Seattle Reign’s Sofia Huerta has always loved assisting. It’s not just because she broke the NWSL all-time record for assists in Week 17, though it certainly doesn’t hurt.
“If you’re assisting, you’re obviously a huge reason why the ball is getting in the back of the goal,” Huerta said. “In some ways, I can feel like the quarterback, like the creator of the play.”
Specifically, Huerta said she loves setting her teammates up on long crosses – just like she did for Jordyn Huitema against the Houston Dash on August 24. She launched a cross from out wide into the box, and Huitema leapt up, getting her head on it and past the Dash’s Jane Campbell to tie the game up.
“I got the ball and I looked up. I see both Jordyn and Lynn [Biyendolo] in the box,” Huerta said. “I saw two lethal goal scorers in the box and thought, ‘Hey, my odds are good here.’”
She bet right. It was Huerta’s 32nd career assist, setting a new NWSL record and breaking what was previously a four-way tie – with two of her Reign teammates and the now-retired Jessica McDonald. Both Biyendolo and Jess Fishlock have 31 career assists.
“Everybody was obviously really happy for me and the same would happen if they broke the record. We’re all really supportive of each other. We all laughed. This is actually ideal, you know,” Huerta said. “Let's keep going back and forth. Let's keep breaking that because that just means we're scoring more goals.”
Of her 32 career assists, 17 have been for game-winning goals. Learning that more than half of her assists changed game results was a surprise for Huerta, but a validating one.
“Something I've kind of always dealt with was just not feeling like I was contributing at times, which isn't necessarily always true, but that's something that I've kind of dealt with,” Huerta said. “So to hear that I'm like, you know what, no. That signifies that I'm a consistent player … I'd be very happy that I was able to leave such a mark on my career.”
It probably comes as less of a shock to the players who take the field with her. With that kind of impact, her teammates, like Huitema, don’t take her place setting for granted.
“I love having Sof on the field with me. I think our relationship when it comes to, especially crosses into the box, has been amazing for the past few years,” Huitema said in the post game press conference. “She has so much quality, and I think it shows, like leading the whole league in assists now. It was quite easy to score it when it’s put on a platter like that.”
It had been more than two years since Huerta last assisted Huitema, a game-winner against the Current. Two weeks later on June 24, 2023, she earned her 31st career assist, teeing up Bethany Balcer for the game-winner against San Diego.
And there, at 31 assists, Huerta stayed. She ultimately decided to join the OL Lyonnes in September 2024, a difficult choice but one that helped her grow as a player and person.
“Being able to compete in the Champions League, that was always a dream of mine,” Huerta said. “Did I ever think that would become a reality? Not necessarily … It's not that I wasn't happy where I was at. It was also the question of, ‘Why do I love being a professional soccer player so much?’ I would say one of the main reasons is that I get to be challenged every day.”
The loan did prove to be a challenge for Huerta, but she welcomed it. Living in another country, playing on a different team, not getting the playing time she was expecting, it all added up.
It’s not the first time she’d been pushed in her career. After not being selected for the 2012 U.S. FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup team, Huerta made the Mexican roster. Two years later, she announced she was going to try again to make the senior U.S. national team, and Huerta earned her first cap in 2017, becoming the first woman to play for both the Mexican and U.S. national teams.
Despite making the team in 2017, Huerta didn’t make the final roster for the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship. She didn’t cap again for the U.S. until four years later.
These moments laid the foundation for her time in Lyon.
“I think as athletes, it's so easy to need outside validation, whether that's from your coaches or from fans and whatever it is.What's really important as an athlete is to realize that the most important thing is how you view yourself,” Huerta said. “I was able to really dig deep and know that, even if I wasn't being picked to play, that I was still a good player.”
That self realization came back with Huerta when she rejoined her Reign teammates earlier this summer. When she got back to Seattle, she was ready to go.
“In some ways, I've been wanting to come back since I left,” Huerta said. “I'm also really appreciative of that experience, but I can't deny that I really missed Seattle. I also really missed the NWSL as a league.”
That’s, in part, due to how competitive the league is. Heading into Week 18, the Reign are in sixth place, but the table will inevitably shuffle before the season is done.
This is a far cry from where Seattle was at the end of the 2024 season, finishing in second to last place and missing the playoffs entirely. Between the 2023 and 2024 season, the Reign lost impact players like Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, and Sam Hiatt.
Regardless of where the Reign finished last season, Huerta said the locker room didn’t get jaded.
“We would go to trainings and it’d be tough after a loss, but it always felt really positive despite the results,” she said. “That’s always consistent on the Reign. I think it was a bit of a rebuild year, and now players are wanting to prove that it’s not still a rebuild year. You’ve seen that in the consistent play we’ve had throughout the year.”
As the regular NWSL season winds down, the push for playoffs will only intensify. While Huerta said she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel any pressure, her faith in her teammates eases it.
“I think we have the team to go very far. This league is so tight. Sometimes it comes down to the end of the season, and it depends on other results. We don't want to be in that position. We want to be in a position where we control our fate.”
