U.S. U-20 keeper Julia Dohle retires due to rare heart condition
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Oct 20, 2020
She made the announcement on Instagram on Sunday.
“The last couple of months have been the hardest of my life and I still cannot fully wrap my head around it all,” Dohle wrote. “I was recently diagnosed with a very serious and rare heart condition and have to medically retire from the game of soccer because of it. Never did I ever think that I would be saying those words, especially because I felt that I had so much more to give... Even though I am filled with sadness, pain and confusion about it all, I am also grateful and very lucky to still be here today.”
Dohle started three of seven games for the USA at the regional U-20 championship, including the 4-1 win over Mexico in the final after the USA had already clinched a berth in the world championship. The other U-20 keeper was North Carolina's Claudia Dickey. The other keepers on the USA's provisional Concacaf roster were Meagan McClelland (Rutgers) and Katie Meyer (Stanford).
The U-20 World Cup finals, scheduled to be played this summer in Costa Rica and Panama, were postponed and will instead be played Jan. 20-Feb. 6.
Dohle, a former Development Academy Best XI conference pick with NYCFC, was a redshirt last season at Penn State. The Nittany Lions are not playing this fall.
