Photo: NZ Soccer
Palisadian Ali Riley Ready for New Start with Chelsea FC
In the sport of soccer one would be hard pressed to find a bigger winner than Pacific Palisades’ own Ali Riley.
The veteran international soccer star, who grew up in the Alphabet Streets and was a multi-sport athlete at St. Matthew’s Parish School, has signed to play wing-back with English club Chelsea FC, the reigning WSL and Women’s FA Cup champion.
The 30-year-old Riley, who is also captain of the New Zealand women’s national team, joins the Blues from Swedish side Rosengard, where she had played since 2012, winning three league titles and three Swedish cups. She has also appeared in three World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015) and three Olympic Games (Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016).
Riley led Harvard-Westlake High to the Southern Section title her senior year and guided Stanford University to two NCAA semifinals and one final before earning Rookie of the Year honors while leading FC Gold Pride to the WPS title in 2010. The next season she piloted the New York Flash to the league championship.She even played a season for the semi-pro Pali Blues at Stadium by the Sea.
The only child of Palisadians John Riley and Bev Lowe, Ali runs in the Palisades Will Rogers 5 & 10K on the Fourth of July when she is home for the holiday.
Riley played every minute for New Zealand in the 2008 Olympics in China, where the Football Ferns tied Japan 2-2, lost to Norway 1-0 and lost to the United States 4-0. She played every minute in the 2012 Olympics inEngland, where New Zealand lost to Great Britain 1-0 and Brazil 1-0 but beat Cameroon 3-1 in group play before falling to the USA 2-0 in the quarterfinals. Riley played every minute of the Football Ferns’ three games in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil when they lost to the USA 2-0, beat Colombia 1-0 and lost to France 3-0.
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