Winthrop goalie building on Puerto Rico experience

Winthrop goalkeeper Karly Gustafson didn’t have typical off-season training sessions the past two summers. She spent the summer of 2014 and 2015 playing for the Puerto Rican women’s national soccer team during the preliminary World Cup and Olympic qualifying rounds.

“It was an awesome experience,” playing against other countries at the international level, said Gustafson.

The Winthrop junior was eligible for the team because her grandfather was born and raised in the country, making her a quarter Puerto Rican. She reached out to the head coach of the national team, Carlos Avedissian, and was asked to fly over for a try-out in April of 2014. The try-out consisted of four practices, and then the coaches announced who made the team. She was picked and a few months later played in the World Cup qualifying rounds against Barbados, Martinique, Haiti, Bermuda, and Jamaica.

Most of the squad live in Puerto Rico, but “the team was very welcoming to me,” Gustafson said.

Spencer Smith, Winthrop’s coach, expressed how beneficial it is to play at the national level.

“The international game is typically faster,” he said, “so that experience alone helps her in game decisions.”

Gustafson, a 5-foot-9 junior, has compiled 24 saves this season and recorded her first shutout a few weeks ago against Longwood. She joined the Eagles after transferring from N.C. State, where she played her first two years of college.

“I wanted to transfer here to have more of an opportunity to play,” said Gustafson, one of the two starting goalkeepers for the Eagles this season.

Smith said how glad he is to have Gustafson as a part of his team now.

“She is very aggressive,” he said, adding that she is very competent dealing with balls in the air.

Gustafson also played in the first round of the Olympic qualifiers with the team this past August. She will meet back up with the Puerto Rican team soon to play in the second round of the Olympic qualifiers.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 9:46 AM with the headline "Winthrop goalie building on Puerto Rico experience."