Boise native Sofia Huerta is on the World Cup roster bubble. She’s used to being there

Roaming from Idaho to Australia, Sofia Huerta hasn’t charted the most conventional path to women’s World Cup roster contention.

With a spot on Coach Vlatko Andonovski’s 23-player squad this summer, the Boise native would become the first player from the Gem State to suit up for the U.S. national team on soccer’s grandest stage. Huerta also would be the only woman to have represented another national team before playing for the United States in a World Cup, having earned five caps for Mexico from 2012 to 2013.

The 30-year-old, a 2011 Centennial High School graduate, has played for three NWSL teams and embarked on three stints in Australia during a winding club career. Positionally, Huerta was recruited to Santa Clara as a center back before shifting to forward in college, making a name for herself as an attacker in the NWSL, then dropping to right back to play her way into the U.S. team.

“People just really liked to tell me that I wasn’t going to ever make it,” Huerta said. “I was always told when I was younger that I was good for Idaho but I would never make it in college. When I was in college, I was good in college but I’m never going to make it in the pros. Then when I got to the pros, I was really good in the pros but I would never make the national team. So I literally have always been told no.”

That includes by two U.S. coaches — Jill Ellis, then Andonovski — as Huerta fell out of the national team picture from June 2018 to November 2021 after making several appearances for the Americans in the buildup to the 2019 World Cup.

But after establishing herself at right back in the NWSL with Seattle-based OL Reign, Huerta earned a recall under Andonovski and developed into a national team fixture ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Of all the field players in Andonovski’s player pool, Huerta is the only one in her 30s who, if selected for the World Cup, would be playing her first major international tournament.

“It says a lot about her ability to stay patient,” said Alana Cook, a center back who plays alongside Huerta with the Reign and the U.S. team. “It can be devastating to be cut from any roster. To have the steadiness, to have the self-belief to keep chipping away and keep working at it and keep bettering yourself to be ready whenever that next call comes, it’s impressive. It’s just a testament to her fortitude.”

Looking back on her Idaho upbringing, Huerta said that “late bloomer” persona was instilled from a young age. With two older siblings who played soccer and a father who coached, Huerta was indoctrinated in the sport at a young age. But Idaho largely lacked the infrastructure to develop players, or the exposure to identify top-tier talent.

As an athlete who played soccer three months a year and spent the rest of her time competing in basketball, track and swimming, Huerta acknowledged subsequently feeling “deficient in my technicality” as she played catch-up with prospects from other states.

“It’s not the most competitive area when it comes to sports,” Huerta said. “There were a lot of times where I did lack some resources, so I wasn’t quite sure if that was going to happen for me.”

If Huerta faced a learning curve in college, it didn’t show in her production: She posted 47 goals and 19 assists in four years at Santa Clara, earning West Coast Conference co-player of the year honors as a senior. Along the way, she began to play for Mexico — her father is from Puebla — but announced before the 2015 World Cup that she would turn down further call-ups in hopes of representing the United States.

“Pretty much everyone told me that I should just play for Mexico and that the U.S. is probably not really going to be an option,” Huerta said. “I even had coaches tell me that, and close friends. But I just knew that I could do it.”

Picked 11th in the 2015 NWSL draft by the Chicago Red Stars, Huerta scored six goals in her first season en route to a spot on the rookie of the year shortlist. In 2017, she formally switched international allegiance and made her U.S. debut that September as then-coach Ellis tried converting her to right back.

The following season, Huerta requested a trade from Chicago to the Houston Dash so that she could play right back at the club level - only to unexpectedly be slotted into an attacking role there as well. Without regular reps at the position, Huerta saw her U.S. call-ups dry up.

“That’s probably when I questioned if I made the right decision,” Huerta said. “It was a lot of negativity. I just felt like I didn’t take the opportunity that was given to me and do everything I could. I had a lot of regret and anxiety.”

With a life coach’s assistance, Huerta focused on redefining success — the national team, she told herself, was not the be-all and end-all of a soccer career — and looking forward. Having previously played for Australian team Adelaide United during the offseason, she returned down under for loan stints with Sydney FC ahead of the 2019 and 2020 NWSL seasons in hopes of further sharpening her game.

“She never gives up, and she’s a fighter,” said Danielle Colaprico, Huerta’s former teammate in Chicago, Adelaide and Sydney. “The second someone tells you that she can’t do something, she’ll turn around and do it.”

A trade brought Huerta to Seattle in early 2020, but it wasn’t until Laura Harvey took over as Reign coach a year later that she made the move to right back full time. Within months, Huerta was back with the national team as U.S. regulars Crystal Dunn and Casey Krueger took time off to have children and Andonovski looked to bulk up his options at outside back. When veteran Kelley O’Hara suffered a foot injury at last summer’s Concacaf W Championship in Mexico, Huerta logged the full 90 minutes in the semifinal and final as the Americans edged Olympic gold medalist Canada for the title.

Although a number of American outside backs can jump into the attack, Huerta’s background as a prolific attacker adds a different dimension. With the ability to bomb down the flank, ping pinpoint crosses into the box and take aim at goal from distance, Huerta brings attacking prowess that has thus far negated concerns about her lack of defensive experience.

“I think people will say my defensive side lacks quality,” Huerta said. “I personally back myself and believe that that was just going to take time.”

Cook and Colaprico also hail Huerta’s ability to liven a locker room, throwing around terms like “happy-go-lucky,” “bubbly” and “vibrant.” Still, Huerta knows her World Cup ticket is far from assured: Dunn and Krueger are back, O’Hara is healthy and Emily Fox has played her way into a starting spot. “You have lock-ins and you have bubble players,” Huerta said. “I would consider myself more of a bubble player.” But considering her twisting trek to today, feeling safe in her selection wouldn’t have felt quite right.

“I had some unfortunate bumps in the road, but I think it just makes my journey unique,” Huerta said. “I don’t think it was ever going to be an easy road for me. So it’s actually more fitting that I had to face some adversity than just having a smooth-sailing journey.”