Hamm Closes In on a Milestone
It is, without doubt, the most exclusive soccer club in the world. Its membership roster lists only two names.
But tonight, at a small, sold-out and aptly named stadium here, Mia Hamm could very well join Elisabetta Vignotta and Carolyn Morace in that rarefied company.
All it will take is one goal. If Hamm scores for the United States against Russia in the four-nation Nike U.S. Women’s Cup ’98 tournament, she will become only the third player in history to score 100 goals for her country.
No man has achieved the feat. Not Pele. Not Diego Maradona. Not Johan Cruyff. Not anyone else.
The only two women to have done so are the now-retired Vignotta, whose 108 goals for Italy rank as the world record, and Morace, who scored 105 for Italy before retiring last year.
Hamm, with 99 goals for the U.S. and at least a couple more years of national team play ahead of her, is poised to not only overtake the Italian women but leave them far behind.
But her next goal will be the one that is remembered. It’s why more than 12,000 tickets have been sold at tiny Frontier Field and why additional standing-room-only “seats” have been added.
The Russians, who tied Brazil, 2-2, in tournament play on Tuesday, have little idea what awaits them. So far this year, no defense has been able to stop Hamm, who has 18 goals and 18 assists in 18 games.
And whether she is scoring or not, she is constantly setting up chances for her teammates. In the U.S. team’s 9-0 rout of Mexico on Saturday, Hamm scored two goals and assisted on four more.
All of which comes as no surprise to another American forward, Tiffeny Milbrett, who will set a mark of her own tonight by playing her 100th game for the United States.
“There are three things that make this team work,” Milbrett said during the U.S. team’s gold-medal performance in the Goodwill Games earlier this summer. “The first is team chemistry. Second is that everyone really cares about each other. The third is Mia Hamm.”
There’s more to it than that, of course, but Hamm is unquestionably the top woman player in the world right now.
U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco has heard it all before. He knows, however, that in Hamm the U.S. has a player who, if she were a man, would be commanding a $30- million price tag, just like Ronaldo or Denilson or any of the other high-priced Brazilian stars. And like them, she would probably need only one name--Mia.
“When she’s on the field, she seems to be a gear or two above anyone else,” DiCicco said.
Russia is likely to find that out tonight. As is Brazil, which plays Mexico today, then meets the U.S. in the tournament finale on Sunday in Richmond, Va.
