Vlatko Andonovski is trying to let the past stay the past.
In last summer’s Olympics, his major tournament debut as U.S. women’s national team head coach, Andonovski saw his team consistently fail to reach its best. The denouement came in a 1-0 defeat to Canada in the semifinal, the first time in 20 years the USWNT had lost to its northern rival.
One year later, the USWNT and Canada will meet again. This time the CONCACAF W Championship, and an automatic berth in the 2024 Olympics, is on the line.
Ahead of the rematch, one may think Andonovski and his players are feverishly reviewing the film from last summer to study what went wrong.
Instead, the USWNT boss has decided the best way to exorcise the demons of 2021 is to focus only on the present.
“We haven’t really talked about it a lot,”Andonovski told the media on Sunday when asked about the Olympic semifinal. “Probably one of the reasons why is if you look at the group of players, I don’t know if there’s more than four, five players that were on the field.”
Andonovski does have a point. Of the 15 players who saw the field against Canada in the Olympics, only six (Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, Becky Sauerbrunn, Megan Rapinoe, Kelley O’Hara) appear likely to play Monday night in Mexico.
But even though the USWNT brings a host of new faces to the rematch, some of the same issues from the Olympics have cropped up at this tournament as well.
Yes, the USWNT has won all four of its games and outscored opponents 12-0, but Andonovski’s team has been sluggish in attack for long stretches – particularly against Mexico – and has looked vulnerable defensively, especially in the opener against Haiti.
It goes without saying, but the U.S. has not yet faced nearly the caliber of opponent at this tournament that it will in Monday’s final. Mistakes that didn’t kill the U.S. against Haiti and Mexico could be ruthlessly punished by Canada.
For the USWNT, defeat to Canada wouldn’t end its Olympic dream. It would instead send them into a playoff against the winner of the third-place game between Costa Rica and Jamaica – a match the U.S. would be heavily favored to win.
But Monday’s final is about more than simply qualifying for the Paris Olympics. For Andonovski, it’s about proving he can win a major final and bring the best out of his team when it counts the most. For the USWNT as a whole, it’s about righting the wrongs of last summer and proving that they are still the alpha in CONCACAF.
“It’s extremely important for us to win CONCACAF just given the expectations this team has for itself,” U.S. midfielder Andi Sullivan told Pro Soccer Wire last month. “First place is the only acceptable outcome.”
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