Injury Forces Soccer Star Ali Riley to Miss Paris Olympics

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

One day before the New Zealand women’s national soccer team was set to play its Olympic opener in Saint-Etienne against defending gold medalist Canada, head coach Michael Mayne announced that he would be withdrawing team captain and left back Ali Riley from the roster because of medical reasons.

Riley grew up on Kagawa in the Alphabet Streets, regularly ran in the Palisades Will Rogers on the Fourth of July with her parents John and Bev, and was a multi-sport standout at St. Matthew’s before embarking on a standout high school soccer career at Harvard-Westlake and later Stanford University (leading rhe Cardinal to the NCAA semifinals twice and the finals once) before turning pro in 2009 with her hometown Pali Blues. Now a member of Angel City FC, the NWSL’s Los Angeles-based franchise, she was hoping to compete in her fifth Olympics, having served as the Football Ferns’ captain since the Cyprus Cup in 2017.

Still performing at the highest level on the pitch at age 36, Riley has 162 caps to her credit for New Zealand and has also played in five FIFA Women’s World Cups. She made her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008, playing every minute for the Ferns. She played for FC Gold Pride and Western New York Flash of the WPS before playing seven years with Rosengard in Sweden, followed by Chelsea in England (2018-19) and Bayern Munich in Germany (2019-20).    

Ever positive, Riley posted the following statement on Instagram: “My Olympic Games are over. For the past seven months I’ve been struggling with a nerve injury. It’s been frustrating, confusing, and excruciatingly painful in a way that’s hard to describe. The Ferns and ACFC medical and performance staff did everything possible to get me healthy for this Olympics (rehab, injections, strength, conditioning, treatment, medication, more injections) and I am so grateful to all of them. Getting selected for the team and leading the girls out for our final prep match gave me hope that I would have the honor of representing New Zealand at the Olympic Games once more but during this camp there have been bad days along with the good and due to the unpredictable nature of this injury my coach decided that it would be best for the team to withdraw me completely from the squad. There have been a lot of tears and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around it all, but what I do know is that while my Olympic journey has ended, my Olympic dream—the Football Ferns making history at Paris 2024—is just beginning. Now I will take time to heal, cheer on my teammates and embrace the unwavering support I’ve been receiving from people near and far.”

Without their inspirational leader in the lineup the Ferns lost to Canada (2-1), Colombia (2-0) and France (2-1) to finish last in their group. Only once in the five occasions New Zealand has qualified for the Olympics have the Ferns made it out of pool play, falling to the United States 2-0 in the quarterfinal round in 2012 in the United Kingdom.

Although Ali was born here in the United States, her dad is a Kiwi, so she has dual citizenship. Riley first represented New Zealand at the 2006 Women’s U-20 World Cup finals in Russia and played her first game with the senior squad the following February. Since switching from forward to fullback her junior year in college, Riley has scored 16 goals—one her senior year at Stanford, five with Rosengard, three with Angel City, five in only 11 games with the Ferns’ U-20 team and two more with the senior side—the first in an 11-0 victory over Papua New Guinea in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup final in 2010 and the second in a 2-1 win versus Philippines in a friendly two years ago at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium.   

In addition to 2008 and 2012, Riley played every minute for New Zealand in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (postponed until 2021 due to COVID). Last July she led the Ferns to their first-ever World Cup win, a 1-0 victory over Norway in their opener at Eden Park in Auckland.