenham on Sunday due to rest.

“For the team to be better, I needed to come in to help Sam Kerr when she doesn’t need to be in the game. That [means] a big role,” Fishel told the Evening Standard prior to the season’s start.

In some ways, it’s poetic that Fishel has joined a Chelsea team headlined by Kerr, whose journey to this point has parallels to that of her understudy.

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Sam Kerr has led Chelesa to four straight Women's Super League titles since joining the team in 2020. (Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Getty Images)

Nowadays, it feels like Kerr was always destined to be beloved in London, a trophy winner many times over and a top scorer in a league that grows in prowess with each passing year. But when Kerr officially joined Chelsea at the end of 2019, questions plagued the forward who started her career in Australia and North America, winning the NWSL Golden Boot more than once but failing to walk away from the NWSL with a Shield or a championship win.

Assumptions about athleticism trumping technical ability and how she would fit in with the biggest stars in Europe pervaded the conversations about Kerr. The answer, of course, was that she did just fine, finding an immediate foothold in Emma Hayes’ lineup and now considered one of the best players in the world.

For Fishel, that push for acceptance was delayed when former USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski declined to bring her into senior team camp in the run-up to the 2023 World Cup. While it’s impossible to know how a player would have performed within an unfamiliar environment, Andonovski’s decision was even more baffling because Fishel seems like exactly the type of player who would have thrived in his system.

Fishel has the ability to play target forward, and her first goal for Chelsea came courtesy of a towering header. But she can also slip back into the attacking midfield, and her ability to contribute to build-up play is the type of skill set Andonovski seemed to want out of Chelsea teammate Catarina Macario and U.S. veteran Alex Morgan. When it became clear that Macario would miss the World Cup due to injury, Andonovski’s stubbornness toward Fishel felt more like coaching dysfunction than objective evaluation of what she could possibly bring to the team.

After the USWNT parted ways with Andonovski following a disappointing World Cup result, Fishel was one of the first players brought into the fold for their September friendlies, earning her first cap in Megan Rapinoe’s final match. While the U.S. won’t have a new permanent manager until December, Fishel’s call-up could be perceived as a quick direction shift from Andonovski’s vision, rewarding the patience of a player who has done everything possible to earn an opportunity.

The next question for Fishel is how many minutes she’ll get for Chelsea consistently once Kerr returns to the starting lineup, but in just one appearance, she’s made herself difficult to drop. As long as she keeps performing at the highest levels, her time on the periphery of the USWNT should finally be over.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Lynn Williams had a lot to process when it came to her role with the U.S. women’s national team at the 2023 World Cup.

On the most recent episode of “Snacks,” she described the roller coaster of emotions she experienced in regards to her role with the team. Williams sat for the USWNT’s first two games, prompting questions from media and fans, before starting in the group-stage finale against Portugal.

Williams had a conversation with former head coach Vlatko Andonovski about her bench role at the World Cup ahead of the tournament, she told co-host Sam Mewis on the show. Williams entered the World Cup ready to channel her “inner Christen Press” and be a “super seven” sub, based on what Andonovski had described to her.

“So I was clinging on to that. And so with Vietnam, not playing in that, I mean, on some level, it’s devastating,” she said. “Because you’re like, everybody’s getting into the game, and I’m not getting into the game.”

Williams leaned into supporting the team and not letting her disappointment get to her before refocusing for the USWNT’s next game against the Netherlands. The forward did not play in that game, either, as Andonovski drew criticism for his lack of substitutions in the 1-1 draw. Andonovski resigned as USWNT head coach in the weeks following the team’s exit.

“I just felt like I could have made a big impact,” Williams said about the Netherlands game. “Of course, everybody thinks that. We wouldn’t be on the team if we didn’t think we could make an impact.

“And so to not get sucked into that it was another like, OK, like, just stay in it. And I just had to remind myself again, like, it’s not about you, it’s about the team. So whatever the decisions were made, just support that decision and make your teammates the best teammates you can possibly be.”

Williams was excited to get the starting nod against Portugal, but said she struggled with her confidence after not playing in a competitive game for a while. In a lackluster 0-0 draw for the USWNT, Williams shined in her role, putting the most shots on goal per 90 minutes of all U.S. players.

She did not start the team’s Round of 16 game against Sweden, but subbed in for Trinity Rodman in the 66th minute as the U.S. tried to break a 0-0 tie. The USWNT ultimately lost to Sweden in a penalty shootout and were eliminated from the World Cup in their worst-ever finish at the tournament.

Williams said she’s still coping with the emotions from her first World Cup, but the experience taught her the importance of supporting her teammates even through personal disappointment.

“I mean, you can’t look on the sidelines and look so distraught, and like you’re not going to give to the team because I think that the bench, you feed off the bench when you’re on the field,” she said. “So I think that you have to give 100% of yourself in those moments to the team, which honestly is like, more exhausting than playing sometimes.

“But I also think that if you want a collective goodness and a mentally sound team, you have to make sure you’re checking in with one another. … I think that that’s a collective responsibility.”

The U.S. women’s national team did not set its players up for success heading into the 2023 World Cup, captain Lindsey Horan said.

The 29-year-old midfielder reflected on the USWNT’s World Cup run in conversation with Christen Press and Tobin Heath, her teammates on the 2019 title-winning team. During that tournament, the coaching staff prepared players to come up big in the biggest moments. But that did not happen in 2023, Horan said on “The RE-CAP Show.”

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski resigned after the USWNT’s Round of 16 exit. While Horan did not mention him by name, she did share what she wants to ask his successor.

“(How do you plan on) getting the best out of your team without overcomplicating everything? Because I could talk about the last four-year cycle, and we don’t need to get into every single thing, but that’s not what we did,” she said. “We did not get the best out of every single individual. I don’t think everyone was fully prepared.”

Horan did not absolve the players of guilt, noting that any lack of preparation falls on their shoulders as well. She also shared her individual regrets, saying she has asked herself constantly in the weeks following the tournament: “What more could I have done to help the team?”

As the captain, Horan had taken it upon herself to mentor the younger players, particularly Sophia Smith, as they dealt with the pressures of their first World Cup.

“Could I have done more to help those players? Because I don’t think we got the absolute best out of some of them because of the way that we were set up,” she said, referencing the structure put in place heading into the tournament as a potential limiting factor.

Still, Press and Heath, who sat out this year’s tournament with injuries, praised Horan for her leadership.

“I think that you shined in an environment where there was very little light,” Press said. “And I think that you can have a lot of peace with how you carried the team through that tournament.”

The U.S. women’s national team has a winning formula, Briana Scurry said. But former head coach Vlatko Andonovski botched that formula at the 2023 World Cup.

The former USWNT goalkeeper, who won the 1999 World Cup and two Olympic gold medals with the team, spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald after the U.S. was eliminated from this summer’s tournament. And she did not hold back in her evaluation of Andonovski.

Andonovski resigned from the USWNT after the Round of 16 exit, the earliest ever for the program. And the disappointing World Cup finish came after a third-place finish at the 2021 Olympics.

“Vlatko had two bites at the apple and didn’t get it done,” Scurry said. “And a lot of people might say, ‘Well, that’s ruthless,’ but I think it’s just how we organize and how we work with the women’s team. The standard, the bar, is so incredibly high, and he obviously wasn’t up to the task.”

Scurry, 51, also questioned Andonovski’s overreliance on younger players in his starting lineup, especially when compared to the more experience-heavy USWNT lineups of tournaments past.

“I have no problem with the younger players,” she said. “They deserve a chance, they should be expected to be in there. But they should not be tasked with carrying the load, because it’s too much.

“That’s why we win so much, because we have an understanding [that] there’s actually, like, a formula about it. And he broke the formula.”

Andonovski’s departure leaves the USWNT with a vacancy at head coach, and likely with several other positions to fill as well. USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf, who was a part of the group responsible for hiring Andonovski, will also step down when her contract with U.S. Soccer expires at the end of the month.

When asked if she would be up for a position with U.S. Soccer, Scurry did not say no.

“I would definitely consider it,” she told the Inquirer.

Carli Lloyd, the U.S. women’s national team great turned Fox Sports analyst, made headlines during the 2023 World Cup for her frequent criticism of her former team. Lloyd also offered suggestions for what head coach Vlatko Andonovski could have done differently.

That doesn’t mean Lloyd has any interest in the USWNT’s head coaching vacancy, however. The two-time World Cup champion shut down the possibility in a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

“A definite no,” she wrote of herself as a candidate. “Not qualified, no coaching licenses and no experience. They’ll land a good one. It’s important to get it right.”

Since retiring following the 2021 Olympics, in which the USWNT won bronze, Lloyd has been vocal about her beliefs on the state of the program.

Andonovski’s resignation has triggered speculation about his replacement, ranging from Lloyd to Tony Gustavsson, the Australian head coach and former USWNT assistant under Jill Ellis. Lluís Cortés and Laura Harvey also have been linked to the opening. Harvey, a former USWNT assistant, is currently the head coach of the NWSL’s OL Reign.

“I enjoyed my time at U.S. Soccer. That’s no doubt,” Harvey said. “The U.S. women’s national team is probably the top job in the world, if not a top three job in the world. That’s just reality. And if my name is anywhere near it, then that’s an honor.”

When asked about the opening, USWNT legend Brandi Chastain said she would “love to lead this national team some time in the future,” while acknowledging she is not yet ready for the job.

Whatever direction the USWNT decides to go in, there’s no doubt Lloyd will have an opinion – and she won’t be afraid to share it.

“They need a fresh start,” she wrote on X. “Someone who hasn’t been part of the program. Wouldn’t be wise to recycle coaches. Too much history.”

Jill Ellis, who coached the U.S. women’s national to the 2015 and 2019 World Cup titles, delivered the championship trophy to 2023 winner Spain after Sunday’s final.

The USWNT fell well short in its quest for a three-peat, suffering its earliest-ever World Cup exit with a shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16. Japan’s elimination in the following round ensured that a first-time champion would be crowned at the 2023 tournament.

Before 2023, the USWNT had won four titles, Germany had won two, and Japan and Norway had won one each. Either the USWNT or Germany had appeared in all eight of the previous championship matches.

“You’re getting two teams that have never been in this moment before. It’s going to be an extraordinary evening,” Ellis said ahead of the final. “I just can’t wait to watch the images back in Spain and in England, of what their home countries are doing and how they’re celebrating and how they’re watching – I always find that so inspiring.”

In the aftermath of the USWNT’s exit from the World Cup, Ellis’ successor Vlatko Andonovski stepped down as head coach, kicking off a search for the next leader of what has been the premier senior women’s national program. The turnover at the top of the USWNT comes as Spain and England underlined the new reality of the women’s game: The world has caught up with the U.S.