A mere month after leading the United States women's national team to its first Women's World Cup title in 16 years, head coach Jill Ellis was rewarded with a "multi-year" extension to her contract on Wednesday.
Ellis was hired in May 2014 to succeed the fired Tom Sermanni, after she served two stints as the interim manager, and had been working on a short-term deal. Her new agreement with U.S. Soccer should see the English-born Ellis in the job through the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and beyond.
"It's obviously been a very good summer for the women's program and the women's national team, highlighted of course by winning the World Cup," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a conference call. "We're really very pleased that we've been able to reach a long-term agreement with Jill."
"I'm obviously delighted to be able to continue with this program," Ellis said. "I've really enjoyed the past year, and obviously the culmination of winning the World Cup was exciting. I've enjoyed the challenge and so I think it was a natural progression for me to want to continue with this team, with this program, and continue to push for excellence."
After she became the first woman to win the Women's World Cup in charge of the USA, deftly navigating many difficulties, the 48-year-old coach deserved to keep the job. With just months to spare before World Cup qualifiers last fall, and a mere year before the big tournament itself, she had inherited an aging team in the throes of something of an identity crisis that was nevertheless expected to finally win a third World Cup.
Sermanni had tried to rejuvenate the side and reinvigorate its playing style, which seemed like necessary things to do. The women's game, after all, was growing more sophisticated and technical by the day, whereas the Americans were stuck in an outdated playing mode. But he seemed to change too much too fast and was toppled in an apparent player revolt – even if such has always been denied.
Ellis had little time to set things right and appease the team's powerful veterans. "When she took the job a little over a year ago, she was coming in relatively late to the game, but she knew the player pool, she knew the players and she knew the demands on the program," Gulati said. "And I think it's safe to say from our perspective that all of our goals were achieved."
Ellis initially tried to stay the same course Sermanni had plotted out. She spoke at length, and excitedly, about playing more possession-oriented soccer, of pressing higher and of altering the team's DNA. But the core of her players, plainly, weren't ready for such change. The Americans had played the same way for so long that there simply wasn't the time to make major alterations in the tactics.
Ellis seemed to realize this, if perhaps begrudgingly, and took a team to the World Cup that ultimately played much the same way it always had. It relied on its physicality and fitness and played direct and mostly uninspired soccer. A fair few of her players came into the tournament with lingering injuries.
And for the first five games, the World Cup was a slog. For a time this summer, this made Ellis controversial, as her team looked nothing like a contender for the title. But she didn't panic and kept her team focused. She made a few changes, inserting a third central midfielder, and tinkered elsewhere. That ultimately led to a deserved 2-0 semifinal win over tournament favorites Germany and the resounding 5-2 destruction of defending champion Japan in the final, which avenged the U.S.'s penalty loss four years earlier.
Now, with a new contract signed, Ellis turns to the Olympics, where the USA will try to claim a fourth consecutive gold medal – and a fifth in the six editions women's soccer has been played at the Summer Games. This, too, will be tricky. Veterans Shannon Boxx and Lauren Holiday have already bowed out. Christie Rampone and Abby Wambach could well do the same.
Even without them, Ellis still has an aging team on her hands. But she'll have to fit enough energy and experience to make it through six games in the tightly compressed Olympic schedule into an 18-woman roster – whereas she got to bring 23 players to the World Cup. This will be a difficult balance to strike.
"Ultimately, for me, it goes back to if a player is good enough and will help us be successful, then that's the priority," Ellis said. "But it is beyond the Olympics [and] with now my position and the retention [of it], I certainly will be looking towards the future as well."
She now has the credibility and the clout to rebuild, with the protection of a longer contract – although it's unclear how long it's guaranteed for, exactly. Ellis's objective is to "continue to raise excellence, and try to continue to keep this program at the forefront, as it has been, and not just through the Olympics but through the future. In terms of World Cup and Olympics beyond – even beyond my realm."
But after a 10-game "victory tour," Olympic qualifiers follow quickly in February. Until the Summer Games are over, there really isn't much opportunity to make wholesale changes. And Ellis will be expected to deliver another title, meaning she once again has to go looking for that precarious balance.
"Nothing is ever static when you're dealing with a team and players," Ellis said. "Nothing is set. Even going through the [World Cup], we adjusted and tweaked some things because that's what you do as a coach. It's again beginning another process. It's obviously an even shorter run-up … but I feel very much ahead of the curve of where I was a year ago."
For Ellis, the job is just beginning.
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