Just Crazy About Tiffeny

Soccer Digest, August, 2001 by Michael Lewis

When the U.S. national team gets down and needs a clutch goal, the one person it can go to is Tiffeny Milbrett

MIA HAMM MAY BE THE biggest moneymaker on the U.S. Women's national team, but there is little doubt about who is the team's biggest money player: striker Tiffeny Milbrett. Just take a look at what Milbrett has accomplished in six short years as a U.S. national teamer:

* In 1995, she came off the bench to replace an injured Michelle Akers and scored a three goals during the Women's World Cup, which tied her for the team high.

* In 1996, Milbrett connected for the game-winning goal against archrival China to give the U.S. the first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's soccer.

* In 1999, she again led the Americans in scoring with three goals en route to the Women's World Cup championship.

* And last year, Milbrett struck not once, but twice against Norway in the Olympic gold-medal match, including scoring the equalizer with only seconds of regulation lime remaining.

Now, that's a money player.

"She has been an awesome player in big events," says former U.S. women's national coach Tony DiCicco, who is now chief operations officer of the fledgling WUSA. "Only the best do that. She has scored three goals in Olympic gold-medal finals. How many players do that? Those are things legends are built on."

While some players wilt under the pressure of a world championship or Olympics final, Milbrett admits she thrives in those situations. "For me, that's what I live for," she says. "In a scrimmage game or a practice as an athlete you are supposed to duplicate what you are able to bring to the game, but that's usually the case. You don't. You try, but you have to be honest with yourself, it doesn't happen.

"When it's game situation, when it's game day, game time, when it's the World Cup, when it's these tournaments that happen once every so often, I live for that, I live for that challenge. How incredible is it that 90,000 people are in the stands for the Olympic final? That's what gets me going. I turn inside and I'm a different person in a different mode. I feel like I've been trained for that my whole life. That's what gets my blood pumping, that's what it's about. That's when it's time to show what you can do."

But despite her continuing heroics, Milbrett has played the past six years in the shadow of another soccer legend: Hamm, who has scored more international goals (127 in 216 matches through the beginning of June) than any woman on the planet. Milbrett, who turns 29 in October, hasn't done too shabby herself, striking for 83 goals in 166 appearances, but Hamm gets a good chunk of the attention and adulation from the fans and millions of dollars from her TV commercials.

Milbrett just shrugs it off. "It's easy," she says. "I don't have to cope with anything because I have what I want I want to be on the national team, to be creating things for my teammates, and have a life in soccer. I want an opportunity to live as a professional soccer player, and that's what I have. Anything else is out of my hands, and I don't deal with it. I just have to deal with me and my performance on the field and if I'm satisfied with it and if it's what I want.

"Everything is `agent this' and `society that' and other people's opinions and choices. I can't control that I have what I want."

It's true that Milbrett has had little to complain about. Whoever coined the phrase, "Good things come in little packages," could have had the 5'2" Milbrett in mind. Milbrett uses her size to her advantage, being able to scoot around and run past larger players. Her long weave through and around the German defense to score a key goal in the 1999 Women's World Cup quarterfinals is legendary. "I would have questions and problems about my body composition, my body size, or my height if I wasn't at the highest level," says Milbrett. "There's no problem for me. I do think I am perfect size-wise. I do feel I was born to be a soccer player, no doubt."

It doesn't hurt that Milbrett probably was the fastest player on the '99 team. "Tiffeny is the fastest over five to seven yards from a full stop to acceleration," says DiCicco. "She has the ability to embarrass a defender, to make her look like she's running on sand."

Milbrett is also extremely strong for her size, able to ward off larger opponents when push literally comes to shove on the wings or inside the penalty area. Even the talented and much celebrated Hamm, who now performs against Milbrett with the WUSA's Washington Freedom, marvels at her national team running mate. "Tiffeny is a pleasure to watch and a nightmare to defend," says Hamm. "She has so many weapons. I tell the Freedom to be prepared for anything with her. She gives us a lot to worry about. She is one of the best players in the world. She tears defenses apart."

But, believe it or not, those assets might not be Milbrett's most valuable attributes. "She's totally unpredictable," claims DiCicco. "I don't know what she's going to do, her teammates don't know what she's going to do. I'm not sure she knows what she's going to do. She just does what she does in an instant, on instinct."