Vlatko Andonovski has a recurring joke about when he was hired as the Kansas City Current’s head coach.
He describes meeting Current players a few months after resigning from the U.S. Women’s National Team, with the Current having finished 11th out of 12 teams in 2023, and saying: “You had a crappy year? I did too.” He came to the Current after enduring a crisis of faith after the fallout from the USWNT’s round of 16 exit at the Women’s World Cup.
But Andonovski isn’t the only coach to land in Kansas City nursing a broken heart.
Assistant coach Freya Coombe was fired from her previous post as head coach of Angel City FC in the middle of the 2023 season. That year, ACFC had a rough start and was struggling to compete.
“It’s no secret it was very tough,” Coombe said on Friday, two days before the Current’s NWSL semifinal playoff game against the Orlando Pride. “Not being able to complete a season there and getting fired midway through the season, that was tough, and for me it was like, ‘OK, can I get back to a point where this is fun?’”
That question closely mirrors the one Andonovski asked himself after the World Cup — “Do I really love this game anymore?”
Judging from how much Coombe and Andonovski talk about having fun in 2024, the answer for…
