Idaho native selected for U.S. Women’s World Cup team. She’s the first in state history

Boise native Sofia Huerta spent years betting on herself, hearing the word “no” over and over again. But all those no’s turned in a dream-making yes Wednesday.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team selected Huerta as part of its 23-woman roster for this summer’s World Cup, making her the first Idaho native named to a men’s or women’s U.S. World Cup roster.

Huerta, 30, joins the two-time defending world champs as they try to become the first country to win three titles in a row next month. The U.S. starts group play against July 21 against Vietnam.

Wednesday’s selection caps a journey that saw Huerta, a 2011 Centennial High grad, turn down a chance to star for the Mexican national team to chase her dream of playing for the red, white and blue. That gamble led to plenty of doubts as the dual citizen went three and a half years without making an appearance for the world’s premier women’s soccer power.

Even Huerta wondered if she made the right decision to make the one-time transfer to play for the U.S. But she remade herself from one of the NWSL’s top offensive players into a steady and dangerous right back to catch the attention of U.S. coaches. And after 43 months in exile, the switch paid off as she started receiving regular national team call-ups as the U.S. searched for its next generation of talent.

“People just really liked to tell me that I wasn’t going to ever make it,” Huerta told the Washington Post in May.

“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.”

Not anymore. Huerta has since appeared in 20 of the U.S. team’s past 25 games. That includes three starts and appearances in all five games during last summer’s Concacaf W Championship, which the U.S. won to clinch a World Cup berth and a trip to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Yet her spot on the World Cup team was anything but a given. She spent all spring listed as on the bubble by a range of media outlets. Despite ranking second all-time in NWSL history with 30 career assists, pundits pointed to her lack of experience and age as reasons to select someone else.

But Huerta’s consistent production and recent form with her club, OL Reign in Seattle, made her impossible to leave off the roster.

“I’m more comfortable with where I’m at, not just position-wise, but mentally,” Huerta said in a press conference last year. “I feel comfortable being here, and I’m confident that I’m meant to be here.”