Kristine Marie Lilly (born July 22, 1971 in New York City) is an American soccer player, who has been a fixture on the U.S. women’s national team since 1987. She grew up in Wilton, Connecticut and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she won the Hermann Trophy in 1991.
After the US women’s win at the 2004 Summer Olympics, she had played in 282 international matches, more than any other player (male or female) in soccer history. 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 Khalees Al-Talyani of the United Arab Emirates (the current men’s record is 173).
Unlike several of her longtime teammates, among them Mia Hamm, she did not retire after the team’s “farewell tour” of the USA, which finished on December 8, 2004. As of Team USA’s final 2005 match on October 23, she had made 299 international appearances. On January 18, 2006 Lilly made her 300th international appearance in a game against Norway, a world record for both men and women. In the same match, she equaled Michelle Akers for second place on the team’s all-time goal scoring list with 105.
Lilly played in the now-defunct Women’s United Soccer Association with the Boston Breakers. She currently plays alongside USA teammate Kate Markgraf in Sweden’s top division with KIF Örebro.
300th cap trivia
- Lilly has appeared in a few games in which her caps total was greater than the total of the opposition’s starting lineup.
- Her first cap was in the USA women’s 16th match.
- Her 300th cap was in the USA women’s 353rd all-time match, which means that she had appeared in about 85% of all USA internationals.
- Of her 300 caps, she has made 289 starts.
- She has started every match that the USA women have ever played in World Cup or Olympic competition.
- Her total number of caps earned after she moved into first place all time for caps among men or women (135) has been surpassed by fewer than 20 men. Of the roughly 25 women who have amassed more than 135 caps, 12 are her current or former teammates.
Source: Wikipedia
