Ashlyn Puerta has seen a lot of change in the past few years, but in sunny St. Augustine, Florida, she’s found her groove. With 11 goals and seven assists, the 19-year-old attacker is already one of the nascent USL Super League’s best players, and helped her club, Sporting Club Jacksonville, clinch a playoff spot with six games to go. Suffice it to say, Puerta and Sporting JAX, both in their first year, have far exceeded expectations.
As an expansion side, “Our goal was never to win everything,” Puerta told The IX Sports. Ending the season in one of the four playoff spots was the club’s original aim, but that has now changed. The team hopes to remain in first place by the end of May, but Puerta says that the strategy is level-headed: “Our team is very big on just keeping everything one game at a time.”
This steady approach has been refreshing for Puerta, as her career has involved plenty of turmoil in recent years. “I would say that [change] has been probably the hardest thing for me,” she said. In the past four years, the San Diego native has jumped from playing with boys in MLS Next to starting for the reigning NCAA champions, Florida State University, to now playing at the professional level. This constant whirlwind is at odds with Puerta’s on-field philosophy: “I like to create relationships with players and learn how they play, and play off of that. So when you only get a little bit of time with [them], it’s a little harder to do that.”
The experience may have been difficult, but by taking it one step at a time, the teenager has learned to adapt. At Albion SC, while playing with boys, Puerta was forced to act and think faster to keep up with the pace of the game. Later, after being recruited by FSU, Puerta was pushed into a more defensive role, which hindered her creativity. Now, however, the star player is in a system that complements her preferred style of play.
Growing up, Puerta idolized the free-flowing Barcelona teams that dominated the 2010s. Her siblings were her first teammates, and she fondly recalls the playfulness with which they practiced. “We would go out there, the three of us, and just pretend we were Barcelona and pass the ball around,” she recalled. Puerta also views her parents, who both played collegiately, as her first coaches. Even now, looking back, Puerta has no doubt about who helped define her style of play: “I would say [Lionel] Messi and my parents are the biggest influences.”
When she first spoke to former Sporting JAX President and CEO Steve Livingstone and Head of Soccer Mark Warburton, Puerta hoped that Jacksonville would be the place where she could finally feel at home. At the time, however, the team was still lacking a coach, and it was unclear whether that dream would materialize. Nine months into the season, the plan that Puerta was sold on has come to fruition; Jacksonville ranks as one of the highest possession teams in the league and the team has created more expected goals (xG) than any other side according to American Soccer Analysis (ASA). Puerta credits the coaching staff and a cohesive locker room with the team’s performance. “I think it’s really cool how… we have so much chemistry right off the bat. That’s really helped [because] it’s much easier to play with people that you love,” she said. “And the coaches are obviously supportive of that and they’re great.”
As for Puerta, the high-possession style has allowed her to flourish. She ranks as one of the best midfielders in the league according to ASA’s goals added (g+) metric, an all-around stat that measures a player’s on-ball contribution. The teenager also ranks second in the golden boot race and is tied for first for most assists. Puerta says she doesn’t chase the awards, though: “Obviously I do want to win those things because it’s cool, but at the end of the day, it’s more important for me that … we’re winning as a team.”
Despite hitting the ground running, Puerta thinks that there’s still room to grow. The teenager hopes to work on her “winger mentality,” especially her ability to drive at opponents in space. She is learning from teammates like Paige Kenton and Meg Hughes, who Puerta says are strong dribblers and examples of what she hopes to emulate. Another area where the attacker hopes to improve is knowing when to pass and when to shoot. “Sometimes I feel like I look more for the pass — if I have a window to pass it, then I also might have a window to shoot it,” she said.
These attributes are in keeping with the Messi-like player Puerta has always strived to become. “Obviously, no one can play like Messi, so I’m in no way comparing myself, but I try to play like him the best I can,” she said. And while there’s still plenty of time to keep growing, Puerta has already cemented herself as one of the league’s star players.
As for where she’ll be playing next season and beyond, anything is possible: “If I’ve learned anything in the past few years it’s [that] anything can happen in literally the next week or so.” Puerta, however, stressed that she loves St. Augustine and is content to stay, having found an environment fit for her in Sporting JAX.“I’m just following what God has planned for me,” she said.
The USL Super League is one of two Division I professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S., with the other being the older National Women’s Soccer League. Puerta isn’t under the impression that the Super League is a step down from the NWSL. “I think they’re equals. I think one of the only reasons that people think [less of] the USL is just because it hasn’t been around as long,” Puerta remarked.
She also pointed to possession and passing statistics as proof of a stylistic difference between the leagues. “I feel like [the NWSL is] more transitional … and I think the USL in general tries to keep possession a little bit more and tries to keep the ball.” The numbers back up Puerta’s assertion — a higher number of passes per possession correlates with more xG in the Super League, but no such relationship exists in the NWSL. In that way, Puerta says that the Super League is more similar to European leagues.
While going across the Atlantic could be in the cards, Puerta again hesitated to make any definitive statements. “I think obviously it would be awesome to go to Europe, because I’ve always wanted to,” she said, but past experiences training with teams in Europe have shown Puerta that living there is very different to living in the United States. “I’m very American, I’ll just put it that way,” Puerta said with a laugh.
Off the field, one thing she’d miss about the U.S. is the “muscle cars.” Puerta says she loves the quintessential American experience of a big, loud, “‘I don’t care if it’s going to make everybody in the neighborhood mad and … I’m getting 10 miles to the gallon’” car. It’s something that Puerta appreciates about Florida life that she wouldn’t be able to get in Europe.
Another hallmark of the sunshine state that Puerta has become accustomed to is the trucks. “They’re lifted 12 inches and they [have] the 30-inch rims in and they’re basically monster trucks. … It’s kind of crazy,” she said. “You almost expect a tied-up gator to be in the back, like somebody just wrestled a gator. It’s really cool. I love them.” That isn’t Puerta’s dream car, however; that would be the Mustang Shelby GT500.
While that may not be a car often seen in Europe, Puerta ultimately isn’t too worried. After a half-decade of constant change, Puerta continues to trust the path ahead of her. It’ll depend on “if it’s God’s plan to go to Europe [or] stay here,” she said. “I’m happy to do either. It’s a win-win for me.”
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