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Vlatko Andonovski, the new coach of the United States women’s soccer team, knows the place that the team occupies in its sport. He knows that it is expected to win every game, and to dominate every tournament. He knows its performances have long been the gold standard in women’s soccer, and he knows that the expectation is that nothing he does will change that.
So perhaps it was unnecessary to remind Andonovski on Monday, his first day as the United States coach, that his predecessor, Jill Ellis, had won the last two World Cups and that she hadn’t lost a game in either of them.