Kristine Lilly

Kristine Lilly

Personal information
Full name	Kristine Marie Lilly Heavey
Date of birth	July 22, 1971 (1971-07-22)
Place of birth	New York City, New York, United States
Height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Playing position	Forward/Midfielder
Youth career
1989–1992	North Carolina Tar Heels
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994	Tyresö FF
1995	Washington Warthogs
1998	Delaware Genies	4	(5)
2001–2003	Boston Breakers	59	(14)
2005	KIF Örebro DFF	19	(8)
2009–2011	Boston Breakers	20	(3)
National team‡
1987–2010	United States	352	(130)
Honours Competitor for United States Olympic Games - Women's Football Gold 1996 Atlanta Team Competition Silver 2000 Sydney Team Competition Gold 2004 Athens Team Competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:20, 27 October 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Kristine Marie Lilly Heavey (born Kristine Marie Lilly on July 22, 1971) is a retired American soccer player who last played for Boston Breakers of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and was a member of the United States women's national soccer team for 24 years. She is the most capped men's or women's soccer player in the history of the sport, gaining her 352nd and final cap against Mexico in a World Cup qualifier in November 2010.

Career

Early years and university

Lilly attended Wilton High School in Wilton, Connecticut. While still attending high school, Lilly became a member of the United States women's national team. She was recruited by, and eventually chose to attend, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 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. To honor her time with the school, North Carolina retired her #15 jersey in 1994.

Professional clubs

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.

International

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. 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. 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 352nd 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.

When Lilly retired she passed down her jersey number to Alex Morgan who plays for the national and professional league.

Personal

Lilly grew up in Wilton, Connecticut and resides in Needham, Massachusetts. She is married to Brookline firefighter David Heavey, a former hockey and golf star at the University of Connecticut. Lilly gave birth to her first daughter Sidney Marie Heavey on her birthday, July 22, 2008, and her second daughter Jordan Mary Heavey on September 2, 2011.

She appeared in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. Lilly helps run a soccer camp with Mia Hamm and Tisha Venturini-Hoch.

Career statistics

Year	Team	League	Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points
1994	Tyresö F.C.	Sweden
1995	Washington Warthogs	CISL
1998	Delaware Genies	W-League	4	5	2	12
2001	Boston Breakers	WUSA	21	3	10	16
2002	Boston Breakers	WUSA	19	8	13	29
2003	Boston Breakers	WUSA	19	3	4	10
2005	KIF Örebro DFF	Sweden
2009	Boston Breakers	WPS	4	4	3
totals			63	19	29	48

Honours

Year	Team	Championship/Medal
1989	University of North Carolina	NCAA National Champion
1990	University of North Carolina	NCAA National Champion
1991	USA WNT	FIFA World Cup Champion
1991	University of North Carolina	NCAA National Champion
1992	University of North Carolina	NCAA National Champion
1995	USA WNT	FIFA World Cup Bronze
1996	USA WNT	Olympic Gold
1999	USA WNT	FIFA World Cup Champion
2000	USA WNT	Olympic Silver
2003	USA WNT	FIFA World Cup Bronze
2004	USA WNT	Olympic Gold
2007	USA WNT	FIFA World Cup Bronze

See also

• List of association women football players with 100 or more international goals

External links

• Kristine Lilly – FIFA competition record
• Official website
• US Soccer player profile
• Boston Breakers player profile
• WUSA player profile

Preceded by Julie Foudy

WNT captain 2004–2008

Succeeded by Christie Rampone