Good as Gold
Ask almost any soccer player on the planet if scoring the winning goal in the Olympic Games gold-medal match would be the ultimate career highlight and the answer would probably be a resounding yes.
But not if you ask Tiffeny Milbrett.
The striker who teams with Mia Hamm and Cindy Parlow to give the United States the most devastating attacking line in women’s soccer is confident she can repeat the feat.
“I believe I’ll be able to do it again if the opportunity comes,” Milbrett said shortly after arriving back in her hometown for today’s game against Canada at Civic Stadium that will send the U.S. team off on its quest to win the Women’s World Cup.
So, that dramatic goal against China in Athens, Ga., in 1996 before a frenzied Sanford( Stadium crowd of 76,489 wasn’t the high point of her career?
“Yes and no,” she said. “I mean, the significance came after. The goal came in the 70th minute and [the Chinese] could have scored again. So it was really just a matter of me scoring another goal to put our team ahead.
“Hopefully, you can re-create a goal like that, but you never know. I know we’ll have our chances and hopefully I’ll be a part of them.”
At this rate, Milbrett is going to rival former University of North Carolina star Hamm in modesty too, having already shown that she can match her goal for goal. The two shared the NCAA record of 103 goals until it was broken last season by Florida striker Danielle Fotopoulos.
But if the 5-foot-2 former University of Portland standout doesn’t make a big deal of the goal that made the U.S. the first Olympic women’s soccer champion, others aren’t as hesitant.
Tony DiCicco, for instance, can talk about it at length.
“The person who puts it in the back of the net has a special quality,” the U.S. coach said. “A lot of people can get it there, but putting it in the back of the net is what this game is all about.
“[Milbrett] has always had that ability. A lot of the work was done by Joy Fawcett on that entire play. Mia gave her a great pass and Joy beat the last defender, drew the goalkeeper [out of the net] and slid it across.
“Tiff [Milbrett] was in a perfect position. She wasn’t even with her [Fawcett], she was behind her, so that when the ball was played to her she could run onto it and adjust to it wherever it was. Those are things that she’s learned to do and she made sure of it.”
Even now, almost three years later, the goal is worth describing again. Especially because those who created it all will be on the field when the U.S. opens World Cup play June 19 against Denmark at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., which will be every bit as packed as Sanford Stadium was in 1996.
The move began when Fawcett, a defender, started a run from her half. She was in full flight when she received a pass from Hamm, then blazed through a tiring Chinese defense and sent a superb square pass across the face of the net to Milbrett.
Milbrett struck it firmly, and although Chinese goalkeeper Hong Gao managed to get a hand to the ball, she couldn’t stop it. The goal made it 2-1 in the Americans’ favor. The next 20 minutes were nail-biting, but the U.S. hung on to win.
“That was such a huge goal for the United States,” DiCicco said. “What was great about that is that after we scored, we had this tremendous composure and resolve. And basically I think [the Chinese] got into our penalty area only once after that. It was a great lesson in how to seal a victory, keep possession and play safe so that you didn’t get caught with the ball.
“The Olympics was a great coming together of a lot of things we’d been working on for two years. I can remember having so much satisfaction watching our team play. There were things that we’d been trying to get them to do and all of a sudden they just did it.
“They did it for every game and I was so happy with the way we played. And that’s the peak we want to reach in the World Cup, but I think the challenges of the World Cup are going to be greater because the parity is better.”
Of course, so is Milbrett. The 26-year-old forward leads the team in scoring this year with 11 goals and has scored 58 in all for the U.S.
What does she remember about the game-winner against China?
“First of all, I have no idea why I was there when I was,” she said. “I felt like I was just hanging out in the middle of the park and then just made a run down the field and was wide open.
“I remember seeing Joy make that first touch and then I was like, ‘I’m open! I’m open!’ I was actually kind of mad that she didn’t serve it right away. But she did the right thing, she took one more dribble, drew the keeper in and slotted it over perfect.
“I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, gosh,’ this is going to put us up, 2-1.’ I wasn’t thinking anything. I was so focused, it was just another ball coming across, put it in.
“On that [type of scoring opportunity], you just try to get good contact and swing through so that the ball stays low and has good pace. [The goalkeeper] probably can’t touch that.”
Teammate Shannon MacMillan recalls Milbrett and Fawcett arguing about it after the match.
“That was the big joke afterward,” MacMillan said. “[Milbrett] was like, ‘Joy, I wanted it earlier.’ And Joy was like, ‘I was making sure.’ So it was like, ‘Guys, we just won the freaking gold medal. Shut up!’ ”
Milbrett, who was born and raised in Portland and whose mother, Elsie, still plays in a 40-and-over league, has been scoring goals since she was introduced to the game by her mom at 7.
Her speed and dribbling ability are phenomenal. She seems to ghost through opposing defenders as if they weren’t there. Even at Portland’s Hillsboro High, she couldn’t miss, setting state season and career scoring records.
At the University of Portland, she had the good fortune to have Clive Charles as her coach. Charles had come to the U.S. from England to play for the Portland Timbers in the old North American Soccer League, loved the city and stayed when the NASL folded.
Charles and Milbrett had a tremendous relationship, recalled former Portland winger MacMillan.
“Her nickname through college was ‘No Tact Tiff,’ ” MacMillan said. “That was given to her by Clive. He would come out and start telling jokes and he could count on her to always carry it over the line.
“Tiff is one of my great friends. She’s awesome. She’s always stayed so true to herself. A lot of people nowadays are like ‘What happened, Tiff? Where did you come from [to suddenly become a star]?’ But it’s been there all along. She just needed the opportunity to express herself [on the field] with no worries.
“She’s finally gotten it and she’s taken hold of it and she’s run with it and she’s not looking back.”
The gold-medal winning goal in Georgia three summers ago provided that opportunity.
“I think, in general, it changed all our lives,” Milbrett said. “To have the opportunity to be Olympians was amazing, but to be gold medalists, I think it really catapulted our sport to another level of respectability and credibility, and that was why it was important.”
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TODAY’S GAME
United States vs Canada
* Site--Civic Stadium, Portland, Ore.
* Time--11 a.m.
* TV--ABC.
* Record vs Canada--18-1-0.
* Significance--Today’s game marks the end of the “Road to Pasadena” for the U.S. women’s national team and the first time the team has appeared on national network television. Next up is the third FIFA Women’s World Cup, beginning June 19, with the U.S. playing, in order, Denmark, Nigeria and North Korea in the first round. “Obviously, we want to keep the momentum going,” said Coach Tony DiCicco, who said the only thing he has left to work on before the World Cup are his “substitution patterns.” The U.S. has defeated Canada, 6-0, 4-0 and 4-0 in the teams’ most recent matches and in today’s near-sellout game, billed as a celebratory send-off match for the U.S., the Canadians are coming in somewhat like lambs to the slaughter. “Obviously,” Canadian goalkeeper Nicci Wright said. “But I think it’s a good test for us.”
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KEEPING SCORE
Tiffeny Milbrett is the fourth-leading scorer in U.S. women’s national team history behind Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Kristine Lilly. A year-by-year look at her numbers:
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Year Games Goals 1991 1 0 1992 2 1 1993 9 1 1994 8 2 1995 21 8 1996 24 13 1997 17 8 1998 20 14 1999 14 11 Tota 116 58
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