In front of 35,817 fans at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, the United States women’s national soccer team blanked New Zealand 4-0 Saturday and Palisadian Ali Riley played the entire game at right back for the Football Ferns.
The crowd was the largest to watch a stand-alone U.S. women’s national team home friendly. Riley spends most of her time overseas with FC Rosengard in the Swedish League but was happy to be back in America to take on one of the world’s top-ranked teams with her Kiwi international squad.
Riley, 27, was a multi-sport standout at St. Matthew’s, an All-CIF soccer star at Harvard-Westlake High and a Pac-10 women’s soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year at Stanford. She played for New Zealand in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. She played for the Pali Blues in 2009 and was the 10th pick in the first round of the 2010 Women’s Professional Soccer draft.
Riley’s father John is from New Zealand. She has become accustomed to playing against the USA at the international level even though the Palisades is her home in the offseason.
— Steve Galluzzo
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