GoHeels Exclusive: Bronze's Return To The Hill

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Standing on the former site of historic Fetzer Field, Lucy Bronze hardly recognized her surroundings as she glanced around the new UNC Soccer & Lacrosse Stadium on Wednesday.

Gone is the track that wrapped around the field that the former North Carolina women's soccer standout once played on. Also missing are the aluminum bleachers that fans once filled, now replaced by 4,200 individual Carolina Blue chair back seats.

Those changes, among others, continue to impress everyone who visits the five-month-old facility. But they aren't the only ones that have occurred since Bronze left Chapel Hill after helping the Tar Heels to their 21st national championship as a freshman in 2009.

In the nearly 10 years since then, Bronze has cemented herself as the best right back – perhaps even the best overall player – in the world. A member of French powerhouse Olympique Lyonnais, she's also starred on the England national team. Her most recent accomplishment: winning the Silver Ball at the FIFA World Cup earlier this summer. That award mark's her performance as the second best overall player in this year's quadrennial world championship event.

Wednesday's trip to Chapel Hill, where Lyon practiced before the Women's International Champions Cup on Thursday and Sunday in Cary, marked Bronze's first since her departure. But despite everything that's changed since then, Anson Dorrance surely made her feel comfortable the moment he saw her.

"Welcome home," he said.

Dorrance's relationship with Bronze dates back to the early 2000s, when Bronze, from Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, started attending his camps. He distinctly remembers how coachable she was, first as a camper and then as a player. Ultimately, she spent less time as the latter.

After earning freshman All-America honors, Bronze returned to England and went on to stints with Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City before joining Lyon in 2017. From afar, Dorrance tracked her development.

"Obviously, we're incredibly proud of everything she's achieved, and for her to be the Silver Ball winner in the last world championship is extraordinary," Dorrance said. "I'm incredibly proud of her. And the other thing is she's a really great kid. Whenever we send her a text or an email, she responds immediately. Whenever they interview her, she says great things about her experience here at UNC and that of course makes me feel tremendous."

One might find it surprising that Bronze has maintained such close ties with Carolina, considering how brief her playing career here was. But it doesn't shock Dorrance.

"If you had enrolled with us as a freshman, you would be scarred for life, as well, in the most positive way. …" he said. "But what's cool is if you look at the generation of players she played with – Tobin Heath and Ashlyn Harris – she's playing with not just North Carolina royalty; she's playing with U.S. women's national team royalty and some of the greatest players in the world.

"So, her experience here was very rich and her development as a player and also her ties to the world game. So, I think when you add all those things up, but also this is a paradise. … This is the Southern Part of Heaven. And when you go to heaven, I don't think you ever forget about it."

'An elite training environment'

Bronze's connection to UNC might've played the largest role in Lyon holding its training session in Chapel Hill. But the Tar Heels' new stadium likely gave the club another incentive.

"I'd bet they're a little bit shocked at the standard of our stadium because this is not an ordinary stadium," Dorrance said. "Even for international standards, that grass; one of the organizers came up to me and said she was laughing because when the girls came out here they were looking down at the grass and they couldn't quite believe that it was grass. So they actually reached over to touch it; they thought it was so perfect that it had to be artificial. …

"This is an elite training environment. I'm sure Lyon thoroughly enjoyed it, as we enjoyed hosting them. I feel we're absolutely spoiled here with the facilities that are being built now and I'm very proud to have the world's best team here training at our stadium before we open our stadium (on Aug. 22 against Indiana)."

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