Kristine Lilly: Ever since I made the National Team when I was 16 it's been a crazy ride but, a most enjoyable one. I think this National Team's been together for over 13 years. And basically a lot of us have grown up together. We've spent more than half our life together. We've learned a lot about soccer. We've learned about growing up and we've had our ups and downs but, basically it's been a crazy ride. It is one experience I wouldn't change for anything in the world.

	Kristine Lilly celebrates the win with her teammates during the Womens World Cup game against China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

ABC Sports: Go back two years. Can you try to explain the feeling walking out to the field, during the National Anthem and going out to the opening kick?

Lilly: The finals for the Women's '99 World Cup at the Rose Bowl was unbelievable. When I'm asked, what's your favorite moment of the World Cup, I can't just pick one. As for the final game, the thing that really got me was when our team was getting ready to come out on the field. We walked out as a team and the China walked out next to us. Basically we're coming out from under the tunnel and when you look out all you saw were people. It was a sea of people. We saw people everywhere because the stands didn't go up, they went out.

You see the field, the field looks real tiny and there are people everywhere. I was remember thinking, Oh my God, this is here for us. It's about time. It was one of those moments. We've been waiting for this moment and it's here. The crowd going nuts and it was so hot. I mean it was so hot. The funniest thing for me is before every game I always tried to find my dad in the stands. That was the only game I couldn't find him. I saw my brother, my mom. Where's dad, where's dad? I couldn't find him until after the game. It was one of those little moments that I'll remember. I wish I saw the jet go straight up. I didn't even know it was happening. I heard it. I looked up and it was already gone. It was all these different things going on besides the game that you wanted to see and feel but, then you had to focus on the game. That happened once the whistle blew.

ABC Sports: Explain to me what was going through your minds during the game? Overtime?

Lilly: The final game itself obviously went to penalty kicks because no goals were scored. But it was, it was a great game. It was one of those games where both team's defenses were so strong. The teams' defenses were so good that we couldn't score and China couldn't score. China had dominated part of the overtime. We had dominated part of the overtime. China got a corner kick, they head the ball, I head the ball off the line, Brandi clears it. Right there I thought, OK, let's get out of here, let's move on and let's get going. By that point it was the second overtime and we knew it was gonna go to penalty kicks. That's when you gotta do what you gotta do.

ABC Sports: Do you ever think about what if I hadn't headed the ball off the line?

Lilly: Everyone is always asking about the corner kick and the header off the line. To be honest it happened so fast, I didn't even have a thought going through my mind. My position is always to be on the post where my left foot's inside the goal. Because I'm a lefty and it, your strength, you don't want the inside goal just in case the ball comes to move, and then the ball came from this side so it came this way and as the ball moves, you kind of shift the goal smaller. The ball came literally right to where I had shifted. It came and I didn't even have time. I jumped a little bit. I head the ball and it landed like around the 6 and there was four Chinese players getting ready to head it in. Brandi just came up and cleared it. It was one of those things I look at now and Thank God I was there. My teammates said that was awesome and Briana, our goalie, said Lil, you saved my butt.

I look at it now and appreciate it more but, if you think about the World Cup, there were so many moments. Briana made a save against Brazil in the semi-finals that was unbelievable. Carla had her best game in the finals. There were all these moments that made the final what it was. You can't just pick out one that's the reason why we are here.

ABC Sports: Could you take us through the penalty kicks from your view?

Lilly: We scored, they scored, we scored, they missed. I went right after Brianna made the save. I was like freaking out. I was nervous. There was no doubt in my mind about that, but as I walked up to take the kick there was 90,000 people making noise. They weren't real loud because it's one of those moments when everyone's was stressed. But I walked up and I didn't hear a thing. It was complete silence in my head. I was focused on getting to the ball. My dad, he couldn't watch it because he was so nervous. I got so mad when he told me that. You didn't watch my kick? It felt like forever to me, but I went out, pick up the ball, put it down on the line, I knew where I was going. I was focused on my penalty kick and I couldn't hear anything around me. Those 90,000 people there, I couldn't even hear 'em. And, um, my dad didn't see the kick 'cause he was too nervous but he said after watching it he c-, he thought I did it so quickly. And to me it seemed like it took absolutely forever. I went up to the ball, got the ball, put it down, knew what side I was going to, kept that, didn't wanna change and when I hit it and it went, it was one of those feelings. Oh my God, the weight of the world was off my shoulders, but not my team's. But I did what I had to do to get our team to the next step.

I'm not a big celebrator, but I did a little pump. My dad's asked later, "Why didn't you do something?" Oh, that's not me. I was more nervous watching everyone else kick. When I saw Brandi kick it in, it was the best feeling in the world.

The thing I can compare watching Brandi score in the World Cup to win was watching Norway score to beat us. It was one of those things when you were watching, Brandi's kick you're like, Thank God. And when you're watching Norway, you wanted to pull it back, you wished you could stop time. It's really ironic to have those two feelings because I saw the Norway goal from behind too. It's great and it's not so great.

ABC Sports: What do you think this game has done for women, for women's athletics, for little girls?

Lilly: The thing that I'm most proud of about the World Cup is what our team did or the sport did for America. We had a great victory, we won the World Cup. However, we had a bigger victory in what we did for women's sports. We got soccer out there, but we also got women's sports out. Their saying, we had the biggest crowd to ever watch a women's sporting event ever at that game. The WNBA has done well even before our World Cup. The ice hockey team winning in '98 and they are going again this year. They have softball, pro softball league. All these things are starting to happen. The LPGA is more popular then it's been in a long time. All these things are happening to women's sports that we've been longing for so long. The World Cup put it in to a higher level. And not only just to give girls opportunity to play, but now we're in the marketing world. Business are interested in using our likeness to help in, enhance their product while enhancing our sport or any other sport. That's the point where I think society sees it. Because if they don't hear about it or don't see on TV you think maybe it's not worth it. But when they saw us play in the World Cup and there were, 40 million people watching that final, Americans see that and think if it's on TV it must be good. It's one of those times in history that they're gonna remember where they were when we won the World Cup.

ABC Sports: What has this game, that one game done for you, just as a person?

Lilly: The World Cup Final I think for me made me realize even more what we can do as a team but also as individuals. How we can effect the world in the slightest way by doing something we love. If you care about something and you're ambitious about it and you're passionate it, things can change. It took me a long time to realize that, but I think the World Cup kind of put it all into the limelight. I thought this is what happens when you go after something, when you work hard, when you believe in it. A lot of people didn't think we would or it would be successful. They were like, Big stadiums? You guys won't fill that. We knew if people came to watch us they would continue to come and they would love it. We play the game because we love it but we also play very hard. We've always had to work very hard to get what we want. If we continue to do this, especially with the pro league, it's gonna be very successful.

What is also special about women in sports and all the athletes that do compete, they are great role models. We take pride in that, our National Team especially. We do what we do because it's natural. We don't become another person to be a role model. We are who we are and we do it. Our team has been successful outside the game because we have taken the time to sign autographs, to talk to kids, to write letters back that we get fan mail, to do clinics and the stuff needs to be done. I believe that is one real reason why we've been popular and why we've been successful and why this league will be successful. We take the time to show these kids that, you're just like me. We're not any different than you are. we like candy. We get tired, we get sad and all those kind of feelings. When the kids can relate to that and see it right in front of their eyes they're like, Oh my gosh. I can do that too.