Kristine Lilly

Lilly competed as a student-athlete, playing for the university's North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team from 1989 to 1992. During her time there, she won the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship every year she played. She won the Hermann Trophy as a junior in 1991.[3] As a senior, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nations's top soccer player.[4] To honor her time with the school, North Carolina retired her #15 jersey in 1994.

Lilly began her career with Tyresö FF of Sweden in 1994. She spent one season with the club before returning to the United States. On August 20, 1995, Lilly joined Washington Warthogs of the now-defunct Continental Indoor Soccer League. She was the only woman in the all-male professional indoor league, following in the footsteps of Collette Cunningham and Shannon Presley who had played in the league sparingly in 1994.

Lilly joined W-League side Delaware Genies in 1998. With the club, she appeared in four games, scoring five goals and two assists.

February 2001 saw the formation of the world's first women's professional soccer league in which all the players were paid. Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) had its inaugural season in 2001. Lilly was the team captain and a founding member of Boston Breakers. In her first season with the team, she appeared in all twenty-one matches and played every minute of the season. She led the league in assists with eleven and added an additional three goals. For her performance, she was named First Team All-WUSA. In 2002, she started in a further nineteen games. She increased her point total for the season, scoring eight goals and assisting on thirteen others. She was again named First Team All-WUSA and was a starter on the WUSA North All-Star Team. In 2003 Lilly started all nineteen games in which she played, chipping in three goals and four assists and again being named to First Team All-WUSA, the only player in the history of the league to do so. Following the 2003 season, the WUSA ceased operations.

Following the termination of the league, Lilly followed former Boston Breakers head coach Pia Sundhage to Sweden to play for Damallsvenskan club KIF Örebro DFF in 2005. There she was joined by fellow USWNT teammate Christie Welsh as well as USWNT and Boston Breakers teammate, Kate Markgraf.

In late-2006 and early-2007, the formation of a new women's league took shape under the name of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). On September 16, 2008, Lilly was allocated to Boston Breakers along with USWNT teammates Angela Hucles and Heather Mitts. The inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season saw Lilly appear in all twenty games (playing every minute) and score three goals with three assists.

Lilly (left) with Mia Hamm in St. Louis, 1998

Lilly made her debut for the United States women's national soccer team in 1987, when she was still attending high school. During her international career, she surpassed the previous women's world record of 151 caps, held by Norway's Heidi Støre, on May 21, 1998.[3] On January 30, 1999, she surpassed what was then the men's record of 164 caps, held by Adnan Al-Talyani of the United Arab Emirates.

Lilly has participated in the 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup. She is a two-time World Cup champion, winning in 1991 and 1999; during extra time of the '99 Final against China, Lilly, standing on the goal line, blocked a Chinese shot which had passed goalkeeper Briana Scurry[5] - since the tournament took place with the golden goal rule in effect, the game would have been over if China had scored - and in the ensuing shootout, she scored the goal which would give the US the lead. When she played against North Korea on September 11, 2007, in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, she became the first woman (and only the third player overall) to participate in five different World Cup Finals; by scoring a goal against England on September 22, 2007, she became the oldest woman to score in the World Cup.

Lilly has also competed in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 editions of the Olympic Games. She won a gold medal in 1996 and 2004, and a silver medal in 2000. She missed the 2008 Summer Olympics due to the birth of her child.

Unlike several of her longtime teammates (among them Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, and Mia Hamm), she did not retire after the team's "farewell tour" which finished on December 8, 2004.

On January 18, 2006, Lilly made her 300th international appearance in a game against Norway. In the same match, she equaled Michelle Akers for second place on the team's all-time goal scoring list with 105. Lilly was named as a finalist for the 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year. She finished second in the voting to Brazil's Marta.

After the birth of her daughter, Lilly returned to the national team in December 2008. Her last match for the national team, representing her record 354th cap, was a World Cup qualifying loss to Mexico (1–2) on November 5, 2010, in which she played for six minutes as a substitute.

Kristine Lilly competed in five FIFA Women's World Cup: China 1991, Sweden 1995, USA 1999, USA 2003 and China 2007; and three Olympics: Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004; altogether played in 46 matches and scored 12 goals at those eight global tournaments.[6] With her USA teams, in eight world cup and olympic tournaments, Lilly had 39 wins, 3 losses, and 4 draws; finished first place with her teams 4 times, second place once and third place 3 times.

Goal	Match	Date	Location	Opponent	Lineup	Min	Score	Result	Competition
China 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup
	1	1991-11-17[m 1]	Panyu	Sweden	{{{4}}}. off 33' (on Hamilton)			3–2 W	Group stage
	2	1991-11-19[m 2]	Panyu	Brazil	{{{4}}}. off 67' (on Belkin)			5–0 W	Group stage
	3	1991-11-21[m 3]	Foshan	Japan	{{{4}}}. off 41' (on Akers)			3–0 W	Group stage
	4	1991-11-24[m 4]	Foshan	Chinese Taipei	Start			7–0 W	Quarter-final
	5	1991-11-27[m 5]	Guangzhou	Germany	Start			5–2 W	Semifinal
	6	1991-11-30[m 6]	Guangzhou	Norway	Start			2–1 W	Final
Sweden 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup
	7	1995-06-06[m 7]	Gävle	China PR	Start			3–3 D	Group stage
1	8	1995-06-08[m 8]	Gävle	Denmark	Start	9	1–0	2–0 W	Group stage
	9	1995-06-10[m 9]	Helsingborg	Australia	Start			4–1 W	Group stage
2	10	1995-06-13[m 10]	Gävle	Japan	{{{4}}}. off 68' (on Bryan)	8	1–0	4–0 W	Quarter-final
3						42	2–0
	11	1995-06-15[m 11]	Västerås	Norway	Start			0–1 L	Semifinal
	12	1995-06-17[m 12]	Gävle	China PR	Start			2–0 W	Third place match
Atlanta 1996 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	13	1996-07-21[m 13]	Orlando	Nigeria	Start			3–0 W	Group stage
	14	1996-07-23[m 14]	Orlando	Korea DPR	Start			2–1 W	Group stage
	15	1996-07-25[m 15]	Miami	Germany	Start			0–0 D	Group stage
	16	1996-07-28[m 16]	Athens	Brazil	Start			2–1 aet W	Semifinal
	17	1996-08-01[m 17]	Athens	China PR	Start			2–1 W	Gold medal match
USA 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup
4	18	1999-06-19[m 18]	E Rutherford	Denmark	Start	89	3–0	3–0 W	Group stage
5	19	1999-06-24[m 19]	Chicago	Nigeria	Start	32	4–1	7–1 W	Group stage
	20	1999-06-27[m 20]	Boston	Korea DPR	Start			3–0 W	Group stage
	21	1999-07-01[m 21]	Washington	Germany	Start			3–2 W	Quarter-final
	22	1999-07-04[m 22]	San Francisco	Brazil	Start			2–0 W	Semifinal
	23	1999-07-10[m 23]	Los Angeles	China PR	Start			0–0 (pso 5–4) (W)	Final
Sydney 2000 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	24	2000-09-14[m 24]	Melbourne	Norway	Start			2–0 W	Group stage
	25	2000-09-17[m 25]	Melbourne	China PR	Start			1–1 D	Group stage
6	26	2000-09-20[m 26]	Melbourne	Nigeria	{{{4}}}. off 45' (on Serlenga)	35	2–0	3–1 W	Group stage
	27	2000-09-24[m 27]	Canberra	Brazil	Start			1–0 W	Semifinal
	28	2000-09-28[m 28]	Sydney	Norway	Start			2–3 aet L	Gold medal match
USA 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
7	29	2003-09-21[m 29]	Washington	Sweden	Start	27	1–0	3–1 W	Group stage
	30	2003-09-25[m 30]	Philadelphia	Nigeria	Start			5–0 W	Group stage
	31	2003-09-28[m 31]	Columbus	Korea DPR	{{{4}}}. off 45' (on Foudy)			3–0 W	Group stage
	32	2003-10-01[m 32]	Foxborough	Norway	Start			1–0 W	Quarter-final
	33	2003-10-05[m 33]	Portland	Germany	Start			0–3 L	Semifinal
8	34	2003-10-11[m 34]	Carson	Canada	Start	22	1–0	3–1 W	Third place match
Athens 2004 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	35	2004-08-11[m 35]	Heraklion	Greece	Start			3–0 W	Group stage
	36	2004-08-14[m 36]	Thessaloniki	Brazil	{{{4}}}. off 69' (on O'Reilly)			2–0 W	Group stage
9	37	2004-08-17[m 37]	Thessaloniki	Australia	Start	19	1–0	1–1 D	Group stage
10	38	2004-08-20[m 38]	Thessaloniki	Japan	Start	43	1–0	2–1 W	Quarter-final
11	39	2004-08-23[m 39]	Heraklion	Germany	Start	33	1–0	2–1 aet W	Semifinal
	40	2004-08-26[m 40]	Piraeus	Brazil	Start			2–1 aet W	Gold medal match
China 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
	41	2007-09-11[m 41]	Chengdu	Korea DPR	Start; (c)			2–2 D	Group stage
	42	2007-09-14[m 42]	Chengdu	Sweden	Start; (c)			2–0 W	Group stage
	43	2007-09-18[m 43]	Shanghai	Nigeria	{{{4}}}. off 84' (on Tarpley); (c)			1–0 W	Group stage
12	44	2007-09-22[m 44]	Tianjin	England	Start; (c)	60	3–0	3–0 W	Quarter-final
	45	2007-09-27[m 45]	Hangzhou	Brazil	Start; (c)			0–4 L	Semifinal
	46	2007-09-30[m 46]	Shanghai	Norway	{{{4}}}. off 89' (on Kai); (c)			4–1 W	Third place match