PORTLAND, Ore. — 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."
