USWNT camp- Vlatko Andonovski’s first year as coach of the United States women’s national team always offered a chance to make history. He just didn’t know it would look quite like this.
Written content from Graham Hays via ESPN
After taking over from Jill Ellis last fall, Andonovski was supposed to have an opportunity to coach the defending world champions in the 2020 Olympics, potentially becoming the first team to win World Cup and Olympic titles in successive years. Instead, as the one-year anniversary of his debut approaches, Andonovski and the U.S. women are on the verge of breaking the national team’s World Cup-era record for the most consecutive days without a game.
After winning the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, the U.S. went the next 257 days without another game. As November arrived this year, 234 days had passed since the U.S. beat Japan on March 11 to clinch the SheBelieves Cup. Considering the next FIFA international window doesn’t begin until Nov. 23, and teams don’t play games on the first day of a window, the record is sure to fall no matter what the U.S. does with its schedule for the remainder of 2020.
So although most players at the recently concluded 10-day U.S. training camp in Colorado had the opportunity to play NWSL or NCAA games while the national team sat dormant due to the coronavirus pandemic, Andonovski endured perhaps the longest stretch of his life away from the field.
“I feel bad for him because he’s been in quarantine for basically seven months and not had a camp to go out and coach on the field,” midfielder Lindsey Horan said early in camp. “So I think [the opening practices were] exciting for him, just getting back on the field again and being able to interact with the players and coaches again.
“We needed that, and we’ve needed this camp for a long time.” Read more from ESPN.
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