When Sofia Huerta walked onto the field at Wembley for the U.S. women’s national team’s friendly with England on Oct. 7, she found herself blown away.
“I was just like, ‘What is happening, what is going on?’” she said of the experience.
The fireworks, the crowd and the overall atmosphere were unlike anything the OL Reign defender had experienced in her career. She chatted about the moment with Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams on the latest edition of the Snacks podcast from Just Women’s Sports.
“Playing at Wembley was honestly like the coolest thing ever,” she said. “I feel like since I haven’t been to a World Cup or Olympics, I’ve really never played in anything like that. Not even close. I think the most I ever played in front of was probably around 30,000, which is great too, but I think just in general, the energy at Wembley is unreal.”
There were jerseys everywhere, for both squads, Huerta said — and the crowd was akin to what she expects for the World Cup in June.
The 29-year-old defender went on to acknowledge the two losses, to England and then Spain. England topped the US 2-1, and Spain came away with a 2-0 victory. It was the first time the USWNT had lost back-to-back contests in over five years.
But Huerta isn’t worried about the losses. Instead, she stressed the importance of playing difficult games to prepare for the World Cup.
“We always want to win, but I also understand that every team that wins at one point faces adversity and goes through a time like this,” she said.
The USWNT can take good and bad from the games against England and Spain, Huerta said, and use those when they play Germany in two friendly matches in November.
