Kansas Metropolis Present introduced former U.S. ladies’s nationwide group coach Vlatko Andonovski as sporting director and head coach Monday. He resigned from his nationwide group put up in late August after the USWNT was eradicated within the 2023 FIFA World Cup knockout rounds. Stories circulated on Friday connecting him to the brand new roles after the membership parted methods with interim head coach Caroline Sjoblom.
Kansas Metropolis trustworthy are already accustomed to Andonovski. He was a participant with the Kansas Metropolis Comets within the early 2000s and coached the group in 2010. He was later named NWSL head coach of FC Kansas Metropolis, the Present’s predecessor, and gained back-to-back NWSL titles in 2014 and ’15. He has gained two NWSL Coach of the Yr honors and is certainly one of three NWSL coaches to handle in seven playoff video games.
Even those that are much less accustomed to him can cite his intensive expertise within the league as a profit for the membership aiming to bounce again from a lower than stellar season. The franchise is banking on that experience to show the group round with a playoff return on his homecoming.
“We have talked many occasions about our aim to be one of the best ladies’s soccer membership on the earth. The whole lot that we do has that ambition in thoughts. For me, although, it is much more thrilling when one of the best on the earth is true in your yard and the right match for the membership,” stated co-owner Angie Lengthy in a press convention.
The Present are only a 12 months faraway from their 2022 NWSL Championship look, however completed in eleventh place within the 12-team league, after what many considered as a busy offseason that included a number of newly acquired gamers. They focused the league’s first-ever free company interval so as to add extra items, touchdown essentially the most sought-after goal, Brazilian worldwide Debinha.
They added extra internationals to the combo in Hanna Glas, two-time World Cup winner Morgan Gautrat, and NWSL veteran Vanessa DiBernardo amongst others. However the season did not pan out the best way they’d anticipated, coping with season-long accidents, and training change simply three weeks into the 2023 season.
The membership hasalso made headlines across the sources they’re placing into the group. They’re set to play the 2024 season in CPKC Stadium, the first-ever facility constructed particularly for an NWSL group.
“He has an limitless work ethic. Strives to not solely win but in addition encourage and facilitate the event of his gamers. We consider he’s the appropriate alternative for a company as we work to win championships. We won’t look ahead to him to start his work towards our aim of being one of the best ladies’s soccer membership on the earth. And really we consider that is the following part of the Kansas Metropolis present,” stated co-owner Chris Lengthy.
Free company is simply one of many methods the league has modified since Andonovski final coached in it. As new head coach and now sporting director, Andonovski stated he is able to be proactive within the twin roles, even when it means making onerous choices.
“I do not know [if] you will have a alternative when you be part of this group, it seems like you haven’t any alternative however to be daring and to be courageous with the choice that you simply’re making,” Andonovski quipped throughout his press convention.
“I believe that’s this possession group has proven us that within the up to now. I bear in mind after they went to start out this group just a few years again, they usually solely had a few months earlier than the season began, and all of us thought it was not possible. They made it occur. Then when the [training] complicated was constructed, we thought that that was a little bit bold, nevertheless it occurred. Subsequent stadium got here, and we had been all laughing, and now we’re gonna be enjoying in a stadium that’s particularly constructed for this group. So, I believe that going ahead as a coach, I’m going with the mindset that I can be anticipated to make courageous choices. I can be anticipated to make troublesome choices, and face these choices and challenges face on, and embrace these challenges. “
Andonovski additional defined that he intends to have a collaborative working relationship with normal supervisor Camile Ashton. He is additionally wanting to work with the membership on youth improvement because the league continues to see increasingly gamers making the league to the skilled stage at youthful ages.
“I actually like in a number of the conversations that we have had once I speak in regards to the imaginative and prescient and the way forward for this membership, is how a lot they care in regards to the youth improvement and the pathway to skilled soccer. That actually excites me as a result of that can be certainly one of my duties. To create that pathway and assist with the event of the younger gamers and find out how to turn into younger professionals.”
The offseason is in full swing for non-playoff groups. Andonovski and the membership will stay up for the free company interval, with pending free brokers already capable of start negotiations for his or her 2024 Commonplace Participant Agreements. The upcoming 2024 season will characteristic one other double growth draft because the league welcomes two new groups into the combo with Utah Royals FC and Bay FC.
