In the end, it all comes down to Andonovski. I'm typically not in favor of judging purely on results, but there are times where you can look at what's going on and say "this isn't working, there needs to be a change." Even with good teams, there are times where you can tell "this is all the coach can give, if you want to be better you need to find a better coach." That's where the USWNT sits right now. It was obvious for a long time, and it seemed like U.S. Soccer was hell bent to die on Andonovski's hill. You could see the lack of strategy, the lack of cohesiveness and the struggles in situations the USWNT was not accustomed to, but the mentality for a while has been it's the USWNT, don't worry about this, it's not that important, what matters is the World Cup, they'll get their act together in time.\
Except, it never did. If it had, as someone else pointed out it would have been South Africa in R16 and then Spain in the QF. Still not an easy match - our side of the bracket as it was set up was loaded compared to the other side - but I'd rather Spain than Japan at that point. Maybe it's good that USWNT lost here, because I think Japan would thrash them 4-1 or 5-1. I might be kind about us getting the 1. It would have been more ugly than Brazil blitzing the USWNT 4-0 back in the 2007 semis. It would have been clinical and deadly.
And that's where you're at right now with Andonovski: do you have any faith that he can coach this squad to victory over the other top teams in the world? Do you see anything in his work that says it's going to get better, that what we saw is a short-term blip? Cause, I sure as hell don't. Sure, there's roster questions and maybe our best group is just down relative to the rest of the world, but you expect a head coach to squeeze something more out of the players they're given. I can't say I recall Andonovski ever doing that, and I can't see him ever doing it either. And that's why I can't see how you let him stay on as head coach, especially after this WC performance.
