Fair sees her first World Cup action

By PATRICK O'NEILL, Correspondent

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- At the collegiate level, Lorraine "Lorrie" Ming Fair is a big shot.

One of the nation's best soccer players, Fair helped lead North Carolina to a 77-2-1 record during her three seasons in Chapel Hill.

Fair spent 88 minutes on the bench Saturday, however, watching her U.S. national-team teammates dispose of Denmark in a first-round FIFA Women's World Cup game.

With the U.S. leading, 2-0, and less than three minutes left in the game, another former Tar Heel, Mia Hamm, experienced some cramping in her calves. Hamm left the game. Coach Tony DiCicco sent Fair, 20, into the game for her first taste of World Cup play.

The game may have been secure, but that didn't matter to Fair. She played those final minutes as if her life depended on it.

She bounced about Giants Stadium field like a pinball with a ponytail, always sprinting full speed in the direction of the soccer ball, marking her play with a trademark ferocity that led to Fair being named defensive MVP of the 1997 NCAA Final Four.

Fair, the only player on the national team with collegiate eligibility left, was on the field when another former Tar Heel great, Kristine Lilly, blasted a third goal into the net in the 89th minute of play to give the U.S. team its final margin of victory.

"I was so excited to get in the game," Fair said, a smile beaming from ear to ear. "I'll take what I can get."

With 78,972 fans on hand (a record for a women's team sport) to watch the first women's World Cup game on U.S. soil, Fair said that she would have still been overjoyed even if she hadn't gotten into the game. Fair, whose identical twin sister, Ronnie, plays at Stanford, was actually around the national team players before she ever played in a collegiate game.

She went to her first training camp in 1995. DiCicco named her as an alternate on the 1996 Olympic team, but Fair turned him down to continue playing at the club level.

Fair made an immediate impact at Carolina. As a junior, she started all 26 games, scored five goals and registered 16 assists as the Tar Heels went undefeated in the regular season. She was also named to the NCAA all-tournament team.

This season marks her fourth with the national team. She has started 20 games and played more than 2,000 minutes with one goal and two assists.

Fair was born in the United States to a Chinese mother and an American father. Her mother, born in Shanghai, fled Communism when she was teenager.

"I'm an American," Fair said. "My mom's side of the family is Chinese, and I'm not going to push that aside because I am half Chinese. But I'm American born and raised, and that's who I identify with."

Collegiate allegiances don't matter much at the national-team level, although eight of the 20 women on the roster are current or former Tar Heels, Fair said.

When a photographer recently asked to take a picture of all players with ties to UNC, former Stanford player Julie Foudy walked directly in front of the group and said, "Go Cardinal."

That comment resulted in a typical exchange: "Where's your ring, Foudy?" one of the ex-Tar Heels yelled. To which Foudy replied: "I got a degree instead."

But when the national team takes the field, everyone is playing for their country, Fair said.

"We play for this team," she said. "It's not for any school."