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Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Lilly blooms in World Cup spotlight
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
This piece was originally published on ESPN.com on July 8, 1999 as the U.S. Women's National Team geared up for their World Cup final against China. After capturing the imaginations of sports fan everywhere in the previous three weeks, the team was THE sports story in the U.S. the entire week.
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- When Kristine Lilly saw the Beatlemania-like frenzy awaiting the U.S. National Team before Thursday's practice at Pomona-Pitzer College, she joked with some of her longtime teammates about how there are more people waiting to watch their practice than there used to be at the games.
The flock of teenage girls -- call them the "screaming Mias" -- waiting to watch the Girls of the Summer was estimated at around 2,000.
|  | | Kristine Lilly celebrates the win as she walks on the field during the Womens World Cup game against Brazil on July 4 at the Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. |
It's as big a thrill for youngsters on the team like Lorrie Fair, Cindy Parlow, and Tiffany Roberts to see how the women's soccer phenomenon has taken off throughout America as it is for a 12-year veteran like Lilly. But those younger players, along with next generation of Mia Hamms and Michelle Akers, will never fully grasp how far the sport has come.
Drab hotels. Games on high school fields. No residency program for training. No televised games. No money. No inklings -- no matter how small -- of a women's professional league in the U.S. someday.
Lilly remembers everything. After all, she lived it for the majority of her career since joining the U.S. National Team in 1987 at age 16.
"People don't realize what you had to do to be on this National Team back then," said Lilly, whose idols at the time were Akers, Carin Gabarra and April Heinrichs. "We had to train by ourselves because there wasn't a team to play with. So there was a lot of intrinsic motivation. I think the thing that set apart the national team players from the ones who didn't make it was the great commitment they had on their own away from the national team training environments."
As one of the younger players on the squad back then, Lilly was fortunate enough to not have to support herself during those years when women's soccer hardly registered on the U.S. sports scene.
"There was a group (of national team players) when I was in college who had mortgages on houses and I don't know how they did it," said the North Carolina alumnus. "Some of them were teachers that would work. Most had all sorts of odd jobs. It wasn't easy."
But these are stories Lilly doesn't hold over the younger players' heads. Instead, she tells them about some of the other differences. Like how there used to be a media contingent small enough that you could count them on two hands.
"Now, Mia can't even go anywhere," Lilly said. "I feel like I can appreciate how difficult it is (handling hundreds upon hundreds or media requests) for NBA players."
And despite annihilating opponents, fan support would sometimes be less than 100 people. "And those were mostly our families and friends," said Lilly, whose first-grade teacher -- "Mrs. Earl" -- came out to watch her practice on Thursday.
Even the superstars like Hamm, Julie Foudy, Akers and Lilly had to purchase their own team sweat jackets if they wanted to keep them.
"We tell stories about how we didn't get to keep any T-shirts," joked Lilly. "Now we actually get to keep the gear."
You expect these types of "how-it-was-back-when-I-started" stories to come from old, grizzled players who are several years removed from their playing days. But nothing can be further from the truth when it comes to the world's most-capped (185 career matches) player, Lilly.
Though many believe she's had a "quiet" tournament, Lilly has played every minute of all five U.S. matches, scoring twice and dishing out an assist. For the year, Lilly is tied for the team lead in goals (15) with Tiffeny Milbrett. She leads the team in minutes played (1,872).
Whether she's scoring goals or not, Lilly has always been a coach's dream because of her versatility and exceptional endurance. As a forward, she's a deadly striker with a nose for the goal. When the team played in a 3-4-3 formation for several years, Lilly became soccer's version of Deion Sanders -- she completely shut off the left side of the field as a flank midfielder. And now, as an offensive midfielder, she's someone DiCicco can re-position with one quick yell from the sidelines.
"She's the type of player, along with Joy Fawcett, who you can say, 'OK, we need help here, let me bring in Lil here,' or 'we need to exploit space, let me put Kristine out there,' " DiCicco said. "If we need more mobility up front, I say, 'let's flip-flop Cindy and Kristine.' You wish you had a dozen of her out. In many ways, she's the heart and soul of this team."
Hamm is the team's cover girl. Foudy is the colorful one. Brandi Chastain is this week's "It" girl. And Akers is the aging warrior who just wants another title.
Lilly is a soccer player's player. She excels in the aspects of the game most fans don't see. Sometimes it's by altering her runs to open up space for a teammate. Sometimes, she checks off onto an opposing midfielder or forward at the precise time in order to either stall the play, steal the ball or block a passing lane.
Though endorsements have never been a problem, Lilly, 27, has been overshadowed throughout her many years with the national team because of her workmanlike play.
"She's still overlooked and still so underrated," midfielder Tisha Venturini said. "But the people who are really soccer gurus know that she's a workhorse and someone who plays more minutes and more games than anyone. The thing about it is that's fine with her. She knows what she contributes and her team knows how much she contributes, and that's what matters to her."
That's one of the several reasons that Lilly is one of the most popular players with her teammates.
"She's easily one of, if not the, most respected people on the team," said Fair. "She's a role model for the younger ones, she's always someone to talk to and she's just an awesome all-around person."
Lilly has a hard time viewing herself as someone who people recognize or want an autograph from. This is the same girl who has kept close to most every one of her friends from high school. Stumble across anyone from her hometown of Wilton, Conn., who knew her growing up and you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't either touched her Olympic gold medal, visited her after a match, chatted with her at a wedding or received an e-mail response from her.
"She's one of the most honest, true people I know off the field," said Tisha Venturini, one of Lilly's best friends. "I can remember when I got to college (North Carolina, where she was two years behind Lilly) and was really homesick. One night I just walked outside and started to cry. She saw that I was upset and followed me outside, sat down with me and just let me cry, and she started crying.
"She told me how she'd been there before and she knew exactly all the right things to say and what I needed to hear. Sometimes she doesn't say a lot and is kind of quiet like me, but just her being there that night and letting me get stuff off my chest is something I'll never forget.
"I look to her to keep me going. She keeps me inspired through being one of the hardest workers I've ever seen. And, to be honest, Lil is one of the reasons I keep playing."
Lilly wants to keep playing "for as long as I can handle it," and see where the sport takes her after World Cup final against China on Saturday. In the immediate future, she plans on spending time with her boyfriend in California before heading home to run the Kristine Lilly Soccer Academy.
If she has the type of effect on the U.S. attack that she's shown throughout 1999 (four multiple-goal games), she'll have a World Cup medal to show 150 lucky campers.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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