Lilly should garner FIFA honor

Kristine Lilly should win the FIFA Female Player of the Year, which will be announced today in Zurich.

No other comes close to Lilly in 2006, not to mention her 20-year career.

The 35-year-old captained the U.S. national team to a Gold Cup championship last month, scoring the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over Canada — her 117th goal in 319 games. Lilly also was named tournament MVP of the Gold Cup, the Peace Queen Cup in South Korea in November and the Four Nations Cup earlier this year in China.

Led by Lilly, the U.S. team was unbeaten in regulation in 32 games and closed the year with a record of 18-0-4. Lilly is in competition for the award with Germany’s Renate Lingor, who helped Frankfurt win the UEFA title this season, and Brazil’s Marta, who plays in Sweden.

Lilly finished the year with 13 goals, the second-highest total of her international career.

Fabio Cannavaro of Italy, Ronaldinho of Brazil and Frenchman Zinedine Zidane of France are up for the men’s award.

Teammates, fans say farewell — I’ll miss Freddy Adu. He showed glimpses of his talent but lacked consistency. He was fun to watch and never shied away from expressing his feelings.

But with Christian Gomez in the central midfield role, Adu never seemed comfortable playing on the wings.

“I’m very excited about the trade for Freddy,” said United veteran midfielder Ben Olsen, who just returned from Jamaica, where he was married, on Wednesday. “I always said the worst thing to happen for Freddy was Christian Gomez. That central role is Freddy’s position. He will be able to excel in Salt Lake and he’ll have more freedom on the field. We expect to see some exciting highlight reels coming out of Salt Lake.”

United fans seemed pleased with the Adu trade.

“Freddy will be happy, Peter [Nowak] will be happy, and now we can paint banners saying Much Adu About Nothing,” said Kim Klyberg, who heads the Screaming Eagles, a United fan club.

The United made another trade yesterday, sending veteran defender Brandon Prideaux to the Colorado Rapids for two third-round draft picks — one in 2007 and another in 2008.

“At the end of the season, Brandon requested a move closer to his home and this move will accommodate his request,” United technical director Dave Kasper said.

United is expected to announce more player moves soon.

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