Women's World Cup: USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski blocks out noise, is left picking up pieces after Dutch draw

There are 90 minutes to go in the group stage and all to play for

The United States women's national team have one final game remaining in the group stage yet all to play for. They opened the World Cup with a 3-0 victory against Vietnam and are coming off a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands on Wednesday night. Despite the level match against the Netherlands, the team are currently in first place based on goal differential and in a good position to enter the knockout rounds which are set to begin on August 5 if they can take care of business on Tuesday against Portugal.  1 United States 2 1 1 04 1 3 4 2 Netherlands 2 1 1 02 1 1 4 3 Portugal 2 1 01 2 1 1 3 4 Vietnam 2 002 05 -5 0

The last time the group was playing in an international tournament was during the Tokyo Olympic games, and for head coach Vlatko Andonovski, it was the first major international tournament with the No. 1 ranked team in the world. The Olympic group stage presented lots of questions as they advanced into the knockout rounds but not as comfortably as they would have liked. Part of the criticism was related to an overreliance on an aging core of players, minute management of players carrying injuries and a lack of confidence in tactics. Still, he and the squad returned to the podium, improved on the worst-ever quarterfinal exit in the Rio 2016 games and left Tokyo with a bronze medal. 

Andonovski's unique ability to remain calm under criticism might be tied to the fact that he's completely unglued to any social media. He says he doesn't read the articles, see memes on Instagram or any of the snarky tweets as he doesn't use any of the social channels. The North Macedonia native will take a question laced with critique and somehow spin it forward to positively highlight his teams' performance, and for fans, that's actually the most annoying thing about him.