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Ready to Roll
Posted: Friday June 11, 1999 04:39 PM
Kristine Lilly is the alltime appearance leader and third alltime leading scorer for the U.S. Women's National Team. The midfielder from Wilton, Conn., won a gold medal with the U.S. at the 1996 Olympics and played on four national championship teams at the University of North Carolina. Kristine is getting ready for the 1999 Women's World Cup, to be held in the U.S. June 19-July 10. Check out her World Cup diary, updated regularly on CNNSI.com. Thursday June 10, 1999 Chicago Here I sit in my own bed at home. My dog is lying next to the bed and my boyfriend's sister's dog, Sydney, is lying across the bed. You gotta love the puppies. It has been quite hectic with the two of them running around all day and me trying to pack and get ready for the World Cup. I have to say it feels good to be home, but I'm leaving again tomorrow. First I'll stop to see my parents in Connecticut and then I'll meet the team on Sunday in New Jersey. I figured I needed to see my parents since I'm headed to the East Coast and I haven't seen them since Christmas. My break has been good. I've lifted twice, did fitness on Wednesday, went on a run with my boyfriend today and I'll do fitness again tomorrow. I took Monday and Tuesday off. Our coach, Tony DiCicco, told us to take whatever time off we needed but to try and do fitness workouts on Tuesdays and Fridays. The weather has been quite hot in Chicago. Gotta love air conditioning. A good friend of mine, Elizabeth, was in town with her cute baby boy. Her parents live on a golf course out here so we played nine holes. I have to admit we played pretty well. Elizabeth got her first birdie ever. I admit, I was jealous. After she put it in she said, "Look out LPGA." She is a funny one. To end our day we played some paddle tennis in the driveway at her mom's house and her mom was the champ. Of course, on Wednesday we watched the Knicks game, and, yes, THEY WON. YEAH! BIG GAME FRIDAY NIGHT BACK IN NY! KEEP ROOTING FOR THE KNICKS! This is the last break of our long training period and there are only 10 days until the opening ceremonies and our first game. It's hard to believe, but we are ready and so are our families and friends. For them it's like a reunion. I think our families and friends have more fun than we do. They all hang out, go to dinner and just enjoy themselves. They are looking foward to seeing familiar faces again. My family is coming to all the games so I am very excited. My boyfriend, Steve, is booking his flights for the games as we speak so let's hope there are some good bargains out there. He is also very excited because tomorrow is his last day of teaching. Summer is here. I believe I wrote my last entry before our game against Canada in Portland. Well, we ended up winning that game, 4-2. We had over 23,000 fans and the entire team was announced before we went out to play, so that was nice. Shannon MacMillan and Tiffany Milbrett got a big roar from the crowd, seeing that they're hometown heroes out there. I thought the game was very exciting, lots of goals and lots of chances. Mia Hamm , Millie, Cindy Parlow and I scored the goals. Brandi Chastain collided heads with Charmaine Cooper of Canada. Brandi got three stitches in her nose, but returned to play the rest of the match. She is tough. When I was leaving the stadium I heard someone in the crowd yell my name. It was Rich Schraff, a kid I went to high school with and made my first communion with. He lives in Portland and plays in a band. Wherever I go I always run into Wilton people and it's nice. I'm getting ready to head to my third World Cup. It's hard to believe that it is my third, but also very exciting because we are hosting it and will be playing all across the United States. Before we left on this last little break, our assistant coach Lauren Gregg gave each player an imagery tape put to music. Basically they are confidence builders to remind each of us what we do best, how we play, the positive things we do, goals, passes, winning the ball, running hard or just smiling on the field -- the things that make each of us who we are. I have watched mine a bunch of times and it makes me feel good and reminds me of how I play the game of soccer and how I am effective on the field. Lauren spent many hours making the tapes so I hope she knows we appreciate it. Click here to send questions or comments to Kristine Lilly.
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