Vlatko Andonovski feels like he is home again — not just in obvious geographical terms, but in the spiritual sense of belonging. Saturday’s NWSL season opener against the Portland Thorns will be Andonovski’s first as head coach of the Kansas City Current, his hometown team in the city where he made a name for himself before becoming coach of the U.S. women’s national team.
Andonovski has been in his element since the NWSL preseason started six weeks ago, coaching players daily and watching practice film late into the night. The club game suits him, far more than the international setting in which he’d operated for the past four years.
“It’s something that is continuous — that’s the difference,” Andonovski told ESPN. “Like, it’s not, ‘Oh, now let’s take a break for two months. We’ll see you in May.’ Now we keep going. ‘All right, we check this box but you got to check the next box.’ “
Andonovski knows the elephant in the room: Saturday’s match will be his first in charge of any team since a harrowing August 2023 night in Melbourne, Australia, where the USWNT endured its worst finish at a World Cup, falling to Sweden in a penalty shootout in the round of 16.
-Live on ESPN+: KC Current vs. Portland Thorns (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET)
Moments after the USWNT was…
