United States need best coach regardless of sex: Women’s World Cup winner Jill Ellis

SYDNEY – Former United States women’s national team coach Jill Ellis said on Thursday that the recruitment process for Vlatko Andonovski’s replacement should be diverse but that the sex of the candidates should not be a decisive factor.

The 46-year-old officially stepped down following the four-time champions’ early exit from the Women’s World Cup, the US Soccer Federation announced on Thursday.

Twila Kilgore, an assistant coach, is the interim coach for a pair of friendlies against South Africa on Sept 21 and 24.

Andonovski said in the team’s statement that it had been “the honour of my life” to coach the team for the past four years.

Ellis, who oversaw two World Cup triumphs in 2015 and 2019, said there were plenty of high quality and successful women coaches but the most important thing was that the US ended up with the right person for the job.

“There’s certainly good female coaches out there,” she said at a Fifa technical briefing in Sydney on Thursday.

“So what I would hope in this process is it’s robust, it’s diverse but, at the end of the day, this is a critical hire... and I think it has to be the right person.”

Andonovski faced sky-high expectations after Ellis had guided the team to back-to-back World Cup triumphs.

He led the US to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics but there were early signs of trouble at the competition in Australia and New Zealand as the team failed to hit their stride after a slew of pre-tournament injuries.

Ultimately, their bid for an unprecedented third consecutive title ended in a last-16 shoot-out loss to Sweden, marking their worst performance in the quadrennial tournament.

Andonovski was

criticised for his tactical decision-making,

including those on substitutes. He also had star players like Alex Morgan and Julie Ertz playing different roles than in the past, with mixed results.

Exciting newcomers like Ashley Sanchez and 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson barely played.

Ellis said she was a great advocate for women coaches in the women’s game and spoke in glowing terms about the job Sarina Wiegman had done in taking England to Sunday’s World Cup final against Spain.

“We need to make sure we’re creating and providing opportunities for women. But not just giving them the opportunities, making sure they’re supported and they’re educated and they’re ready to take those responsibilities and those opportunities,” she added.

“So I think it’s critical hire, it’s got to be the right coach for this position.

“But in terms of gender, what we know is that in the last however many major tournaments, I think women have done all right.”

Since 2000, all but one of the major women’s football titles – the Women’s World Cup, Women’s Euro and the Olympics – have been won by teams coached by women.

Wiegman’s England will be hoping to carry on that tradition.

Skipper Millie Bright said her team were embracing an “incredible opportunity” to do something an English side have not managed since 1966 – win a World Cup.

Bobby Moore lifted the men’s trophy at Wembley 57 years ago.

She said: “It’s something that we’ve all been driving towards and it’s something that’s been missing. Now the opportunity we have is incredible.

“In each game, we’ve proved something different about how we play, what we’re capable of. We’re very adaptable to what teams throw at us.

“But things are really starting to click now and we’re getting the ball in the back of the net.”

Wing-back Lucy Bronze believes England’s experience in winning a major final at Euro 2022 could be crucial.

She said: “We know how to win finals. That’s something Spain doesn’t have that we have. That’s an experience that not only I have but many of these England players have... I’m excited.

“I’m really good friends with a couple of them, my teammates in Barcelona, myself and Keira (Walsh) know them very well.

“We’ve been speaking to them throughout the tournament and, even before the tournament started, we had a joke, saying, ‘We’ll see you in the final’ and that’s come true.” REUTERS, AFP, NYTIMES