Pali Blues Press Release - www.bluessoccerclub.com
Monday, August 25, 2008
SANTA MONICA, CA – When midfielder Carli Lloyd scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal in the Olympic Final, no cheers were louder than that of Pali Blues head coach Charlie Naimo, who had a personal reason for his excitement. Lloyd, along with four other players who were competing for Olympic gold today in Beijing, are former players of the two-time championship coach.
U.S. National Team forwards Heather O’Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley, midfielder Tobin Heath and Brazilian standout Formiga are four other players from the Gold Medal Match that have spent time in the W-League with Naimo. Other participants in the Olympic games that played under the tutelage of the Blues head coach were Canadian National Team players Karina LeBlanc and Melissa Tancredi.
“It has been a blessing to have had these players as a part of my program over the years,” Naimo proudly commented. “It is no surprise to me that they are where they are. They were all competitors aside from being fantastic players.”
Tarpley (2005), O’Reilly (2004-05) and Lloyd (2004) were members of the Wildcats alongside Naimo while Lloyd also played for the current Blues head coach with the Central Jersey Splash in 1999. Tarpley and O’Reilly were both members of the New Jersey Wildcats 2005 W-League championship side. The roots go even deeper with O’Reilly and Lloyd as Naimo coached both of them at the youth level.
Formiga first came to the United States in 2006, joining Naimo with the New Jersey Wildcats. After a 13-goal season that netted a midfield spot on the All-League Team, she followed him to the expansion Jersey Sky Blue where she met up with Heath, who had played the two previous seasons prior to the arrival of Formiga with the Wildcats.
Although the duo spent most of the season away from the club fulfilling international commitments, they showed quite the chemistry when they were together in the first three games of the year. In the first game of the season, Formiga set up Heath for two goals in a 4-0 win over Western Mass. In their next two games, Formiga would tally a goal and two assists and Heath also hit another goal.
