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On the Pitch
On the Pitch
Open Cup
Milbrett the Match-Winner: Learn the Story Behind USWNT Forward Tiffeny Milbrett
Milbrett scored the game-winning goal against China to help USA earn the inaugural gold medal in 1996 Atlanta Olympics
By: De Turner
At a young age, Tiffeny Milbrett knew she wanted to be an Olympian. When her high school coach told her in 1989 that women’s soccer was not an Olympic event, Milbrett was undeterred.
“I was like, 'That's okay, I'll just play for the boys,’” she said.
Fortunately for Milbrett and the U.S. Women’s National Team, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) added women's soccer in 1993 for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. By then, the Portland, Oregon, native was competing with the Under-20 U.S. Women’s National Team and at the University of Portland where she was a three-time NSCAA All-American, setting program and NCAA scoring and assist records. The forwardmade her senior team debut in 1991 and helped the USA earn bronze in the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
By the summer of 1996, head coach Tony DiCicco selected Milbrett to the 16-player roster ahead of the inaugural Olympic women’s tournament of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.
Just eight nations competed that year with the top two teams in both groups advancing to the semifinal matches. In the USWNT’s first-ever Olympic match, the team won 3-0 against Denmark with Milbrett netting the final goal. The team closed group play with a 2-1 win against Sweden and a scoreless draw versus China to finish second in Group E. In the semifinal, the USA got revenge against Norway, which defeated the U.S. in the 1995 World Cup semifinal, winning a 2-1 after extra time on a “Golden Goal” from Shannon MacMillan.
MacMillan put the USA ahead in the 18th minute, but China’s Sun Wen scored the equalizer soon after. Milbrett finally broke the deadlock in the 68th minute, starting with an interception by Joy Fawcett. The defender played a give-and-go with forward Mia Hamm, and Fawcett continued her run inside the box. She played a square pass across to Milbrett, who calmly sent her shot into the back of the net for the game-winner.
"No goal is easy to score, but when you're left alone and your teammate leaves you a cross so absolutely perfect, it's one of the easier moments that you can have,” Milbrett said.
She celebrated her goal with a somersault before the rest of the team joined her. They closed out the remainder of the game, and the final whistle sent the stadium into a frenzy. The team danced around the field with American flags before collecting their gold medals.
“It was extremely special to be able to have that reward after all the work you've done through the years and be rewarded with that kind of joy,” Milbrett said. “Quite frankly, very few things you feel in your life are like that."
𝙂𝙊𝙇𝘿𝙀𝙉 𝙈𝙀𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙄𝙀𝙎
📆 #OTD in 1996: Shannon MacMillan and Tiffeny Milbrett scored as the #USWNT defeated China PR 2-1 to win its first-ever gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics 🥇🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Gmtg822m0T
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) August 1, 2022
Milbrett also stood atop another podium three years later in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She scored three goals – two in the 7-1 group stage win against Nigeria and another in the 3-2 quarterfinal victory over Germany – to finish as the team’s top scorer in the tournament.
A year later, she became the first woman to score in two Olympic gold medal matches. The USWNT faced Norway in the 2000 Sydney Olympic final, and Milbrett put the Americans on the board first with a goal five minutes in. Norway fought back to a take a 2-1 lead, but again Milbrett found the back of the net to equalize. In the dying minutes of second-half stoppage time, 5-foot-2 Milbrett jumped over two Norwegian defenders to head in Hamm’s cross to send the game to extra time.
Norway went on to win 3-2 on a controversial goal that clearly hit the arm of goal scorer Dagny Mellgren before she finished her shot under the arm of U.S. goalkeeper Siri Mullinix, a goal that certainly would have been wiped away had VAR existed then, so the USA had to settle for silver. Despite the loss, Milbrett’s heroics were immortalized, and her scoring prowess continued for the next five years. She scored the final goal in the 3-0 win over Canada to help the U.S. earn bronze in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Milbrett finished her international career with 100 goals – a feat only seven players in program history have achieved. She scored the last one in a friendly against Ukraine in her hometown of Portland in 2005.
Milbrett ranks seventh in goals, 11th in appearances (206), and is tied-fifth in assists (64) in U.S. Women’s National Team history. She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2018, cementing her incredible career alongside the other all-time greats.
“She’s a player that took this team on her shoulders for many years,” USWNT midfielder and Milbrett’s teammate Julie Foudy said. “That was Tiffeny. She was big in big moments, all the time.”
Every Thursday in March, U.S. Soccer will share a story about various unsung heroes and lesser-known moments in U.S. Women's National Team history for Women's History Month.
