AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The task for U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski seems simple: start the best possible line-up and begin the Women’s World Cup with a strong statement of intent.
But once the squad to take on Vietnam in their tournament opener was announced, it became clear Andonovski was not playing it safe or simple.
The question, which will be answered once this World Cup is said and done: is Andonovski overthinking it, or just being shrewd? The answer certainly didn’t come Saturday at Eden Park Stadium against Vietnam (a Friday night start for fans in the U.S.), nor was it expected to. The talent differential between the two sides is large enough that a fully second-choice U.S. squad would still have been expected to win.
In the end, the USWNT won 3-0, missing a slew of quality scoring chances in the process — 28 shots in all — and it almost didn’t matter who Andonovski put on the field.
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But the U.S. coach appeared to be setting the stage for a tournament where the USWNT will be difficult to predict, and the notion of the “best possible line-up” will be less straight-forward than it seems.
In previous World Cup editions it was easy to predict who a coach might start and where, but Andonovski has put together a squad without easy answers. Julie Ertz — a player who had seemingly made the roster at the last possible moment as the solution at defensive midfielder after not playing competitive soccer for two years — started at centerback.
Ertz hasn’t started as a centerback since 2019, and hasn’t played the position with regularity since years before that. But when captain Becky Sauerbrunn was a late scratch for the World Cup due to a lingering foot injury, he opted not to replace her with someone currently playing at the position.
“When we knew that Becky is not going to be able to make it, that’s something we started looking into even deeper,” Andonovski said after the game. “We had a conversation with Julie before we even tried, did a lot of work before we got into (pre-World Cup) camp in terms of video analysis.”
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And yet, Andonovski didn’t necessarily have a better choice, in part because of how he constructed his World Cup roster. He could’ve instead opted to start Alana Cook alongside Naomi Girma, but then he would’ve been left with a very inexperienced central defense. Cook has 25 caps, and Girma — who is the better defender — only has 16.
Having the experience of Ertz, especially to ease the nerves in the younger Girma, was logical. After all, the only other option on this World Cup roster is Emily Sonnett, a player who has spent more time for the USWNT at fullback than centerback.
Ertz didn’t look completely comfortable in the back in her return to the role. Vietnam barely threatened, so she wasn’t exactly under pressure, but with the ball at her feet she looked unsettled at times and took unnecessary risks. She played into the game though, looking more comfortable as it went on.
“I’m glad we made the decision and I know that the back line is just going to get better and better going forward,” Andonovski said, also declining to state whether Ertz would stay in that role throughout the tournament.
