| |
|
| ||
World Cup Diary California Dreamin'
Posted: Tuesday July 06, 1999 12:35 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. Saturday, July 3 Palo Alto, Calif. How about that game against Germany? They're a great team, but we held strong and pulled through. As you can see, at this level the little mistakes can cost you -- and the German team took full advantage of our mistakes. I think we did a great job of coming from behind and playing our hearts out. We didn't play our best soccer, but we never gave up or stopped working either. We have to play better soccer, though. We can't just rely on guts. We learned a lot from Germany: 1) At this level, the fewer mistakes the better 2) Don't get discouraged when you're down 3) Be ready when you step on the field 4) Never give up 5) Pull together as a team and believe in each other We practiced today at Stanford Stadium and it is beautiful. The body was a bit sore yesterday, but today it is feeling much better. If you didn't hear, President Clinton and his family came to the end of our game against Germany. After the game, the President, the First Lady and Chelsea came into the locker room and said hello to all of us. They took some pictures and chatted a bit. I talked with Chelsea for a while and she is a sweet girl. It was an exciting night on the soccer field and off. At our post game, all the parents were saying to us that it wasn't good for their health to have the score be so close. I had a big group again and it was nice. All the families are coming out to the west coast and making a little vacation of it. Our trip out here was something new for us. We had a chartered plane with all first class seats. It was just our team and some of the Federation people. It was unbelievable. They had a TV and we watched some movies. The stewardesses were awesome and it was a high-class trip. Our Federation got this all together for us and we thanked them. So, here we are in Northern California. The weather is nice and the feeling among everyone is great. Some tidbits to enjoy: Here I sit alone in my room. For the past two hours I was trying to find Julie, my roommate, because she had the only key. I was calling her from another room and she wasn't there, so I left a message but still didn't hear from her. I was with Joy. Her room number is mine backwards, so I kept asking her to remember mine. Anyway, I finally get another key and get into my room and there's Jules lying on the bed. I'm like, "Where have you been?" and she's like, "I've been here for the past hour." I said, "No, because I called and left messages and no Julie." She said, "Well, you called the wrong room." Then I thought about it and realized I was calling Joy's room the whole time and Joy was sitting next to me, so it was hilarious. Joy and Julie got a good laugh on my behalf. Ha ha. My boyfriend, Steve, went home for a day after the D.C. game and saw our dog, Molson. He got a blister on his paw. My poor baby. I miss the pup and I can't wait to see him. I told Steve to put a shirt near Molson so he could smell my scent and wouldn't forget about me. Well, my friends, I'm going to go now. Until next time, remember: We are not perfect and if things aren't going our way that doesn't mean things won't come out the way we want. When all else fails, pure guts and hard work can make the difference. Remember to tune in no matter what. Take care, -- Kristine Click here to send questions or comments to Kristine Lilly.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
