Andonovski leaves KC, Yolanda Thomas makes history, and more from a chaotic week in the NWSL.
The Vlatko Andonovski era is officially over in Kansas City. What's next for the historic manager? Plus, Yolanda Thomas is breaking down barriers and more NWSL history.
The Vlatko Andonovski era is officially over in Kansas City after the club announced that Andonovski had agreed to part ways after what has been characterized as a voluntary move up the sporting ladder this offseason.
Through 2 years at the helm, Andonovski brought the Current to an NWSL semifinal in 2024 before winning the NWSL Shield and setting the league record for most wins in a single season in 2025. The Current were the most dominant team in NWSL history last season, but a shock first-round loss to Gotham knocked the club off its trajectory. Vlatko was brought upstairs – a restructuring that saw former Racing Louisville GM Ryan Dell replace Caitlin Carducci.
Less than a year later, both architects of that run, Andonovski and Carducci, are out of the club, all because the Current lost to a Gotham squad that would not have been an 8th seed if it weren’t for key injuries earlier in the season. Rose Lavelle recovered around the time that Gotham acquired Jaedyn Shaw from North Carolina, and suddenly the Bats were rolling. This was not a plucky underdog knocking off the top seed; this was a match that would have been a final in another universe.
Gotham was the 2nd-best team heading into the playoffs, and they just happened to squeak over thanks to earlier misfortune.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Andonovski’s role at the top of the Current’s overarching sporting structure was bypassed in the hiring of Chris Armas this offseason. A call to former Chris Long college roommate Jesse March and former Marsch assistant Chris Armas instantly became the frontrunner for what, at the time, should have been one of the most sought-after jobs in the sport.
It’s too simple to say that the Current’s struggles to keep that level this season come down to the coaching change. The decision to part with Claire Hutton and bring in Croix Bethune threw off the balance within the formation – despite Bethune’s MVP case – and the absences of Michelle Cooper and Temwa Chawinga only exacerbated the roster and general connectivity issues.
Andonovski brought a level of stability to the Current that had not been there through the Huw Williams and Camille Levin Ashton-led eras. His move upstairs should be celebrated as a KC Soccer icon shaping the direction of the Current’s future, but instead he was clearly isolated from decisions in his new role, and his exit from KC was announced with a 78-word press release. The release makes no mention of the team’s success in 2024 and 2025.
“Both parties determined that Andonovski’s requested transition from coaching into the Sporting Director role at the end of last season was not the right fit. Andonovski joined the KC Current’s technical staff as head coach for the 2024 season and then sought the move to Sporting Director in November 2025. The Kansas City Current wishes Andonovski well in his future endeavors.”
It’s rare to see a coach reach the heights that Blatko has across eras, both before and after a USWNT stint, while former players come out of the woodwork to both thank him and call out the Current’s lack of acknowledgment.
Andonovski is now a Free Agent, and it’s tempting to point to Orlando as an obvious destination for the 2x NWSL Coach of the Year. Caitlin Carducci pulled the trigger and fired Seb Hines last month to kick off a retool; it would be the perfect time to lay the groundwork for a Vlatko Andonovski arrival.
Andonovski could also be interested in taking the reins in Chicago, or even taking on a brand new project in Atlanta with an ownership group that will give him all of the resources he needs to build a contender.
There’s also a conversation around what happens to the KC Current assistant coaching staff with Vlatko leaving. Andonovski’s assistants are still on Chris Armas’s staff, including Milan Ivanovic, who has been Andonovski’s key assistant at every stop, through tenures with FCKC, Seattle, and the UWSNT.
It’s a brand new era, and the Current will need to launch a Sporting Director search.
What happens if the new hire wants to launch into a new direction?
The players, meanwhile, don’t seem thrilled…
KC Current are… fine?
Assuming no further shakeups in KC, the Current looks to be trending upwards… well outside of sicknesses, injuries, and a complete emotional revolt…
Mr. Rogers of Soccer
The result last weekend, a 1-2 win over Bay, was a big step forward, especially with Temwa sidelined with an illness. Bay has been a tough out lately and has shown the ability to rotate and overload, which had the potential to throw the KC fullback rotation out of sorts.
Instead, KC were able to build through that rotation and found a lot of success progressing down the right side.
Now, both of the Current’s goals were hopeful – how often can you count on an Olympico? – but it’s a road win in a season where the Current haven’t had many, and a win that keeps the Current in 7th, but just 2 points out of 3rd place. It’s tight.
NWSL
Temwa Chawinga and Croix Bethune are also questionable…
Yolanda Thomas makes NWSL history.
On August 31st, Yolanda Thomas was named interim manager after Caitlin Carducci pushed the rebuild button and moved on from Seb Hines.
On September 6th, Yolanda Thomas became the first Black woman to manage an NWSL match. The 3-1 win almost seems secondary; Thomas follows in Hines’s footsteps as the first Black NWSL manager to win a title, so it’s fitting that Thomas motivated her Pride to the best performance in months.
Cosette Morché has the goalkeeper gloves for now, and Barbra Banda is back with 2 goals and 2 assists in 4 matches since returning from WAFCON.
If Thomas can make up the 5-point gap to 8th place, she’ll make a strong case for herself as Orlando kick-starts a new era. It’s just one match, but this was a good first outing, and if they can find ways to continue providing supporting contributions for Banda, then there’s enough time for the Pride to make that jump.
Ashley Sanchez is just three goals away from history.
Sanchez went off in the Courage’s 6-0 rout of Chicago last weekend. That’s now 18 goals and 4 assists for Sanchez in 23 matches. Temwa Chawinga’s record is firmly in her sights now. Heading into Chicago, the idea that Sanchez could break Chawinga’s record in 26 matches was far fetched but the hat trick takes Sanchez’s tally to 7 goals over the last 5 matches, making it possible with matches against San Diego and Utah on the horizon.
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It now seems likely that Sanchez will return to the USWNT fold; she has only gotten better since this discussion started in earnest, and now the winger is the highest-scoring American in a single season. She is now likely to break the all-time scoring record with the extra 4 matches in the schedule this season, is tied for the most match-winning goals in a single season, and has a chance to score the most goals over a 5 match period in league history this weekend.
Ashley Sanchez is free; long live Ashley Sanchez.
Paul Green to become Bay FC Head of Football.
According the the Athletic, Bay FC is preparing to hire former Chelsea FC GM to head the club’s sporting operations. This is an enormous statement of intent for Bay who have put together a promising squad of young players this season.
Green was the architect of Chelsea’s historic run atop England’s WSL and as regular Champions League semifinalists. Green parted ways with Chelsea last February, and since then, the WSL powerhouse has seen an exodus of players Green had previously recruited.
There are obvious questions: can Green institute the same fundamentals in a salary cap league? Will Green want to restructure the current build? Will there be other major changes?
On the pitch, Bay has been heading in the right direction, especially with the number of U20 and 20 to 23-year-old players who have made up their minutes budget this season.
It’s an easy sell for Bay: come to one of the country’s most desirable markets, support a roster that already features young cornerstones like CDM Claire Hutton, W Alex Pfeiffer, and GK Jordan Silkowitz.
Is relocation in the air?
I’d like to start by saying no team should lose their club, but the conversations around Racing Louisville’s viability and Steve Malik’s public posturing for a new stadium in North Carolina feel similar. Both Malik and Soccer Holdings, LLC are ownership groups from a bygone era of the NWSL. While North Carolina seems to invest in the roster itself at a level beyond what fans see in Louisville, both ownership groups have publicly pondered “seeking a different solution” if they either can’t find investment — or in Malik’s case, public funding — beyond their current level.
Jeff Kassouf revealed that MLS side FC Cincinnati had recently inquired about buying the NWSL club in Louisville to move operations 100 miles northeast. That proposal is complicated by the previous relationship between Soccer Holdings (Lou City) and FC Cincinnati dating back to the pair’s battles in the USL Championship. That and the little fact that any relocation would lock the league’s other owners out of a share of the potential $200 million expansion fee. While attendance has no doubt slumped in Louisville, it’s a direct cause of a continual lack of investment in both the roster and marketing around the club that has featured more than one USWNT star. Fans saw record success last season, only to be met with the trade of Janine Sonis to Denver and no investment in a replacement star.
It’s not hard to understand.
The market is also dammed if there isn’t a viable owner to step in and take control. The tea leaves say that Louisville’s status is on shaky ground, but the outcome doesn’t seem straightforward either: will they move to Cincinnati, will they find an owner in market? Will Soccer Holdings have to sell to the league so the NWSL can initiate a new round of expansion?
That final point is essentially how the Royals moved to KC: Utah were technically folded after the Dell Loy Hansen controversy, and Chris and Angie Long bought the franchise rights for around $2 million – quite the bargain in retrospect.
Meanwhile, Steve Malik should simply seek a new majority owner in Carolina. It would probably benefit the league if the Courage left Cary for Raleigh proper, but that’s a soccer-mad market that should have no shortage of suitors if the Courage were to go up for sale. As nakedly as this seems like a ploy for public funding, it’s all talk and no action.
As the league is bringing in expansion fees hand over fist, relocation talk seems out of place, but the league can’t force an owner to invest, and Jessica Berman has, quite frankly, not seemed willing to even push owners on raising the floor in recent years.
