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How Vlatko Andonovski, whose U.S. team plays in KC Thursday, helps shape women’s soccer

For the first time in his career as head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Vlatko Andonovski this week gets the opportunity to coach a game in his hometown.

The USWNT faces Korea Republic Thursday evening at Sporting Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

It’ll be the first time since 2018, when former coach Jill Ellis and the USWNT beat Japan here 4-2, that the U.S. women’s team will play a match in KC.

The Macedonian-American Andonovski moved to the U.S. in 2000 to pursue a playing career in indoor soccer. He coached the Kansas City Comets from 2013-16 and the former FC Kansas City women’s squad from 2013-17.

He’s won three championships as a coach: two National Women’s Soccer League titles with FCKC and one with the Comets.

He became the USWNT’s head coach in October 2019.

“The fact that I’m going to be in my home — I call Kansas City home — in front of people that I know and people that I love, people that I know are going to support me and the team, and being able to do the job that I love, is a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “I’m very thankful for it.”

The national team will visit Kansas City this week as the third stop on a four-game farewell tour for longtime veteran Carli Lloyd. The 39-year-old forward plans to retire after the 2021 season. She’s scored 134 goals in 314 USWNT appearances.

In the bigger picture, Thursday’s game will help write a new chapter in U.S soccer. Andonovski’s squad has played a handful of games since the team’s bronze-medal result at the Tokyo Olympics, including 9-0 and 8-0 thrashings of Paraguay. Korea Republic, rankde 18th in the world, presents a stiffer challenge.

Lloyd’s farewell tour, then, is partly about sending off a U.S. soccer legend in style while also transitioning to a younger squad.

“Some players are going to retire on their own,” Andonovski said. “Some players, we as coaching staff may have to make a decision.”

At one point in the Americans’ 8-0 victory over Paraguay in Cincinnati on Sept. 21, the U.S. had seven players age 25 or younger on the field. Expect that trend to continue in Kansas City.

Andonovski has already found himself on a bit of a hot seat, tasked with overhauling the roster of an aging team that won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups under Ellis. The USWNT’s third-place finish at the Olympics only heightened his urgency.

“Going into the Olympics, we were not able to find (marginal differences),” Andonovski said. “So personally I wasn’t able to find those or do a good-enough job. Now we have a year-and-a-half (until the World Cup) to get those little things that will push us over the finish line and get us back on top.”

Andovoski, speaking during a recent media appearance here, discussed KC’s chances of hosting World Cup games in 2026. A delegation from FIFA visits Thursday as part of a tour aimed at evaluating U.S. cities’ bids to host 2026 World Cup matches.

The delegation will also be at Children’s Mercy Park later that day to watch Andonovski’s USWNT team play Korea.

“Kansas City is a soccer city. We’re sitting in one of the nicest stadiums, with Sporting Kansas City, and what they have done for this game in this city is tremendous,” Andonovski said. “We have KC NWSL now and the Comets and everything else that’s happened in terms of the game shows that it’s world-class.

“On top of that, the city supports the game too, so that’s why I think it’s a great combination for us to have an event like that in this city.”