U.S. Soccer has to pick a coach — what could go wrong?

The U.S. Soccer Federation has its work cut out for it. Which is a situation that usually doesn’t end well.

Jill Ellis, the first coach to manage a team to backtoback World Cup championships in more than 80 years (Vittorio Pozzo led Italy’s men to consecutive titles in 1934 and ’38), announced that she is stepping down.

That means that U.S. Soccer must hire a coach by Olympic qualifying early in 2020. The Olympics begin July in Tokyo and the American women hope to compensate for their loss in the Rio quarterfinals in 2016.

Ellis, who plans to spend some time with her wife and daughter, leaves with her legacy and her team’s success firmly in place. But she also departs an employer with a history of bungled hirings and mistreatment.

It’s not all gender specific: After unwisely giving Jurgen Klinsmann too much power over the men’s program, U.S. Soccer fired him midway through qualifying for last summer’s World Cup. Strapped for ideas, the federation hired retread Bruce Arena. When he failed to get the team to Russia, he resigned, and the program had no permanent coach for more than a year. The jury is still very much out on Gregg Berhalter.

Ellis was an assistant to Pia Sundhage and served as interim coach following the 2012 Olympics, but was passed over by U.S. Soccer. Instead the job went to Tom Sermanni, who was fired after 15 months. Ellis replaced him.

Winning the 2015 World Cup wasn’t enough for U.S. Soccer. In the fiscal year following that first championship, Ellis made less than $300,000. The damning numbers released from the nonprofit’s tax returns showed that Ellis made substantially less than several men in the federation including a staff attorney, Klinsmann’s assistant and the chief commercial officer (who happened to be Berhalter’s brother).

U.S. Soccer, in its quest for damage control in the wake of the team’s genderdiscrimination lawsuit, said that pay gap had been rectified and Ellis’ salary brought up substantially with a new contract. But the federation is still in denial; this week, U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro tried to refute the grounds for the lawsuit, to great ridicule.

Now, in the middle of a genderequity fight and with the women’s team at the height of its popularity, he is entrusted with finding Ellis’ replacement.

What could go wrong?