No matter the sport, coaches can be brutally honest about their team’s results or lack thereof, especially on the world’s biggest stage. Well, for better or worse, United States Women’s National Team coach Vlatko Andonovski got brutally honest about his team’s lackluster performance against Portugal.
Andonovski has been the subject of criticism for his failure to adapt, change lineups and use of substitutions during a lackluster group stage performance in the 2023 Women’s World Cup. He understands that the buck stops here when it comes to the team’s shortcomings and he’s taken that responsibility. And while his words aren’t exactly jarring, his summation of the team’s performance against Portugal ahead of its match against Sweden was pretty surprising, to say the least.
Yes, the performance was crap,” Andonovski said via Fox Sports in an interview recorded Thursday, which was broadcasted on FS1 ahead of the Spain-Switzerland knockout game. “We all know that. We have to own it, we have to take accountability, and we have to focus for our next game. Let’s make sure we don’t have the same performance again.”
The U.S. women have to make sure their performance is a lot better than the one we saw on Tuesday, otherwise, Sunday’s match against Sweden will make a premature end to their World Cup.
