Kristine Lilly Speaks at UB Women’s Soccer Dinner

It’s Saturday evening and the Student Center is packed. It’s the UB Women’s Soccer Team annual fund-raising dinner and the center of attention is the U.S. Olympic and U.S. World Cup soccer star, Kristine Lilly.
Head coach of the Women’s soccer team, Magnus Nilerud begins with thanking everyone for coming and says he expects this season to be the best ever. The team has the highest ranking ever and the goal for the season is to make it to the NCAA tournament.
After that, Kristine Lilly takes the stand and talks about how women’s soccer has evolved since she first started playing for the national team in 1987. “Back then people asked us which university we were from, they didn’t understand that America had a national soccer team for women”, she says.
Lilly has been a mainstay of U.S. women’s soccer since 1987, when she started her first seven games for the Women’s National Team. In 2001, she became the first soccer player – male or female – to play in more than 200 international matches.
She’s collected gold in both the World cup and the Olympics and played in the world’s first professional league for female soccer.
“In the mid 90’s the big breakthrough for female soccer in America came”, says Lilly. From that time, women’s soccer became nationally recognised and broadcasted on TV. The professional league started up, marketing increased and players like Lilly and Mia Hamm were in the spotlight.
“When I grew up New York Jets were my idols. I had no female role models in sports. Today I get mails, phone calls, etc. from young girls who say I am their idol and my poster is on their walls.”
Lilly says it’s very important for the sport to reopen the American professional league, which was closed down due to financial difficulties. The sport needs a larger audience and Lilly thinks that more media coverage is the solution.
Even though Lilly has achieved more than most athletes ever can, she still has dreams at the age of 34.
“My next goal is to make it to the 2007 World Cup in China. I feel that I’ve still got what it takes.