By Daniel Duque, March 5, 2024
Following their successful 2023 season, Bronco goalkeeper Bella Hara and defenders Giselle Samayoa and Briana Johnson were recruited by the Guam and Guatemala women’s national teams respectively to represent their nations in confederation tournaments, this being the players’ first professional international experience.
The Cal Poly Pomona women’s soccer team registered an overall 11-5-3 record last season and won its first-ever CCAA regular season under head coach Jay Mason’s leadership.
“It honestly is unbelievable; I didn’t even know I could qualify to the national team until recently,” said Hara. “To be called up and to represent what has been my heritage and my culture for a while, it is awesome to get this opportunity. And also, to represent Cal Poly as a program abroad and to just get our name on the board is really cool.”
In February, Hara was recruited by the Guam national women’s team to represent her nation in the West Asian Football Federation Women’s Championship hosted in Saudi Arabia and acted as the starting goalkeeper in the three games her team played.
Hara stated that there is a major difference in level between college and professional soccer.
“It is really interesting coming from a college soccer perspective because for the girls I’m playing against, soccer is their life, soccer is their salary, soccer is everything that they are working for,” said Hara. “It is a lot different, but it gives me confidence that I know that I’m able to play at this level.”
Before joining the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos, Hara was the goalkeeper at Azusa Pacific University until the 2022 season. As a Bronco, she started in all 19 games of the 2023 season in which she accumulated 43 saves and seven clean sheets.
After experiencing her first international competition while representing her nation, Hara expressed that women’s soccer has a promising future considering Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the WAFF tournament and the latter’s senior women’s national team’s recent creation in 2021.
“I think the women’s game is expanding and that every team in every country is getting better and better,” said Hara. “I think girls who are young and want to make a name for themselves and want to be like their role models is what is going to drive the expansion of women’s soccer and women’s sports.”
During the 2023 season, Samayoa started in all 19 games played by the Broncos, registering a goal and an assist. In February, she was recruited by the Guatemala women’s national team for the match against El Salvador to fight for a spot in the Women’s Gold Cup hosted in the United States.
“For me, it is a really big step forward being able to play pro after college,” said Samayoa. “It is a way for me to get exposure to step up my career after college.”
Despite Guatemala losing 3-1 to El Salvador, preventing them from earning a spot in the Gold Cup, Samayoa got her first minutes as a professional after getting called off the bench.
“The style of play from playing with any team is different; we need to adapt to how Guatemala plays, which is way different to how we play here in college,” said Samayoa.
She said that by representing her country, attention from fans is bigger and players can be the target of criticism and other comments based on the team’s performance. Additionally, she stressed that commitment is an important part of playing professionally and that there is no time for breaks.
Before joining the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos, Samayoa played club soccer for the Orange County team Strikers FC in the ECNL, led by CPP women’s soccer assistant coach Dan Richards, who helped with her recruitment process.
“I did not see myself playing college soccer, but after getting a lot of opportunities, I decided to commit really late in my senior year,” said Samayoa.
Samayoa stated that women’s soccer has been growing outside the United States, and there has been more recognition in recent years, but she expressed her desire for women’s soccer to attract the same attention as men’s soccer.
“There are a lot more supporters and more recognition but not as much as the men, but even these small countries that have these good teams and these good players are getting more recognition, not only the United States, so that is a really good thing,” said Samayoa.
Prior to joining the Broncos, Johnson played at Alcorn State University’s soccer team during the 2023 season. During camp in Guatemala in August last year, Johnson met Samayoa and was convinced to transfer in the spring to become a Bronco as a new player for the upcoming season.
During her 2023 season at Alcorn State, Johnson started in 11 out of the 12 games she played in, registering 14 shots on goal. Along with Samayoa, Johnson was recruited by Guatemala’s national team in February to contest the Gold Cup preliminary round against El Salvador.
“Calling it an honor is an understatement, being that my mom is from Guatemala and my family is from there,” said Johnson, “This is the pathway to play pro; there are a lot of eyes watching so this helps us out a lot.”
Despite not playing during the game, Johnson provided insight into how it felt to represent her country on the international stage.
“When we played El Salvador, we knew that there was going to be a lot of people knowing that there are a lot of Salvadorans and Guatemalans in Los Angeles,” said Johnson. “In college games, there are not as many people as there would be at a professional level, and obviously me and Giselle are not extremely used to that. So that was something that we had to adjust to.”
Johnson acknowledged the quick growth of women’s sports and expressed there is a promising future for them. Like Samayoa, she also expressed her desire for women’s soccer to get more recognition.
“I think that women’s soccer and women’s sports in general are being known now; it kind of sucks that it took a while for people to notice that women can actually be good at a sport,’’ said Johnson. “I think it is improving tremendously, and it is going to continue to grow.”
With the recruitment of these distinguished players to represent their nations, Cal Poly Pomona’s soccer program continues to prove its strength and showcases a promising future filled with success.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics and Briana Johnson
