Angel City and New Zealand defender on injury pain, losing her childhood home in LA’s wildfires and why the sport needs to talk more about IVF
Under a blazing-hot sun, among a crowd of 90,185 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on 10 July 1999, an 11-year-old girl was standing behind the goal where Brandi Chastain struck the penalty that won the World Cup for the United States, soaking in pure inspiration. Ali Riley, now 37, captain of New Zealand and a veteran of five World Cup campaigns, looks back on witnessing that moment in person and says: “That made me want to be a strong woman that could show her abs in front of the entire world and be on the front page of a newspaper. I think about how uncool it was to be good at sports, back then, and that moment was pivotal for me to see those women do what they did and be celebrated for it.”
On Sunday it will be Riley being celebrated at what is being billed as her farewell match at her home-town club Angel City, who named her as their first captain in 2022. She is retiring at the end of this season after a remarkable career that has included 163 international caps, four Olympic Games and spells with Rosengård, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, and Sunday is poised to be Angel City’s final home game of a season in which the playoffs appear to be beyond them. Her decision to retire comes after a year in which she has been through IVF, seen her childhood Los Angeles home burn down and got married, all while attempting to rehabilitate from a chronic nerve injury, so being able to hang up her boots on her own terms, back in Angel City’s squad, may be her biggest achievement.
Continue reading…Angel City and New Zealand defender on injury pain, losing her childhood home in LA’s wildfires and why the sport needs to talk more about IVFUnder a blazing-hot sun, among a crowd of 90,185 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on 10 July 1999, an 11-year-old girl was standing behind the goal where Brandi Chastain struck the penalty that won the World Cup for the United States, soaking in pure inspiration. Ali Riley, now 37, captain of New Zealand and a veteran of five World Cup campaigns, looks back on witnessing that moment in person and says: “That made me want to be a strong woman that could show her abs in front of the entire world and be on the front page of a newspaper. I think about how uncool it was to be good at sports, back then, and that moment was pivotal for me to see those women do what they did and be celebrated for it.”On Sunday it will be Riley being celebrated at what is being billed as her farewell match at her home-town club Angel City, who named her as their first captain in 2022. She is retiring at the end of this season after a remarkable career that has included 163 international caps, four Olympic Games and spells with Rosengård, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, and Sunday is poised to be Angel City’s final home game of a season in which the playoffs appear to be beyond them. Her decision to retire comes after a year in which she has been through IVF, seen her childhood Los Angeles home burn down and got married, all while attempting to rehabilitate from a chronic nerve injury, so being able to hang up her boots on her own terms, back in Angel City’s squad, may be her biggest achievement. Continue reading…
