“All of that work was a perfect storm and a perfect timing for everyone,” remarked Emma Hayes, praising Vlatko Andonovski’s efforts as USWNT manager, despite the unforgettable outcome for the American ladies under his leadership in the 2023 World Cup. While this raises questions about what exactly went wrong under Vlatko, Trinity Rodman may have some answers.

“A great coach, obviously” is how Dennis Rodman’s daughter describes the American-Macedonian tactician. Regardless, she considers the situation a bit more complex. “No disrespect to Vlatko at all, he has a different coaching style,” began the 22-year-old in an interview with Pro Soccer Wire. Having received her U.S. debut under Andonovski, Rodman shared what went wrong with the former manager.

“In that moment, I think just the combination of his coaching style, it being his first World Cup, mixed with a bunch of people’s first World Cups. There was a lot of tension, nerves between everyone, and I think it was just projecting onto each other. And that’s my honest opinion. I think there was a lot of stress, and a lot of high emotions of the unknown, and that got the best of everyone,” concluded Rodman.

The pressure was real on Andonovski. The Star and Stripes ft. ladies entered the 2023 World Cup campaign as winners of the 2015 and 2019 title holders. Of course, that didn’t take time to create a realistic yet unrealistic expectation in the fans’ minds; to see the USWNT lift their third consecutive golden trophy. Having begun their journey, their group-stage performance gave vibes that they weren’t ready for it.

It is exactly how Hayes described Vlatko’s situation about how he “developed a group of players that may or may not have been ready at the World Cup.”

Rest, the story itself turned out to be true. Sweden knocked the USWNT out in the Round of 16 on penalties and the negative limelight mostly occurred on the 48-year-old.

While Rodman was quick enough to highlight the ‘What went wrong on Andonovski’s’ behalf, might we listen to the part about how players were responsible for their 2023 World Cup upset?

Before Trinity Rodman, Carli Lloyd came clean over USWNT’s failure under Vlatko Andonovski

To this day, many question whether Vlatko Andonovski was the right pick for U.S. Soccer, but Carli Lloyd disagrees, pointing more blame toward the players. “Vlatko’s timing was really tough. We were in the midst of continuing an equal pay lawsuit, so everybody was on edge. You kind of had more of the players spearheading a lot of decisions,” she said earlier in the Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union podcast.

“If you didn’t have a strong enough leader or person to come in and really set the tone, it was just going to spiral out of control and I think not all the blame can go on Vlatko,” continued the ex-forward, suggesting it was a mix of several factors that contributed to the US downfall, including a sense of arrogance and overconfidence after winning two consecutive World Cups.

No wonder Lloyd accepted that USWNT had to be ‘humbled in some fashion’. Now look how it turned out to be; winning their fifth historic gold Olympic medal under the leadership of Emma Hayes!