Ali Riley found herself in a peculiar predicament on Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics–having to play against the country in which she lives. Pacific Palisades’ homegrown talent is a starting winger on the New Zealand women’s national soccer team, which had to beat the United States in order to have a chance of advancing out of pool play. The United States scored early on its way to a 4-0 victory, thus eliminating Riley and her proud Ferns, playing in the Olympics for the first time. New Zealand tied Japan, 2-2, in its first game last Wednesday, thanks to two assists by Riley, and suffered a 1-0 loss to Norway on Saturday. That put New Zealand in a must-win situation in Group G, with one game left. The Americans advanced to play Canada, the third-place finisher in Group E. Riley, a junior at Stanford University, is a multiple Palisadian-Post Athlete of the Year winner and a regular participant in the Palisades-Will Rogers July 4 race. Riley was named New Zealand’s International Women’s Player of the Year and the Nike International Young Women’s Player of the Year in 2006.
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