Lilly makes her mark

By Heather Mitts
Special to ESPN.com

Greatness in sports can be defined as reaching the pinnacle of one's profession and sustaining that excellence over a prolonged period. To that end, Kristine Lilly has achieved both counts. In the midst of winning the Four Nations tournament in January, all eyes were on Lilly, as she notched her world-record 300th international cap in the preliminary games and scored twice in the final itself.

Not that she needed the record to validate her career, but in achieving what no male or female soccer player has ever done, Lilly has made a definite mark that will be forever remembered.

From my perspective, it's a honor to be to the same field with her. To some extent, Lilly has been underrated her entire career, playing in the shadow of fellow luminaries such as Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy. With the retirement of those three, it's been Lilly's turn to finally step into the limelight and fill the veteran leadership void.

Without a doubt, Lilly is the hardest player I've ever had to defend, and I've marked a lot of great players during my career. She's full of energy and has a sixth sense of knowing where she should be at all times. She rarely makes a mistake on the pitch and her intangibles only add to the overall package.

As for the Four Nations tournament itself -- the team reported during the first week of January to begin preparations. During the weeklong camp, we undertook various fitness tests so that our individual endurance could be assessed.

This was the first time that a lot of the players were competing and the first time that most of us had been together since the Mexico tournament in 2005. There's been a lot of personal changes since then. For example Kate Markgraf is pregnant and there are now more married players on the team.

It was an interesting tournament for team dynamics since we were missing some of our regular players, which allowed coach Greg Ryan to experiment to a degree with our back line. For instance, Tina Frimpong had to move from outside back to the middle of defense. She dealt with that position change so well that she's remained in central defense. Another breakout player was Christie Welsh, who played superbly and made a huge impact on the field. She's got great technical skill and creative qualities and looks like a player that can lead the U.S. frontline for the next few years.

Going forward for the rest of 2006, the U.S. team will be training for most of the year. The plan is for the team to be in training for 11 of the 12 months. In preparation for the upcoming Algarve Cup opener on March 9 in Portugal against China, the national team held a training camp at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California for most of February.

On a personal note, I'm been working on my defensive techniques given the new emphasis that coach Ryan has placed on overall team defense. The biggest change that Ryan as implemented since taking over as head coach, is that the team now plays at a high pressure tempo, with a real emphasis on defending as a single unit. We're now playing a 4-3-3 and while going through that learning transition, the emphasis is on all players to track back on defense as a team.

Heather Mitts covers women's soccer for ESPN Soccernet.com and is also a member of the U.S. women's national team and former WUSA All-Star.