Jill Ellis handled Group of Death news a lot better than Jurgen Klinsmann
The luck of the World Cup draw continued to be all bad for U.S. national teams on Saturday when the No. 1-ranked American women were grouped with two other top-10 teams – No. 5 Sweden and No. 10 Australia – along with No. 35 Nigeria in Group D of the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada. This comes after U.S. Soccer's senior men were also Group-of-Deathed for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with eventual champion Germany, Portugal (and reigning FIFA Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo) and longtime World Cup nemesis Ghana.
Unlike her USMNT counterpart Jurgen Klinsmann, USWNT coach Jill Ellis took the news in stride.
Ellis acknowledged that the U.S. women had "certainly a tough group," but she chose to see the positives, saying that the intense competition just to survive the group will "down the line serve us better." Ellis even had a genuine smile on her face before answering the first question of her post-draw interview.
Klinsmann couldn't hide his disappointment after witnessing the horror of the U.S. men's draw. But who could blame him? The Group of Death was a major buzzkill after riding high from yet another dos a cero victory over Mexico to clinch a spot in the World Cup. Klinsmann also wasn't thrilled that the U.S. drew the host city he wanted to avoid the most – Manaus, the Amazon town near the equator with oppressive humidity.
But when you're in charge of one of the tournament's heavy favorites, like Ellis, it's easy to focus on the bright side of things. Next June, she'll take to Canada arguably the deepest attacking side the U.S. women have ever had – with or without Alex Morgan, who is recovering from an ankle injury suffered in World Cup qualifying.
