View from the Pali, Volume One: To Tomorrow's Heroes

This is the inaugural issue of a new series that chronicles one of the more recently successful organizations in women's soccer domestically, the Pali Blues Soccer Club.

Pacific Palisades is one of the more affluent neighborhoods within the city of Los Angeles (but is interestingly not part of it). Home to 27,000 souls, give or take a few, this resilient community is bordered by Brentwood to the east, Malibu and Topanga to the west, the Santa Monica Mountains to the north, Santa Monica to the southeast and its namesake bay to the southwest.

A district that is the home of Baywatch, it is also home to Palisades Charter High School, where the Halloween classic Carrie was filmed. Located on a hill in Pacific Palisades, its Stadium By The Sea hosts intense gridiron contests between the Dolphins and its Western League opponents.

And when it comes to lacrosse, there is no one that dominates the L.A. City Section better than Palisades.

But it's the soccer teams that play at this hallowed ground that are all the rage. At the Stadium by the Sea, there are four teams that are of superior relevance: the boys' soccer team at Palisades, the girls' soccer team at Palisades, the Hollywood United Hitmen...and the Pali Blues.

Many great players that are now fixtures in Women's Professional Soccer, or who play for the best college programs in the country, don the white tops, light blue shorts, and light blue socks of Pali Blues during the summer.

Established in 2007, Pali Blues was originally founded as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization and a sister club to the L.A. Blues semi-pro team.

Little did owner Maryam Mansouri realize that the women would far exceed the men in terms of success, notoriety, and relevance.

Actually, all those three mentioned altogether can be striken from the record. The L.A. Blues never got off the ground, since United Soccer League's lynchpin Francisco Marcos could only allow a women's team due to geographic constraints.

Not that it was going to be a problem for Pali.

You have to take into consideration that at the time, the USA was coming off a disastrous experiment that was the Women's United Soccer Association. The USL W-League, established in 1995 was the top league in North America, and Women's Professional Soccer was still going through its conception phase.

The Washington Freedom (who continue to compete in the W-League today through their Futures developmental side) were the defending champions of the W-League.

But quietly and calmly, the Mansouri combine, together with Rudi Bianchi, was busy bringing in the pieces to a winning combination that would deliver a sheer coup d'etat to women's soccer.

“We have always been impressed by the high level of support and participation in women’s soccer among the Palisades residents,” Mansouri said during the announcement in 2008. “We have always been interested in bringing a professional team to the area, and now our dream has been fulfilled.”

“For too long, highly talented female soccer players have not had a professional venue to demonstrate their talents,” Blues Director of Operations Kenzo Bergeron stated at the conference. “Now they will have a home to play among the world’s best soccer talents.”

Among those pieces was Charlie Naimo, a former coach with Jersey Sky Blue (now Sky Blue FC of the WPS), and Skylar Little, a former UCLA Bruin and member of the WUSA-era Freedom.

Walid and Ziad Khoury were plucked from youth side Slammers FC to jump on board as assistant coaches. This coaching staff combination exists to this day.

And the stadium itself was given a facelift. Natural grass gave way to FieldTurf. What was once a dirt track is now decked in Olympic rubber and named in honor of the great Carl Lewis, a supporter of the Blues.

At every home match, you will see the Tony Danza Army, one of the most dedicated groups of Pali Blues supporters in the country chanting while the Dolphin Marching Band serenades its spectators in the stands.

The 2008 Pali Blues featured a number of well-known faces in goalkeeper Karen Bardsley and Val Henderson, defenders Jill Oakes and Kendall Fletcher, midfielders Kacey White and Brittany Klein, and forward Kandace Wilson.

Others would also join the fray, including Danesha Adams, Manya Makoski, Sarah Walsh, Aly Wagner, Caitlin Munoz, Ilaria Pasqui, Carrie Dew, Amy LePeilbet, and Liz Bogus.

Their first-ever match was an exhibition against Beijing Zhaotai. The match resulted in a 1-1 draw but would be a sign of things to come. In February 2008, the Blues earned their first piece of hardware, defeated now-defunct Ajax America Women 1-0 to win the Silver Mug Invitational in Las Vegas.

In their lead-up to the 2008 W-League season, the Blues took no prisoners, going 5-0-1. This set them up quite nicely for their first-ever W-League contest, a date with Ventura County Fusion on May 10.

The Fusion never stood a chance. Second half braces by McCallum and Rosie Tantillo paced Pali to a comprehensive 5-0 rout.

The floodgates opened up, with wins over the LA Legends, Fort Collins Force and Real Colorado, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Seattle Sounders.

The only team that could stop the vaunted Blues was the US Under-23 national team, and that ended in a draw.

Nonetheless, Pali cruised to an unbeaten 12-0-0 record and the W-League regular season title, capped off with a 3-1 defeat of the Legends at the Stadium by the Seas on July 18.

"When the final whistle blew, I was relieved, but our team had me feeling pretty comfortable throughout the match that we would come through," Naimo stated after the match. "We played the right way, and that led to us getting the right result."

In the semifinals at Virginia Beach, Pali was at it again, facing the Washington Freedom. Goals by McCallum (26') and Adams (80') paced the Blues in dethroning the Freedom...and a match with former WPSL stalwart FC Indiana Lionesses.

For the first time in a while, Pali's unbeaten streak was on the verge of being broken.

But seven minutes from time, LePeilbet's header off the delivery by Tantillo tied the match.

Five minutes later, the rally was complete. Pasqui, one of Italy's most celebrated players in the women's game, scored off the delivery by Kandace Wilson against the run of play to secure the W-League title for Pali Blues, giving Naimo the title that had eluded him back in Jersey.

"We’re very proud to bring a championship back home to the Palisades," Naimo said. "That was our goal right from the start and it feels good to have accomplished what we set out to do."

As a result, Naimo was in it for the long haul.

Soon after, the Pali Blues suffered the first loss in their club's history, a 1-0 exhibition defeat to the U-20 Chinese Women's National Team on November 11.

All good things must come to an end. But the continuity of Pali was not going to go quietly into the sea. In spite of the Los Angeles Sol going through their one-year run in the WPS, the whole staff was back to defend their crown in 2009.

Among the new faces in the front office was Jason Lemire. A former account executive with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Lemire was named General Manager of the Blues on October 22, 2008.

The 2009 Pali Blues didn't rebuild—they reloaded. Gone were LePeilbet, McCallum, Fletcher, Wilson, Bogus, Adams, Trotter, Henderson, Dew, Klein, Bardsley, and Mele French.

In were New Zealander Ali Riley, Christen Press, Shayon Jalayer, Kelley O'Hara, Palisades native Amanda Lisberger, Karyn Riviere, Ella Stephan, Nikki Washington, Canadian international Kara Lang, Mexico's Iris Mora, England's Jodie Taylor, Beth McNamara, Ashlyn Harris, and Whitney Engen.

The 2009 side also featured a couple of rising young stars in Lauren Cheney and a certain North Carolina Tar Heel by the name of Tobin Heath.

This was a completely different makeup for Naimo's club. But this patchwork squad did the job in defeating the Legends, 2-1. The Pali manager put it all in perspective after the May 9 season opener.

“On one hand, I am disappointed with our performance because we did very little of what we discussed," Naimo said, "but I have to be happy that some of our experienced players knew how to find a way to win, one of which that had not even trained with the team yet.

“But I also want to credit the Legends once again for making us look unorganized and showing us where we need to improve.”

The adjustments weren't going to happen overnight. A tenacious test with the Real Colorado Cougars resulted in a 2-0 victory at the Stadium by the Sea.

The Whitecaps dealt the Blues their first-ever draw in W-League competition, with Seattle following suit with another draw. All of a sudden, it seemed as if the rest of the W-League caught up with the Blues.

Or did they?

Shaking off the shaky start to the season, Charlie Naimo's club got into form and reeled off six straight victories to claim the W-League Western Conference regular season crown.

Marta's presence at the Western Conference championship game may have been the deciding factor to Pali's 5-2 victory over the Colorado Force. Nonetheless, O'Hara broke a 2-2 deadlock in the 75th minute before Mora earned a brace in the victory.

That set up a date with the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues at the Newburgh Free Academy. A Mora brace helped give Pali a 4-0 win in a match hampered by a driving rainstorm.

“We saw when they came out that they were motivated,” Mora said after the match. “We knew we had to stay composed and defend on both ends of the field."

“It took us a while to get going at the beginning of the year, but all that matters is how you end the season,” Naimo said on the win.

The season would end with a match against the Washington Freedom Futures (then known as the Washington Freedom Reserves), who wanted their title back. They had to get past Pali first.

The prospects for the Futures to accomplish that formidable task were bleak.

Just like Pasqui was the heroine in 2008, Mora brought home the bacon—or rather, defended it on route in 2009. A crood from Kristy Yallop of the right flank found the Mexican phenom in the 88th minute.

Mora was also instrumental in the first goal for Pali, scored in the 37th minute. A skilled facilitator with the ball at her feet, Mora got Kendal Billingsley involve to equalize Sandra Matute's goal for the Futures in the 13th minute of play.

The upcoming 2010 season, however, gave way to some new changes...and the most unwelcoming of news.

The Los Angeles Sol had folded due to the Anschutz Entertainment Group's inability to sell the club to an interested consortium of businesspeople in the area. That meant that the W-League gained a higher profile in Los Angeles and with it, the Pali Blues.

In addition, players like Heath, Cheney, Riley, Washington, O'Hara and Harris were all selected in the WPS Draft. The first five picks of the draft were all Pali players.

Entering the Pali pipeline this year are Matildas Claire Polkinghorne and Karla Reuter. Also falling in with the 2010 squad are Christie Shaner, who achieved success with the Sol and Sky Blue FC; Danish midfielders Catherine Paaske-Sørensen, and Julie Rydahl Bukh (from Sydney FC); Finland's Tuija Hyyrynen; Belgiums's Janice Cayman; young guns Tiana Brockway, Chelsea Cline, Ali Hawkins, Lauren Fowlkes, Alex Morgan and Cami Levin; and the Japanese duo of Emi Yamamoto and Hikari Nakade.

International experience. International youth. That is the power and genius of Pali Blues Soccer Club.

The 2010 season began with a preseason match with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat. The attempt at breaking the world record of 627 people juggling footballs was never close, but nor was the Blue Heat's attempt at joining a select group of teams that drew against or—even rarer—defeated Pali.

Goals by Takade, Hawkins and Leanne Champ gave Pali a 3-1 victory over Santa Clarita.

The countdown continues to the 2010 W-League season. Charlie Naimo has a huge opportunity in front of him: to become the first-ever team in the league to pull of three titles, and complete this feat in succession.

Who can stop Pali? Or maybe the question should be: will Pali stop itself?

There is no doubt, however, as to who is the team to beat this season in the W-League. It's the team that boasts a proud slogan.

"Pali Blues Soccer Club. Where Tomorrow's Heroes Play Today. "

The View from Victoria Street and Bleacher Report's Jo-Ryan Salazar will provide you with continuing coverage of the 2010 Pali Blues season.


Next issue: Volume Two, June 6, 2010