Tag: Laura Harvey

Who’s next? The top candidates to take over as USWNT head coach

The USWNT job will be a hot topic in the months to come

A cruel summer has left the U.S. women’s national team boarding early flights home, and that means change is on the way.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski spent most of the last two years under increasing pressure thanks to inconsistent performance levels and some iffy results, and the USWNT will in all likelihood be looking for a new coach in the near future.

U.S. Soccer has made no such pronouncement just yet, and Andonovski declined to delve into his future immediately following the his side’s World Cup exit to Sweden, citing a desire to not hijack a moment for his own needs. That’s a prudent choice from a coach who no matter his stumbles, has placed the team’s needs before his own. It might not stoke the news cycle, but holding off on that discussion is the upstanding thing to do.

However, Andonovski’s tenure has included a series of underwhelming performances at the Olympics that ended with bronze instead of gold, and a three-game losing streak that tied the longest such run in USWNT history. That made this summer make-or-break for Andonovski.

As a prominent philosopher once said, you’re only funky as your last cut, and the earliest World Cup exit in this team’s history means that change is a must. There are issues beyond Andonovski’s control, including a long list of injured stars, but the USWNT job is a “no excuses, just win” role. It’s a safe bet that U.S. Soccer will soon be thanking Andonovski for his services and wishing him well in his future endeavors.

In other words, the discussion is already here. U.S. Soccer is surely going to be working on a preliminary list of USWNT coaching candidates before winnowing it down to a shorter list for first interviews, and so on. Within a few months, they should be introducing a new boss.

Here are some of the coaches out there that have the kind of resume the federation will be interested in.

Harvey honored to be linked with (still occupied) USWNT coaching job

The OL Reign head coach will be a prime candidate to take over if Vlatko Andonovski is replaced

Vlatko Andonovski is still the coach of the U.S. women’s national team, but potential successors are already being asked about replacing him.

That’s not a huge surprise: Andonovski is widely expected to be replaced imminently, after the USWNT crashed out of the World Cup at the last 16 to seal the team’s worst finish ever at the tournament.

One of the prime candidates to take over will be Laura Harvey, whom Andonovski narrowly beat out for the job in 2019. Harvey has extensive experience with U.S. Soccer, having previously served as a USWNT assistant and as a U-23 and U-20 head coach.

Harvey is now in charge at OL Reign, a team she insisted she is singularly focused on for the time being.

“I’ve lived it before, I lived this four years ago. I’m very mindful that this is my priority – this job is my priority,” she said in a press conference. “I love it here, that’s no secret. I’ve committed to the future of this club.”

Last month, Harvey signed a contract extension with OL Reign through 2025.

“My focus right now is the Reign,” she added. “We’re in the middle of a season. We’ve put ourselves in a really good position in both competitions that we’re in. And right now my focus is solely on the Reign.

“I actually give our team and players credit if my name is anywhere near anything, because that just shows the performances that our group’s been putting in.”

Still, Harvey wouldn’t deny the appeal of the USWNT position, which she called the top job in women’s soccer worldwide.

“I enjoyed my time at U.S. Soccer. That’s no doubt,” she 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.

“But first and foremost, my priority is the Reign. It is going to be hard to block it out, there’s no doubt about that, but I’ve lived it before. So I’ve got a little bit of experience with it.”

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NWSL Weekend Take-Off: Thorns imperious, VAR off to a rocky start

Tactics, VAR controversy, and spicy quotes? NWSL’s not wasting any time

The NWSL is back for 2023, and immediately produced a characteristic mix of quality play (we see you, Portland Thorns), strangeness, and controversy.

Pro Soccer Wire will be bringing this look at one aspect from every game to you every Tuesday throughout the season. Great goals? Tactical nuance? Spicy quotes? It might be week one for NWSL teams, but there’s so much to tackle. We saw the return of some banter between old rivals, several glorious goals, a total change in system from one team, and VAR’s debut resulting in a pivotal call.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the takes:

Laura Harvey says Megan Rapinoe is in 2019-level form for OL Reign

Turns out Laura Harvey is a big Pinoe fan

OL Reign coach Laura Harvey wants to make sure people know just how good Megan Rapinoe’s recent form is.

Since returning from a successful W Championship campaign with the U.S. women’s national team, Rapinoe has been directly involved with a goal for OL Reign in each of the club’s last seven games, and needed just two minutes after subbing into Wednesday night’s 1-0 win at NJ/NY Gotham FC to score.

This time around, she and Jess Fishlock combined to open up the Gotham defense, with Fishlock winning a penalty kick that Rapinoe powered past Michelle Betos.

After the match, Harvey told reporters that in her opinion, Rapinoe’s form right now is at least as good as it was in 2019, when she went supernova as the USWNT won the World Cup for the fourth time. Rapinoe went on to win the Ballon d’Or for her stellar performances that year.

“There was just something a little bit different about her in the way that she was approaching everything (this year),” said Harvey. “We all know that (Rapinoe) hasn’t got a lot of time left in her career — whatever she wants that to be, will be on her — but I feel like this year she’s really imparted herself on this team.”

“I think she realizes that we are talented. I think she realizes that she has a really big role to play in pushing us over the line in games like these, where it’s tight. I mean, it’s happened in multiple games of late: this game, (North) Carolina, Orlando, where she just comes up with something that can win the game. She did it again tonight. The ball to Jess (Fishlock) for the penalty, and then taking the penalty.”

Rapinoe’s incredible form

In just 766 minutes in NWSL this season, Rapinoe has six goals and four assists. To Harvey’s point, Rapinoe has scored or assisted result-changing goals for the Reign in four different games since returning from the USWNT’s W Championship run. She also got the game-winning assist in her last USWNT appearance, a 2-1 win over Nigeria.

“In the biggest moments when you need quality and you need someone who can step up and take that pressure, she’s it,” said Harvey. “Everyone will talk about her age and how old she is, but that doesn’t matter. She’s just performing at a level that is exceptional right now. She’s probably in better form, honestly, than in 2019. And that was wild, right? Like, what she did in 2019 was phenomenal on the world stage. But I think she’s probably in as good a form, if not better, right now.”

Rapinoe and the Reign, now having picked up 13 of 15 points in their last five games, are just one point away from clinching a playoff berth.

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OL Reign move USWNT veteran Tobin Heath to season-ending injury list

OL Reign will face the stretch run without Heath

OL Reign are going to have to navigate the final weeks of the NWSL season without Tobin Heath.

The longime USWNT winger was added to the season-ending injury list by the club following knee surgery on Monday.

“Although this wasn’t an easy decision, we know this was the right decision,” Reign head coach Laura Harvey said in a club statement. “We always want to be mindful of our athletes and their health, so we wanted to be sure that Tobin will have the proper time needed to fully prepare for a successful return on the pitch. Despite missing time this season, Tobin has helped our younger players tremendously with her veteran mindset and experience.”

Impact on the Reign’s playoff hopes

Heath was overcoming an injury sustained while playing for Arsenal when she joined the Reign in June of this year, and after recovering, made five appearances as a substitute.

She scored a potentially critical goal for the club, a late winner in a 1-0 victory over Angel City FC in her second appearance, but has not played for the Reign since August 14’s 4-1 rout of Gotham FC. Heath’s last start anywhere came back on March 31, when Arsenal were eliminated by Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarterfinals.

The fact that Heath hasn’t been available very often means the Reign should be able to proceed without too much disruption. That’s no knock on Heath, but rather a testament to the fact that Harvey’s side has more depth in wide attacking positions than any team in the NWSL. Players like Tziarra King and Veronica Latsko only get sporadic starts, and a similar logjam in central midfield has allowed Harvey to move Rose Lavelle out to the right wing at times.

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‘We’re living in an insane country’ – Rapinoe, Harvey call for gun control after OL Reign win

OL Reign won on Wednesday, but the team’s coach and most well-known player had no interest in talking about soccer

OL Reign defeated the Kansas City Current 1-0 on Wednesday night but after the game, the team’s coach and most well-known player had no interest in talking about soccer.

Instead, Laura Harvey and Megan Rapinoe wanted to address another horrific mass shooting at a school in the United States, and what can be done to avoid more tragedies in the future.

On Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in an attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Harvey, who is from England, said she has a hard time believing such events can occur with such regularity in the U.S.

“Yeah, I think, you know, we needed [the win], but in light of what happened yesterday in Texas, I think that — as much as we’re really happy that we got the win and we know that that’s our job to do — we all came here with a heavy heart and wanting things to change,” Harvey told the media after the game. “I’ve lived in this country now for nearly 10 years. And it’s mind-blowing to me that this continues to happen.”

The shooting in Uvalde happened just 10 days after a gunman opened fire in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people.

“We’re living in an insane country when it comes to gun control and gun laws. There’s literally a mass shooting every day. It actually struck me when we went to do a moment of silence today, because we just did one three f–––– days ago for a different mass shooting,” Rapinoe said.

“It’s literally the definition of insanity. The entire country is being completely held hostage, as Steve Kerr said last night. And I mean quite literally hostage, in a hostile environment — where you can go to church, you can go to the grocery store, you can go to school and end up dead — by whatever it is, 50 senators or 49 senators, whatever the number is, it’s just completely insane.”

OL Reign call for gun control

Prior to Wednesday’s game, OL Reign posted a statement on their Twitter page calling for legislation to require background checks on all gun sales in the U.S.

Rapinoe echoed those words, saying: “It [gun control] is just something that the vast majority of the country wants. I think it’s like every single mass shooting now, it’s just an AR-15. It’s just f––––– insane. Obviously, nothing’s going to change immediately, but I urge people to use their voice and vote or to call their representatives, or to badger their representatives, or to vote them out if they don’t change this.

“Because we’re just quite literally being held hostage in this country for no reason whatsoever. The only reason that an AR-15 exists is to murder human beings. It’s not used for anything else. And it’s obviously very effective and it’s just heartbreaking.”

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