The U.S. U-20 national women’s soccer team will play Germany in the World Cup final in Tokyo on Saturday, more than 9,000 miles away from Chapel Hill.
On team’s roster will be three current North Carolina players — forwards Kealia Ohai and Crystal Dunn, and goalkeeper Bryane Heaberlin — who have yet to log minutes in a game for the Tar Heels this season.
The three, plus freshmen Summer Green and Katie Bowen, who played on U-17 teams, are among their respective nations’ elite soccer players, but their talent comes at a cost — missing time from their university.
“We accept the landscape,” head coach Anson Dorrance said. “We want to recruit those kinds of players. We want players with the ambition to play for their country.”
But even Dorrance, who coached the U.S. women’s national team for eight years and calls himself a strong supporter of the program, admits that it’s not easy sacrificing talent.
“Obviously it’s hard,” he said. “Sometimes when you lose just because your roster is depleted, it’s harder to compete. But I accept that those are the kinds of players we want to recruit because they make a difference.”
Though they missed the start of the school year and the subsequent opening weeks of class, the players aren’t absolved of academic duties.
“They’ve reached out to all of their professors and are in discussion with them via email,” Susan Maloy, academic adviser for the women’s soccer team, said.
“So they’re keeping up with their work while they’re away. They purchased their books prior to leaving,” she said. “They have all the assignments and information they need in order to do the work from where they are competing.”
