U.S.’s Milbrett a Worldly Player

Memories, not to mention enough money to buy a home of her own in Oregon, were not the only things Tiffeny Milbrett brought back with her from Japan.

“The scroll paintings, the kaki jiku, are my absolute favorites, so I brought back a few of those,” the 26-year-old forward for the U.S. women’s national team said the other day in Charlotte, N.C.

“It could be [scenes of] the people, or the scenery, like the mountains, or cranes, or the bamboo. That’s my favorite. The black and white bamboo. I have that in my house in Portland.”

Milbrett--bright, personable and quotable, with a touch of mischief in her eyes--has not received the media attention she deserves. A member of the national team since 1991 and a regular starter since ‘95, she has kept largely to the shadows while Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers and others have basked in the spotlight.

Which is strange, considering that it was Milbrett who scored the gold medal-winning goal against China in the 1996 Olympic Games final. And that until Danielle Fotopoulos broke the record last season, Milbrett and Hamm were tied as the NCAA’s all-time leading goal scorers with 103 apiece.

The scoring success she enjoyed at the University of Portland carried over to the U.S. team. Her four goals in a 9-0 romp over Japan on Thursday night brought Milbrett’s total to 55 and moved her into fourth place, ahead of Carin Jennings Gabarra, on the all-time U.S. goal-scoring list.

Only Hamm, Akers and Kristine Lilly have scored more goals for their country.

Of course, the last people who should have been surprised by Milbrett’s four-goal, two-assist performance were her Japanese opponents. Just as they should not be surprised if she does as well today in Atlanta when the teams meet again (ESPN2, 11 a.m. PDT).

After all, they know just how dangerous a player Milbrett is. They are all too familiar with those twisting runs, quick give-and-go passes, unexpected shots from all angles that leave goalkeepers grasping air.

After the 1995 Women’s World Cup in Sweden, Milbrett, then only 22, packed her bags and headed across the Pacific, having signed to play professionally in Japan’s L-League for a team known as Shiroki Serena.

Milbrett, a 5-foot-2, 130-pound striker, quickly became known to fans as “Teepha” during her three seasons in the league.

It was all a big adventure for Milbrett.

“I went over there in ’95 not knowing a lick of Japanese or anything,” she said. “It was amazing. I wasn’t the only foreigner on my team. We had two or three other English-speaking players.

“The first year was kind of a novelty. We were kind of a circus act almost. People were so excited about us. It was kind of weird because when you think of Japan you think of Tokyo, but not all of Japan is like Tokyo.

“We were out in like a farm town, about five hours south of Tokyo. Toyokawa right next to Toyohashi. It’s just a quiet little farming town with not really too much to do.”

But it was a new country, a new culture, and Milbrett adapted. At least a little.

“I wasn’t a big tofu fan, but now I am,” she said. “I don’t like sashimi. I like some sushi, but not too much. Pretty much the tame and mild and cooked stuff, like the shrimp. People didn’t go to sushi too much, because it’s very expensive, even over there.

“We had an older couple in our dormitory and they cooked our western dinner every day. We did lunch on our own. They cleaned the place. It was like you were living in a sorority house, almost.

“When we were able to get up to Tokyo for the weekend or a couple of days or whatever, that’s when we became tourists and that was when it was fun and there was a lot to do. We visited the other foreigners who were our friends up there.

“But aside from going to Tokyo, we didn’t do too much. Especially in our town.”

There were, of course, the “X-Files.”

“It was awesome,” said Milbrett. “They imported the ‘X-Files’ episode by episode and season by season, so you could rent each episode. We got all the way up to the fourth season. So we’d rent a lot of videos and we’d go out to eat a lot, or hang out with friends among the Japanese women or watch TV a lot.”

Pretty dull stuff? No, said Milbrett.

“It was wonderful. It seems so long ago that I was there, but it was so valuable in many ways. Not only because it was a living, like monetarily, but it was soccer. It’s what I wanted to do. And when you do that, especially when you take yourself away from your own country and you go live somewhere where you don’t know the language or very many people, you’re going to struggle, and through that you’re going to grow and have great times.”

U.S. teammate Brandi Chastain had gone to play in Japan before Milbrett, and Shannon MacMillan, a former Portland and current U.S. teammate, joined her there.

Playing in the L-League, especially for a weaker team that was constantly the underdog, helped Milbrett’s game, she said.

“It got me back to doing what I knew how to do, which is just do whatever I could,” she said. “It was like freedom-playing, so to speak.

“Not many countries take their women’s league as seriously as they do in Japan, so I was very, very impressed with that.

“I think the Japanese people are very proud of their league, and it showed. The quality of play was fine. For me, it was a great experience to go over there and play in games where it was going to stretch me.”

As for Japan’s national team, which will take part in the June 19-July 10 World Cup, Milbrett said it should not be discouraged, even after lopsided losses such as Thursday’s.

“The wonderful thing about the Japanese is that they’re very humble and they think that they’re no good. But they don’t understand how wonderful they are. They have good talent. They’re good athletes, good soccer players.

“I think the only thing that’s holding them back is their own thinking. All they need is confidence.”

All they really need, of course, is a few players like Tiffeny Milbrett.

Markswomen

U.S. women’s national team all-time leading goal scorers:

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Rank Name (years) Games Goals 1. Mia Hamm (1987-present) 168 104 2. Michelle Akers (1985-present) 136 102 3. Kristine Lilly (1987-present) 174 70 4. Tiffeny Milbrett (1991-present) 113 55 5. Carin Jennings Gabarra (1987-1996) 117 53 6. Tisha Venturini (1992-present) 120 40 7. April Heinrichs (1986-1991) 47 37 8. Julie Foudy (1988-present) 149 31 9. Cindy Parlow (1996-present) 50 19 10. Joy Fawcett (1987-present) 137 18 11. Brandi Chastain (1988-present) 90 18 12. Debbie Keller (1995-present) 46 18

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