US Soccer announces Andonovski as new US women's national team head coach

WASHINGTON - US Soccer officially introduced Vlatko Andonovski on Monday as the new head coach of the US women's national team.

"I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to coach the best team in the world, to work with some of the best players," Andonovski said. "I'm extremely excited about the opportunity, and I can't wait to start. I'm just looking forward to the first day on the field."

Andonovski will be taking over from Jill Ellis, who led the team to consecutive World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019. Ellis departed with 106 victories and only seven losses.

"Jill was hired to win one World Cup, and she won two. It just pushed the standards even higher. I knew coming into it that it will be extremely important to win all the big tournaments," he said.

For Andonovski, his first test will come very quickly as the US team will host a pair of friendlies in November, first against Sweden in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 7, and then against Costa Rica in Jacksonville, Florida, on Nov 10. The team must also qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where they will go for their fifth Olympic gold medal.

"I know the Olympic tournament is about a year away, but most importantly for us is before that, is to qualify for the tournament," Andonovski said. "And that's going to be our first thing on the agenda. And we have a very experienced team. We have players that have been on the international stage, that have won big games, big tournaments, so we're going to rely heavily on them."

Andonovski spent the last two seasons as coach of Reign FC in the US National Women's Soccer League. He won two league titles with FC Kansas City in 2014 and 2015.