NOTES

The two goals Tiffeny Milbrett scored for the United States against Nigeria on Thursday night were her first in World Cup ‘99, but her celebrations did not include her once-familiar post-goal dance.

Why not? Because of television, she told the Contra Costa Times.

“I look like such a dork because the TV angle shows me from the waist up, and people can’t tell what I’m doing,” she said. “The angle does an injustice to the jig.”

*

Marla Messing, president and chief executive of the Women’s World Cup, put the tournament’s crowd demographics into perfect perspective in a single sentence. “It’s the first time I’ve seen longer lines for ice cream than beer at a major sporting event,” she said.

*

Midfielder Laurie Hill tells an amusing anecdote about one of her fellow Mexican-American players on Mexico’s World Cup team.

The player in question, who shall remain nameless, is blond, blue-eyed, speaks very little Spanish and is one of a handful recruited from U.S. college teams.

“We were playing [a pre-World Cup game] in San Diego or Anaheim or somewhere,” Hill said. “She plays out wide and some Mexican fans yelled to her, ‘Where are you from?’

“She didn’t want to say California, so she answers back, ‘Cancun.’ And the fans yell, ‘Your parents must have been there on vacation.’ It was classic.”