Legacy
How Kristine Lilly inspired a generation of new female footballers in America
The landscape of North American football is to anywhere else in the world. They call the beautiful game ‘soccer’, function within a non-promotion/relegation league structure, have a draft system in place and operate with a wage cap, designated players and trade between clubs.
Women’s football is also a different landscape in North America to other places in the world. Its professional league has major broadcast coverage, a higher standard of play and better finances. Oh, and they have Kristine Lilly.
The US Women’s national team (USWNT) #13 was a trailblazer in the sport and created a path into professional football for women.
Few players can lay claim to making their international debut at the tender age of 16. In 1991, Lilly received the call to join the national side, who were playing in China, while still attending Wilton High School in Connecticut. She would team-up with Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, and Mia Hamm for the first time, who would all be inducted into the Hall of Fame. “I remember watching the first half of the game and thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing here? These players are so good’” she told Shekicks.net.
Lilly scored a goal on her debut — the first of 130 for the US Women’s national team. With no professional league in North America for women until 2001, Lilly had to make do with College football. She featured for the North Carolina Tar Heels between 1989 and 1992.
It was at College that Lilly got her first taste of success, winning the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship every year she featured. She won the Hermann Trophy, awarded to the top male and female college players by the Missouri Athletic Club, in 1991 while still a junior.
Despite not playing professionally, Lilly had been playing for the national side for over 5 years by the time she left College in 1992. She was also part of the side that won the inaugural Women’s World Cup in 1991.
Yet, with no professional league, Lilly had to look further afield to continue her progression as a footballer.
That challenge? Sweden.
A year at Tyresö FF would be the first of two spells in Sweden for Lilly.
Upon returning to America, Lilly found herself in a difficult situation. The women’s game in America was almost non-existent and as such she could not play at the standard she wanted.
She turned to men’s soccer in 1995, when she joined the Washington Warthogs. They played in the Continental Indoor Soccer League, an all-male professional indoor league. Lilly was the only female player in the league, testament to her quality and dedication to the sport.
Before the MLS formed in 1993, the Warthogs were the only professional soccer side in the capital. Some of the country’s finest talents in Phillip Gyau, Goran Hunjak, and Dante Washington all played for the club.
By 1993, Lilly was already the US’ most capped female player and a World Cup winner. Despite playing in an all-male league, her coach Jim Gabarra had every confidence in her ability, saying “she has great skills, she has an exceptional work rate, and she’s a competitor… in the right situation a woman can play with guys, and I know Kristine can do it.”
Whilst Lilly signing for the Warthogs gave her the chance to play at a higher level, it was also testament to the poor state of the women’s game at the time. Lilly admitted upon signing that she “didn’t have anyone to work out with” when she wasn’t with the national side — incomprehensible for an international athlete.
Despite brief, making only 6 appearances, her spell in indoor football was crucial in helping Lilly stay fit for national team duty, with the Olympic Games approaching in 1996.
Upon leaving Washington, Lilly scored 5 goals in 4 games for the Delaware Genies in 1998, before the first professional league for women formed in 2001.
It gave female players their first opportunity to play and get paid. Lilly was a founding member of the Boston Breakers and captained the team.
The league gave Lilly, and others, the opportunity they deserved; to play the game on a professional level. She took the league by storm, leading the league in assists and featured in every single minute the Breakers played.
In her three seasons in Boston, Kristine Lilly scored 14 goals in 59 appearances. She was named First Team All-WUSA in all three seasons — the only player in history to do so. She was a starter on the WUSA North All-Star team in her second year.
After three seasons, the first female professional soccer league in America folded. The termination of the league saw Lilly seeking opportunities elsewhere once again.
Sweden beckoned once again and Lilly followed her former Boston coach Pia Sundhage to KIF Örebro DFF. The side played in the Damallsvenskan — the highest division for female players in Sweden.
Her second spell in Sweden, where she scored 8 goals in 19 appearances, taught Lilly the standard the women’s game in America should be meeting. “I just played in Sweden, and in their league, some of the players are getting paid some money. It’s still a progression over there, but at least that’s happening” she told HBO in the 2005 documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team.
Upon leaving Sweden, Lilly had a break from club level soccer, with a new professional league for women beginning to take shape over 2006 and 2007.
In 2008, she gave birth to her first child with husband David Heavey, a Brookline fireman. Their daughter, Sidney Marie Heavey, was born on July 22, 2008 — on her mother’s birthday.
With a new league confirmed, the New York City-born star was assigned to her former club the Boston Breakers. She was joined by her national side teammates Angela Hucles and Heather Mitts. Lilly appeared in every match in the league’s inaugural season, contributing 6 points to the side.
She hung her boots up after 2 years in Boston.
Due to the state of women’s soccer in America, Kristine Lilly failed to have a major impact at club level throughout her career. Despite three consecutive First Team All-WUSA appearances, her club career was disrupted by a lack of opportunities and a stagnant professional league.
It was on the world stage, at international level, that Lilly shone. Making her debut in 1987, she shattered the all-time caps record for both women (151, held by Heidi Store of Norway) and men (164, held by Adnan Al-Talyani of the UAE). In total, Lilly made 354 appearances for the US women’s national side and scored 130 goals.
She participated in five World Cups — the first woman to do so — winning two. She competed in three Olympic games, again winning two. She was a part of the greatest side in USWNT history and made up the ‘Fab Five’, alongside Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm. Lilly chose not to retire after the team’s farewell tour in 2004 alongside the rest of the Fab Five.
“I knew in my heart that I just wasn’t ready to call it quits,” she told former Breakers team-mate and England international Alex Scott in an interview for Shekicks.net.
Instead, Lilly continued to play after the birth of her second child in 2008, only retiring from international duty in 2010.
Few in world football, let alone in America, have had the same impact as Kristine Lilly. She became known as the Iron Lady of US Soccer and retired as the youngest and oldest goalscorer for the national side.
Reflecting on her career, she was happy with not only her impact on the field but off it too. “I’ve had the opportunity in the last five or 10 years to really appreciate the impact we’ve made not only on the field but off the field with young people as well.”
Kristine Lilly’s legacy extends beyond the national side. She inspired a generation of new female footballers and secured the future professional soccer for women across America.
This article originally appeared in issue 13 of Pickles Magazine. Visit https://www.picklesmagazine.com/.
