AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The pressure is mounting for the United States women’s national team ahead of a pivotal final group game against Portugal on Tuesday. If the Americans lose, they will be eliminated from the tournament, but coach Vlatko Andonovski said he’s not letting the pressure get to him.
“I don’t know how it is with the other coaches and the other national teams, but the moment you sit in this chair — the moment I sat in this chair in 2019 — is when the pressure starts,” Andonovski told a news conference on Monday. “This isn’t something new.
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“The only thing that changed from 2019 to now is I just learned how to turn the pressure into excitement. I came into this World Cup not thinking, ‘Oh my gosh’ — it’s, ‘We’re having a chance to compete for a title.'”
Andonovski has also followed the lead of his players by forming a self-described “bubble.” The team did that in 2019 when they won the World Cup, with the players saying they did not check social media during the tournament, and they are doing so again – with the exception of a bit of Instagram.
“One thing that I do is I don’t have social media, I don’t read anything — our press officer is my main source of information,” Andonovski said. “When we were driving this way, we were actually talking a little bit about it. He shared something and I was like, ‘Whew, when did this happen?’
“He’s been very good to me and selecting the things that I need to know and selecting the things I don’t need to know because I’m pretty sure if I knew everything outside of our bubble, I wouldn’t be smiling right now. That’s how I deal with pressure.”
