If Ellis wants to leave now, then she's earned that right, and quite frankly, she should be celebrated for her accomplishments. Building two WC-winning squads is not an easy thing to do, especially with how much criticism and pressure this job brings. Personally I'd like to see her stay on one more year and try to redeem the loss in Rio with a gold in Tokyo. But Tokyo should be the absolute end. As great of a job as she's done, there are going to be a massive number of retirements coming up, and this team needs a new perspective to bring in that next generation of talent.
Interesting... I didn’t know back in 2017 there was a player revolt against her. https://www.si.com/soccer/2018/07/2...ncerned-jill-ellis-firing-jaelene-hinkle-call
For her, for a coaching challenge, she should stay on and develop the team for the next WWC - win it, become immortal and everyone on this board shuts up - lose it, be shown to be human and everyone goes "look, I was right back in 2019 on BS!" I (seriously) hope she stays and takes on the 3x challenge. Winning it twice is so last week.
She seems pretty perfectly qualified for the GM job, doesn't she? If she wants it, that is. My understanding is that her contract makes it her option whether to coach through the Olympics? If she moved up to GM and another coach was brought in, that might finally reset the perception of the cycle to where the Olympics is seen as its beginning rather than the sort of echo of the World Cup that it has been.
Actually I think she has earned the right, if she wants, to try for an unprecedented third WWC. Particularly if we win in Tokyo. I know that is contrary to common wisdom and she may not want the added pressure and to face the extreme criticism that her every move will draw BUT the team and she has earned the attempt if they so desire. I believe it is a false belief that she will automatically have favorites (All coaches have favorites) and let that color her moves and lead to failure. That might be true but it also might not. People will accuse her, as they have always done, of including someone or leaving someone off the roster because of "favoritism" but she has shown, by simply winning, that if she has favorites then those favorites are plenty good. She might even know more about who is needed and who is not than anyone on this board, or anywhere else for that matter, knows about who should play and train with the team. We do not even know if she is able to effectively select a new roster and lead them to equal or greater heights. She has proven to be able to adapt to needed changes and there is no reason to believe she cannot adapt to whatever challenges the future holds. Again: If she wants to try for that trifecta she has earned the right to do so no matter what anyone "thinks" would be right. She has shown that all the naysayers had their collective heads inserted in a dark smelly place. Of course she may want a greater challenge and move to Thailand and win the WWC after next with that squad.
In this article, the writer claims that apparently some players are still dissatisfied with Ellis' management. Winning the WC might change their minds, but this article makes an interesting point: it might have been her management style that actually made the team closer. Dealing with her management style may have directly or indirectly created the bond that brought them together: "Whether Ellis created that closeness intentionally or not, it’s certainly been a byproduct of her leadership. The factions that used to dominate the US women’s national team couldn’t develop because Ellis, willing to unceremoniously cut veterans and keen to throw young players into trials by fire, prevented them from doing so."
A famous baseball manager, asked the secret to geed managing, responded "Keeping the ones that hate you away from the ones that ain't made up their minds yet." There was something of that dynamic on every team I ever played on or coached-- it just comes with the process. Smart, capable, honest coaches, dumb, incompetent, liars, makes no difference. The best take steps to minimize the effect, but the players who are apt to grow up to be bad ones often resent those very steps, so...
This is especially important on a team like this where players can end up locked into contracts that keep other, perhaps better players, out. It will be interesting to see if she encourages some players to retire soon.
BREAKING NEWS: Jill Ellis is stepping down as coach of the #USWNT after winning back-to-back World Cup titles. She will remain with the team through its five-game victory tour.Details:https://t.co/B4UebJRh84More to come on @EqualizerSoccer pic.twitter.com/bx16KrBozJ— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) July 30, 2019 She's moving on.
"Ellis’ current contract expires on Wednesday. There was a mutual option to extend the contract through the 2020 Olympics. The decision to step down was Ellis’, according to those familiar with the situation."
Argh, please don't let that Swanson guy take over.... That being said, the Jill Ellis era was the most successful USWNT era in US History. As critical as I was of her and continue to be, she got the job done and that's not an easy task with all the personalities and drama that went her way during her tenure. Now I'm excited for who we get next! Is it the biggest woso coaching opening in the United States? Yes sure, it sure is!
Always good to go out on your own terms and on top. Now starts a new cycle of US women’s soccer. Can’t wait...
From the Equalizer article: ".... Ellis added that the timing was right to allow a new coach to have a world event — the 2020 Olympics — to build off of for the next World Cup. This was the plan for a long time, it seems." This is exactly what I expected and indicated I thought and hoped would happen. I think it confirms that Ellis thinks in terms of a four-year cycle that ends with the by far most important event, the World Cup. The Olympics, given that they're a year after the World Cup, thus are at the beginning of the cycle. Who is on the Olympics roster, what kind of tactics they employ in the Olympics, and all other things that go on with management of the USWNT in the lead-up should be viewed in that context. Simply put, the Olympics are a step, and only a step and an early one at that, on the way to the World Cup. I agree with that thinking, because I think it takes four years' lead up to win the World Cup. I think there are others who don't agree. Whoever among us is right, I think it's clearly how Ellis thinks.
Jill Ellis is stepping down as USWNT coach, finally going public with a decision she made over the Christmas holidays last year. https://t.co/jFCFTSGhXl— Andrew Das (@AndrewDasNYT) July 31, 2019
Pretty much exactly what I thought when I heard just the bald fact that she was declining the option last night... A new person will get to play the olympics with a successful roster, and then start to remake it according to their own prejudices and whatever rate of decay they perceive and whatever emerging talent seems undeniable. I wonder if Chile's coach is available? Or maybe Cap'n Carla is ready?
Is it really a good idea to get a 99er player manage the team? I know a few of them have since done some coaching but I'm wondering if it's too soon.
20 years? Wait too long and they'll start to croak... But there does seem to be a shortage of obvious candidates.
I posted this Crack podcast in the NWSL forum because of Leroux's comments on the Orlando Pride positive cases, but in it, she also says some interesting things about Ellis's coaching. I didn't want to post this in the News and Media thread because I think it might generate some discussion. In Leroux's opinion, the USWNT won in 2015 "in spite of her [Ellis]." She said that Ellis's management style wasn't good for players' mental health (which basically lines up with an article I posted in post #32 here in that her management style either intentionally or inadvertently made the 2019 team closer as a team). Leroux also says Ellis had already decided that Leroux was out of the USWNT after she had the baby, and wasn't given much of an option to get back in the mix. The discuss of Ellis starts at the 48:00 minute mark. This might all be true, and yet maybe it's just Leroux's perspective, colored by getting dropped from the team. But, I also think Ellis did well to put the right people around her to cover her weaknesses, and that counts for something.