Q&A with U-20 WNT Head Coach Jitka Klimkova

With the roster set and the U.S. U-20 WNT preparing to head down to Trinidad & Tobago for the CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Qualifying tournament, U.S. head coach Jitka Klimkova talks about the process of putting the team together, the depth of the squad, finding the balance between development and winning, and much more.

On being able to consistently bring the core group of players together:

“In 2017, we had seven camps and 12 international games. This time together really helped us prepare for qualifying. The challenging part of the year was when we didn’t have the team together during the college season, and then they come back and we must get in a rhythm again. That said, a lot of players came back stronger and more confident after their college seasons. That was a positive. The challenging thing was to then get them together and work on understanding our style of play and finding those relationships on the field. You just need time to accomplish that.”

On the final events of the year in prepping for January World Cup qualifying:

“The Nike Friendlies tournament was a great opportunity for the team. That was the first time in a while that we had almost all the players together, and our camp over the New Year that we just finished a couple of days ago was extremely positive. We focused on choosing our final roster and how to be successful in Trinidad.”

On the competition for roster spots:

“This was not an easy process for sure. To look over the entire year, then boil it down to the 30 players in the New Year’s camp and then pick the final roster was difficult, and that’s a credit to the players. The most recent camp was so competitive. The players left everything on the field and they were really battling for roster spots.”

On finding the right balance between development and winning:

“We’re always talking about finding the correct balance between development and winning. Of course, we always want to win, but we also want to create an environment for the players so that they can develop to their maximum potential. Continued development also means winning, especially when we get to the World Cup qualifying tournament.

“In our domestic camps, the main priority is development and working with the players individually and within a team concept, but when we get to these important international games, we know that we need to get results as well. That’s part of the game at the highest level, so our motivations and goals are clear.”

On taking positives from some struggles at the Nike Women’s International Friendlies in early December:

“We know that we played pretty well against England and we felt really good after the game against Finland, we can do much better than the performance and result against Brazil. All those games are really good lessons. We need to go through the games where we feel good about our performance and games where we were not so good, so we can see what results those performances produced. The kind of performance we need to produce positive results is becoming clearer.”

On the depth of the qualifying roster:

“We have a really good balance on the roster. We have good decision-makers, creative players, technical and strong players, so we can choose a lineup to be successful against any particular opponent. We focused a lot on teambuilding during this year’s camps and during the sessions and games, you can see that we have some good leaders. We don’t have one captain yet, but a number of players are showing us that they are ready to take that role on the team. Also, having Tierna Davidson, who will be coming off of training with the senior team, will help us with confidence and leadership.”

On competition for starting spots:

“This is one of the most competitive groups we’ve had, competitive both for positions and in how much they want to win. There is not a big gap between our starters and our finishers. We want our starters to start strong and the players coming off the bench to finish even stronger. It’s made for some great competition in camp.”

On 13 players having participated in CONCACAF qualifying before and 11 having played in a FIFA Women’s World Cup at the youth level:

“It’s a real positive that so many players have experience in qualifiers. That can help us a lot. They know what to expect, they know how difficult it is to travel to these CONCACAF countries and they know how challenging all these games will be. We know that CONCACAF teams are improving every year. We know every game, every goal, every yellow card we get will be important. These players are experienced in being prepared for every situation and that can help us qualify and win the tournament. Focusing on all those details will be important.”

On the team behind the team:

“We have a really strong team around the team and that’s something special. It’s a big credit to U.S. Soccer for giving us the resources and the people involved in helping these players reach their goals.”