“I don’t think we should read (the list) at all,” said US women’s team coach Vlatko Andonovski on Monday, discussing his list of 23 players for this month’s SheBelieves Cup.
That was the first thing Andonovski said, and it seems unethical to approach each lineup for this team. It seems especially strange to say this about a lineup of the SheBelieves Cup before a major international tournament, but everything has been strange about the national team’s preparations for the pandemic.
“It’s still experimental,” he continued. “If we had 2020, the entire year to prepare for the Olympics, it would be a little different.”
Rather than pointing to hasty conclusions, the list is another data point for Andonovski. There are players he considers known quantities – for this particular list, that means goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris and defender Ali …