CARY, N.C. -- They know a thing or two about soccer teams that are larger than life here. They knew long before the North Carolina Courage and Lyon won Thursday's semifinals in the Women's International Champions Cup.
People in this area lived it when Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and company ran the rest of college soccer off the field playing for Anson Dorrance at the University of North Carolina.
They experienced it when the U.S. women's national team, far from distracted by its off-field fights for social change and gender equality, rolled through World Cup qualifying here last fall.