Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Tuesday, November 11, 2008) - In a farewell match for many Pali Blues alumnae, the U-20 Chinese Women’s National Team scored the deciding goal in the final minutes of play to culminate an exciting evening of soccer. The Pali Blues will return to USL W-League action in May 2009, but many players from the 2008 championship season will be moving on to the new Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).

"As a staff, we made a lot of changes during the game with personnel," Blues head coach Charlie Naimo commented. "That tampered with the rhythm but the approach was to have fun and get everybody on the pitch. Everything was going according to plan until the 86th minute cornerkick found its way into the back of the net. Oh well, that is soccer. This is the type of game I’m happy to use up our bad luck on."

For the over 400 fans who turned out on a brisk November night, the game was a chance to cheer on many of the players so integral to the team’s inaugural season in 2008 that concluded with the Blues winning the W-League championship in Virginia Beach.

"It was a great back-and-forth game with very few chances either way, and it had 0-0 written all over it," Naimo continued. "It was obvious that our former players had been trying to keep up with the game in preparation for the new league or combine, but it is impossible without games. We as a group were happy to provide the Chinese team with a world class game."

The U-20 Chinese Women’s National Team now departs for Chile, where they will take on Argentina, France and the United States in the first round of the U-20 Women’s World Cup.