Sofia Huerta reaches a big moment for the U.S. women’s soccer team, and for herself

SALT LAKE CITY — Spend enough time around U.S. national soccer teams, and you figure out after a while that when a player is put up for a news conference the day before a game, they’re probably going to start.

So when Sofia Huerta sat down at the Zoom camera on Monday afternoon, that was a sign. And when U.S. women’s team manager Vlatko Andonovski said usual starting right back Kelley O’Hara won’t start Tuesday’s game against Colombia (10 p.m., ESPN, ViX), you could just about ask to solve the puzzle.

Andonovski didn’t emulate U.S. men’s team manager Gregg Berhalter, who revealed the lineups for his team’s two June friendlies on game-day eve. But Andonovski had a good reason: He hadn’t told his players yet. So he just offered a lot of hints.

That Huerta is set for the spotlight Tuesday matters, for the national team and for her personally. As good and accomplished as O’Hara is, the two-time World Cup winner is 33. The U.S. needs a backup now, and a successor later.

Huerta is positioned to fit the bill. The 29-year-old hasn’t always been a right back as a player, but has grown into being one since former U.S. manager Jill Ellis first thought it would be a good idea to play her there. And while it wasn’t necessarily a good idea, Huerta went for it anyway — only to be left out when it mattered.

But she kept at it, and now could finally see the reward. Huerta will be on the U.S. squad for next month’s Concacaf World Cup and Olympics qualifying tournament, and even if she doesn’t play much, she knows it’s a big opportunity just to be there.

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“My conversations with Vlatko have always been really honest, and he’s been really great with what my role is going to be,” she said. “It’s obviously a really, really competitive environment, and everyone has something that makes them really special. This is my first big tournament, but I do know that obviously with so many games in such a short amount of time, hopefully I will get a chance and I’ll be able to show what I can do.”

The personal level of this for Huerta is a compelling story. Born in Boise, Idaho, she grew up playing for U.S. youth teams, then switched to Mexico, where her father is from. But while Huerta played three friendlies for La Tri, she never played an official game for them, which meant the door was open for a switch back.

In 2017, she walked through it, playing three U.S. games that year and four in 2018. But some of those games didn’t go well. She didn’t play for the national team again until last November, when Andonovski took a batch of newcomers to Australia. Now she has 13 caps in all, including one at Subaru Park last April, and has contributed two assists in those games.

“I can say this now: Looking back, I just wasn’t prepared,” Huerta said. “I was able to get back on to the team with hard work, obviously working on my game, but more so my mental side.”

Now, she continued, “I’m comfortable with where I’m at … and I’m confident that I’m meant to be here.”

“I trusted my gut in terms of making that decision and switching to the U.S.,” she said. “A lot of people questioned that — a lot of people close to me questioned that. I sometimes questioned that. But obviously I made the right decision, because I’m here where I know I’m meant to be, and I’m obviously just really excited that it all came true.”

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Next month will bring another plot twist: Concacaf’s tournament will be played in Mexico, and the U.S. will play the hosts in their group stage finale. The stage will be one of the country’s most raucous, Tigres UANL’s 42,000-seat Estadio Universitario in suburban Monterrey. It will be packed and potentially sold out for one of the biggest home games in Mexico’s history.

“There’s a huge fan base for women’s soccer there, which is a surprise to me, because I felt when I played on Mexico, that was something that was lacking,” Huerta said. “It is difficult, but I think what the staff has done well and what some of the veterans have done well is explaining to everyone on the team that this is something we’re going to face.”

The U.S. women haven’t played a tournament game with a crowd against them since the 2019 World Cup quarterfinal vs. host France. But there were still some 10,000 U.S. fans in Paris that night, coming through loud and clear. The crowd at “El Volcan” (The Volcano), as Tigres’ stadium is known, will be truly one-sided.

“That’s something we can handle — maybe it’s not something we’re used to, but this is such good practice for us,” Huerta said. “If, and hopefully when, we qualify for the World Cup, this is just something that will prepare us for it.”

But there will be some blue in the crowd of Mexican red, white, and green. Huerta said her family from Puebla, Mexico, will be cheering for one of their own.

“It’s kind of like a full-circle journey for me,” she said. “I haven’t seen them since I was a senior in college, so it’s very special for me. My dad’s coming; he’s going to be able to spend time with his family as well, and I know that they’ll be wearing U.S. jerseys. So that’s pretty cool, too.”

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