Jill Ellis Will Step Down as U.S. Women’s Coach

Her announcement came less than a month after the Americans won their second straight Women’s World Cup title under Ellis — a raucous, confetti-strewn, Champagne-soaked confirmation that the United States had been restored to its position as the pre-eminent force in women’s soccer. Ellis, 52, said she still would have decided to walk away — “probably” — even if the Americans had not won in France.

She will continue to coach the team through its coming tour, which begins Saturday with an exhibition game against Ireland at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. She will exit the stage with a glittering résumé — 102 victories (and counting) in 127 games, and two World Cup titles — but with no firm plans about what she will do next beyond the ambassador role she has accepted from U.S. Soccer.

“The opportunity to coach this team and work with these amazing women has been the honor of a lifetime,” Ellis said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer on Tuesday.

The daughter of a soccer coach and the sister of another, Ellis, who took up organized soccer only after moving to the United States from England as a teenager, is the only woman to have led teams to consecutive World Cup championships. She directed the Americans to their third world title over all — the team’s first since 1999 — in Canada four years ago, quieting persistent critics of her coaching methods and lineup selections. Her team clinched a second straight trophy in France in early July with a virtuoso performance in which the Americans did not lose a game.

Source: The New York Times

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