GOAL sat down with the American fullback to discuss how she redefined her goals to make her World Cup dream a reality
Let Sofia Huerta hype herself up for just one moment – she deserves to, after all. By any measure, Huerta shouldn't be here; she shouldn't be with this team for this tournament for this moment; it feels unfathomable.
A woman who initially opted to play for Mexico couldn't have imagined herself playing for the U.S. women's national team. And a player that once had so many reasons to doubt herself could never have predicted that she'd have so many reasons to believe.
That's what got Huerta to this moment: belief. It's what got her from the wilderness to the World Cup. Seven years ago, she found herself playing for Adelaide United with no real idea of what would come next. On Friday night, she could very well start for the USWNT in Auckland in the first game of their 2023 World Cup.
The path to this point has been anything but a straight line. Huerta isn't like many of her team-mates, many of whom were tipped for success at an early age. For so long she was an outsider. Yet, here she is among the stars with a chance to represent her country at a World Cup.
"I've been in the league [NWSL] for 10 years," she says. "That is an accomplishment, for sure. I just signed a deal with Lotto. That's a big deal! I'm the first player from Idaho to become a female professional soccer player, the first to play for and against Mexico and the U.S. There are so many things! I know I just sounded a little cocky there, but I just think, in general, the mentality is now to focus on what you do have instead of what you don't.
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A long journey and nothing to lose
To understand Huerta, you have to understand her journey.
"Everyone's journey is very different and unique and amazing in its own way," she says. "My journey, specifically, has not been a straight line."
A Mexican-American born and raised in Idaho, Huerta's path to USWNT stardom has been anything but normal. In fact, her path to the USWNT ran straight through one of the team's big rivals, Mexico.
Having represented the U.S. and Mexico as a youth international, Huerta opted to join the latter back in 2012. She played five matches for them at international level, scoring twice, before deciding that her heart really was with the USWNT.
The problem was that, for a while, the USWNT didn't necessarily love Huerta back. Having earned seven caps with the U.S. after her initial switch, she tumbled down the pecking order after she failed to impress. It was at that time that her mental health began to deteriorate as she developed anxiety that made her lose belief in herself as a player and person.
That is what Huerta has battled back from. For three years, she found herself out of the USWNT picture and, for three years, she wondered: what's the point? In those moments, she wasn't just battling defenders, but herself.
"I'm a great teammate, a great friend, like there are so many things, and just because I'm not on the national team doesn't mean I'm not successful," she said while reflecting on those darker times. "Changing that narrative a few years back has definitely served me in the best way possible because it has made this time period before the World Cup easier. I've heard players say that if they don't make the roster, will they feel fulfilled in their career? I understand that, but, no matter what, I'm still gonna feel good about my career."
Huerta, admittedly, is still fighting back against that anxiety with the help of a mental health coach. But it's hard to say she isn't giving it hell, having built herself into one of the 23 best players in the USWNT player pool.
"It's never been guaranteed for me, and even right now, going into the World Cup, it's not guaranteed. My journey, specifically, definitely has allowed me to appreciate the position I'm in. I'm very thankful that I'm in the conversation, that I've been getting to camps the last couple years and I'm in a position where I can go to work. [Going to] a World Cup, I'll be one of the few who have gone to that first World Cup in their 30s. That kind of describes my journey a little bit.
"I was playing for the Mexican national team and I was with the U.S. and then I didn't do what I needed to do and then there was a few years in between and then I finally got called in again in a different position. I'm playing a completely different position than I have over the majority of my professional career.
"It's never been like linear for me. It's always been really winding and with a lot of uncertainty and I think really, just going into this summer, I had just more peace than I think anyone would expect considering my journey. But I think at this point, I have nothing to lose."
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Dealing with doubts
During those darker moments, Huerta had to ask herself some tough questions.
"I think it's human nature," she says. "I definitely always felt like I was enough and had the quality to be on the national team, but that wasn't really aligning with what the reality was. I wasn't getting called in. I wasn't really in the conversation. So then it was like, 'Okay, well, is my perception of myself different than what everyone else's perception of me is?' Of course, doubt creeps in and I think, 'Hey, did I miss out on that opportunity, or we're not gonna get this opportunity again?' That would have come in every once in a while.
"I think just with all the mental work I've done, that doesn't really serve me. In fact, it just like causes me to have more anxiety and really, ultimately, if I can't really perform at my highest level anyway, I'm never going to get called back."
For years, the national team was that definition. It is the pinnacle of the game, after all – the highest level a player can play at. Every player dreams of those moments of hearing the national anthem play. It was hearing that anthem, while on the Mexican side of it all, that convinced Huerta to switch over and follow her heart with the USWNT.
The USWNT always was the goal, but Huerta realized she couldn't make it her everything. Instead, she had to fall in love with the process again and rediscover why she got into this line of work in the first place.
"When you start getting in your head, you're not having fun anymore," she says. "Really, what are you doing? We all play! Yeah, the money has gotten better, of course, but we all started playing when there was absolutely no money! We played it because we loved it and it was fun and we enjoyed it. It was about getting back to that. So I just thought about how I want to be the best player I can be. I know that when I'm my best, I can be on the national team, so it was just getting back to that.
"I finally got back to that and, of course, I was noticed by Vlatko and got called up again."
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Faking it, Making it
Despite all she's done over the last few years, Huerta very much found herself right in that bubble heading toward the World Cup.
She felt good about what she'd done, and she had every reason to. Since returning to the USWNT in 2021, she's amassed 22 caps with 16 of them coming in 2022. Featuring that heavily in the year before a World Cup is, generally, a good sign, but World Cup rosters are always nervy, aren't they?
"Obviously, it's all about your perception," she says. "I think the initial few days when I left camp [in April], we had basically like two-and-a-half months until [Vlatko Andonovski] made the roster. There was a lot of anxiety. It was kind of like 'Okay, did I do everything that I need to do to solidify my spot?' It's almost like these questions that no-one knows the answer to and it was kind of pain-seeking a little bit. As I worked through that, I was like, 'Well, that's not really serving me'. I know what I've done the last couple of years with the national team, and in fact, what I've done in the NWSL.
"Of course, doubt can creep in and anxiety can creep in but at the end of the day, as we've heard many times, 'just fake it 'til you make it', and so I kind of took that mentality."
In the end, she was one of five fullbacks named to the U.S. squad and one of 14 first-timers heading to the World Cup. She's one of only five players in the squad that hasn't even played at a youth World Cup. She's the first player from Idaho to ever make the team and only the second, after Sydney Leroux, to make a USWNT squad after switching their international allegiance.
"I know I'm a good player, but, ultimately, the decision is kind of based on one person or a few coaches' decisions," she says. "If there was another coach, maybe I wouldn't be a guarantee. You never know! All I can do is what I can do, what's in my control, control the controllable. Vlatko is the one that has the hard job here, in my opinion!"
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A supreme crosser of the ball
The big reason Huerta is back with the USWNT? A positional switch that has allowed her to flex her world-class attribute week in, week out.
For the earlier parts of her career, Huerta was a winger but, in recent years, she's shifted back to right-back. And since that switch, she's become a crossing machine. Huerta is regarded as one of the world's best crossers of the ball. She's a player that can create a goal out of nothing with one swing of her foot.
"When I was in college, my coach Jerry Smith told me that one of the keys to being on the national team is being the best at something," she says. "That gets you in and keeps you in the national team: being the best at something. You kind of look at everyone and say, 'Oh, this person does that'. I've always had a pretty good cross. It's obviously going better because I've worked on that craft, but I remember him telling me that I have a world-class cross, keep working on it, and that will be my ticket. And it's pretty funny now because I think he's right!
"I believe I'm a quality player for sure, but I think one of the main reasons I'm on this team is because I have such a good cross."
Huerta is right: that's why she's here. And it's what makes her such an interesting option for the USWNT.
So often, teams sit in deep against the U.S. and, over the last few years, the team has struggled a bit to break teams down. That's where Huerta could come in. There's no real defense for a perfectly-hit cross, after all.
"That's my favorite part about playing since the position change," she says. "Previously being an attacking player, obviously I have a very attacking mindset. I play defense and that's the priority, of course, but I'm on the national team because I'm an attacking outside back. I'm not necessarily this phenomenal one-on-one defender. I can get forward and I get crosses in the box for my team-mates to score.
"I really try to focus on what I'm really, really good at. That's always the main key of mine in the game: let me have at least two to four key passes that can create big chances. It's also about getting better at what I get better at, and I'm a defender now so I need to get better in certain areas and I focus on that on the daily as well. It is a balance, but I definitely try to focus on, and what I find important, is just being good at what I'm really good at."
It remains to be seen how much Huerta will play this summer. She'll be battling star fullback Emily Fox and veteran Kelley O'Hara for a spot on that right-hand side. But, if there comes a time where the U.S. needs someone to create some danger, Andonovski will know where to look.