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Pali Sings the Blues After 3-3 Draw in Seattle
Price assists on all three goals, but the Pali team is singing the blues after a 3-3 draw in Seattle.
An optimist will call the Pali Blues soccer team's road trip a success given that the women played three games in five days and came away with one win, one loss and one draw.
A pessimist will look at it as a missed opportunity to take over first place in the W-League's Western Conference standings.
The Blues began the Pacific Northwest swing in third place and they return home tied for second with Santa Clarita after the Seattle Sounders rallied for two goals in the final 14 minutes to salvage a 3-3 draw on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Starfire Sports Stadium in Seattle.
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Pali had blanked the Sounders 2-0 in their previous meeting June 5 at Palisades High and the Blues appeared well on their way to victory again when they scored three unanswered goals, the last on a long shot by Anisa Guajardo that found the back of the net to give Pali a 3-1 lead going into halftime.
The host Sounders opened the scoring in the 19th minute when Joceyln Charette broke in alone on Blues goalkeeper Anna Maria Picarelli and fired the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
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It took the Blues two minutes to answer back on a corner kick when Sasha Andrews capitalized on a mix up in front of the Seattle goal, with Florida State's Jessica Price being credited for the assist.
Pali kept the pressure on the home side and scored the go-ahead goal in the 41st minute on yet another corner kick when Price found Stanford midfielder Mariah Nogueira, who scored on the set piece.
The Blues missed several chances to extend their lead early in the second half and Seattle regained the momentum in the 76th minute when Justi Baumgardt fed a through ball to substitute Justina MacDowell, who beat Picarelli to cut her team's deficit in half.
Ten minutes later, the Sounders were awarded a penalty kick after a collision in the box and former Women's Professional Soccer player Sophie Reiser went top shelf to level the game.
The Blues (5-0-4) earned one point for their efforts and have 19 points, the same as Santa Clarita. However, the Blue Heat (6-0-1) have played three fewer games than Pali and first-place Vancouver (7-1-2), which has 23 points. Seattle (3-5-2) is fifth out of eight teams in the conference.
The Blues will be back in Pacific Palisades for their final home games--Thursday at 7 p.m. versus the Colorado Force and Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Colorado Rush at Stadium by the Sea.
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2011 Pali Blues Schedule
Saturday, May 14 -- Pali Blues 1, Los Angeles Strikers 0
Friday, May 20 -- Pali Blues 2, Victoria Highlanders 1
Thursday, May 26 -- Pali Blues 0, Santa Clarita Blue Heat 0
Wednesday, June 1 -- Pali Blues 1, Vancouver Whitecaps 1
Sunday, June 5 -- Pali Blues 2, Seattle Sounders 0
Thursday, June 9 -- Pali Blues 0, Colorado Force 0
Saturday, June 11 -- Pali Blues 2, Colorado Rush 1
Wednesday, June 22 -- Pali Blues 3, Victoria Highlanders 2
Friday, June 24 -- Vancouver Whitecaps 1, Pali Blues 0
Sunday, June 26 -- Pali Blues 3, Seattle Sounders 3
Thursday, June 30 -- vs. Colorado Force at Palisades High, 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 2 -- vs. Colorado Rush at Palisades High, 4 p.m.
Saturday, July 9 -- at Los Angeles Strikers, Pasadena City College, 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 17 -- at Santa Clarita Blue Heat, Canyon High, 7 p.m.
