Carolina at Core of U.S. Success
Reporters invariably seek the local angle, so what happened a few weeks ago was no surprise when the U.S. women’s national soccer team passed through North Carolina on its way to the World Cup.
“U.S. Team Awash in Carolina Blue!” screamed the headline on the front page of the Charlotte Observer.
A quick check of the sports section showed the truth of the claim. There in color was a large photograph of the nine players from the University of North Carolina who were on the U.S. roster at the time.
Add a couple more and Chapel Hill could take on the world.
In fact, UNC already has done so--and won. In 1991, UNC Coach Anson Dorrance and UNC assistant coach and former player Lauren Gregg took seven UNC players (OK, there also were 11 players from other schools) to China and came back with the world championship trophy.
By 1996, when the U.S. added the first Olympic gold medal to its first world championship, there still were seven North Carolina players on the 16-player roster.
And now, with the third FIFA Women’s World Championship set to kick off Saturday, U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco can look at his 20 players and count eight Tar Heels among them.
There are the three World Cup ’91 winners, of course: forward Mia Hamm, midfielder Kristine Lilly and defender Carla Overbeck. They were also there in ’96.
Then there are three other Olympic gold medalists: forward Cindy Parlow, midfielder Tisha Venturini and defender Tiffany Roberts. Finally, there are the two newcomers, the ones keeping the Tar Heel tradition going: goalkeeper Tracy Ducar and defender Lorrie Fair.
There might have been even more.
Goalkeeper Siri Mullinix, who was in the Observer’s photograph, was edged out of the picture at the final cut by fellow North Carolina netminder Ducar. Forward Susan Bush, 18, a Mia Hamm in-the-making who is headed for Chapel Hill this fall, made a strong run at the roster. She is almost certain to be on the U.S. team by the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
And then there is Debbie Keller, whose chances of making the team were not helped by her sexual harassment lawsuit against North Carolina, its athletic department and its coach, Dorrance. The case has yet to come to trial and Keller is playing in Denmark, oddly enough the U.S. team’s opponent in Saturday’s opening game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The fact that the Americans have what is, in essence, a team within a team, has not led to any friction. If anything, it has helped bring the team even closer together. But it does cause some friendly ribbing.
When the North Carolina players were getting ready to pose for the photograph in the Observer, Julie Foudy, a Stanford graduate, jokingly shoved her way through the Tar Heels, shouting “Go, Cardinal!”
It brought a quick response.
“Hey, Foudy,” said Hamm, “where’s your [NCAA championship] ring?”
“I got an education instead,” Foudy shot back.
“If you want, you can borrow one of my rings,” said Lilly, who has four.
And so it goes.
Under Dorrance, North Carolina has won 15 of the 18 women’s national championships played and continues to attract top-flight players to Chapel Hill, where many are molded into national team stars.
Fair, the youngest of the U.S. World Cup players, is the only one still attending college. But the links with North Carolina remain strong for the others. Hamm, for example, serves as an assistant coach and both she and Overbeck have homes in Chapel Hill.
Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowler put it best when he recalled what Dean Smith once said about North Carolina not really being a basketball school.
“This is a soccer school,” the Tar Heel legend said. “We’re just trying to keep up with them.”
Starting Saturday, the rest of the world will try to do the same.
World Cup ’99 Notes
One of Italy’s all-time great players, forward Carolina Morace, has broken the male coaching monopoly in the Italian league by being named coach of Vis Aurelia, an amateur team. Morace, 35, is the first woman to coach a men’s team in Italy. She played in the 1995 World Cup in Sweden and her 105 goals for Italy rank her third in the world behind compatriot Elisabetta Vignotto (107) and record-holder Mia Hamm of the U.S. (109). Winner of 13 Italian national women’s championships, she retired last year and is a well-regarded play-by-play commentator for an Italian television network. “If I am the first woman, it’s not a special case,” she said. “It’s because I’ve worked hard.” . . . The Women’s World Cup opener between the United States and Denmark on Saturday at East Rutherford, N.J., is approaching a sellout. More than 74,000 tickets have been sold for the doubleheader, which also features Brazil against Mexico. The stadium seats about 77,000 for soccer. Organizers expect about 20,000 at San Jose for the other Saturday doubleheader, featuring Sweden-China and Japan-Canada matches.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Opening Day
Four games will open play on Saturday:
* U.S. vs. Denmark, noon, ABC, at East Rutherford, N.J.
* Brazil vs. Mexico, 2:30 p.m., ESPN, at East Rutherford, N.J.
* China vs. Sweden, 5 p.m., ESPN2, at San Jose
* Japan vs. Canada, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2, at San Jose
