One electrifying goal changed everything for Helena Sampaio.
USC women’s soccer was facing off against Indiana on September 22 and, in a tied game in the second half, the senior midfielder gave the Trojans a lead that they would hold onto for the remainder of the game. USC beat the Hoosiers 2-0.
The goal, hit by Sampaio from well outside the penalty box, immediately prompted the question: Was it the goal of the year? Even the NCAA joined in the conversation on social media.
“Truly, I didn’t even think what to do,” Sampaio said, remembering what led her to take the shot. “I just knew the ball was getting to me, and I saw this girl zooming at me and I was like ‘Oh my goodness, I’m gonna lose the ball.’ I didn’t know what to do. But after the ball went in, it was just an insane feeling, like it was so cool.”
After the match against the Hoosiers ended, Sampaio recalls how much her phone blew up as her viral goal trended and made the rounds on social media.
“I opened my phone, and I’ve never received that many notifications before, which was crazy,” Sampaio said. “But it was really cool to see it out there, and see the moment, because truly, you feel in the moment, but you don’t see it. So it was a different perspective for sure.”
A native of Porto Alegre, Brazil, Sampaio played her final two years of high school at IMG Academy in Florida before committing to play soccer at USC under former head coach Keidane McAlpine.
“As soon as I stepped onto campus, I knew I was gonna come here,” Sampaio said of her decision to go to USC. “It was a no-brainer. It was pretty much intuition and feeling. Of course, academics is amazing, athletics is amazing as well, but it was pretty much intuition and feeling when I came here.”
However, after just one season, McAlpine left to take over the Georgia program, leading Sampaio to play her final three years at USC under current head coach Jane Alukonis, who was hired after spending four seasons as an assistant on UCLA’s coaching staff.
“She’s just a good person, a good teammate, very, very rarely not smiling, like she’s usually smiling, laughing, quite close with her teammates, easy to get along with,” Alukonis said of Sampaio.
Despite having to experience a coaching change after her freshman season, Sampaio has seen her role as a leader and contributor steadily grow across the past few seasons under Alukonis.
“I feel like we waited three years, three years and a half to be seniors, and I feel like just having more of a leadership role and stepping up to it with the other 13 seniors that are here this year,” Sampaio said of how she has stepped up as a leader in her final year.
“So I think there’s just sharing my experiences that I had within the team and outside of it in the USC environment, just sharing everything that I’ve learned with the new incomers and just playing and having fun truly.”
Alukonis could see the potential in Sampaio from her early conversations with the midfielder when her tenure as a Trojan coach began.
“Her freshman year, she didn’t get a ton of playing time, and that was before we got here,” Alukonis said. “After seeing her play, I felt strongly that she would have a really bright future here. I think just watching her grow and progress, and that being paired with how much she loves the game has made her an amazing college player.”
Sampaio’s leadership and influence has been felt by her teammates throughout the year and she has become someone that many of the younger players on the team look up to. One USC player who has really felt Sampaio’s impact is sophomore forward/midfielder Florianne Jourde.
“People look up to her, and in her year, she’s someone that, on and off the field, just leads by example,” Jourde said. “She’s very friendly. She makes everyone feel comfortable. She’s always there for people, whether it’s noticing a teammate kind of having a bad day, like telling them to go grab coffee with her or something. She’s always there to make people feel better.”
Leadership was not necessarily going to be easy for Sampaio, especially since she’s had to adapt to the U.S. style of soccer while also balancing a full college course load in English, which is her second language.
All of this led to that big match against Indiana in which Sampaio broke the 0-0 tie against the Hoosiers. Sampaio seemed to play with a chip on her shoulder after having limited minutes in the matches leading up to the trip to Bloomington.
“She was a little bit in and out of the lineup, and so she went out there and she proved a point and put the team on her back in some of those games,” Alukonis said.
Regardless of how Sampaio felt about her playing time, Alukonis acknowledged the massive implications that Sampaio’s goal had for the team, especially allowing them to go undefeated on the road that weekend.
“We were playing okay, but we hadn’t been dangerous,” Alukonis said about USC’s performance at the start of the IU match. “So Helena just kind of pulled that one out of nowhere and I was extremely happy because it felt like it could have been one of those days when it’s been really tough to score. We might not score or whatever, but I think Helena gave us a lot of energy and hope and just a very proud moment for the team.”
For Jourde, it was an inspiring and incredible moment for her to see her teammate drill that goal and help give the team a massive boost.
“It was just such a nice moment, and seeing that from Helena was even better because I had the perfect view, and I just felt so happy for her and everything she had been through this season,” Jourde said.
Since playing Indiana, USC has gone 6-0-1 and can win the Big Ten regular season title with a win or tie against crosstown rival UCLA on Sunday. USC will also get an invitation to the Big Ten Tournament following the regular season’s conclusion as one of the conference’s 10 highest ranked teams.
Despite USC being red hot, Alukonis knows that Sampaio can still improve certain aspects of her game, especially if she wants to continue her soccer career at the professional level once she graduates from USC.
“Of course, going pro, like, she’ll have to speed up play,” Alukonis said. “But how Helena plays, she loves the soccer ball so much, and we’ll be like ‘Okay, release it a little bit sooner, move the ball.’ I think she gets annoyed at me because sometimes when she has it, I’m like ‘Move the ball, move the ball.’”
As USC prepares for its final match of the regular season, Sampaio knows that the Trojans need to keep pushing forward in order to win the university’s first conference title since officially joining the Big Ten in August.
“I think learning that even though we win, we have things that we have to work on and just getting better on those details, because harder teams are gonna come, the games are different,” Sampaio said. “Teams come out different based on us, so just keep it grounded and just keep doing what we’re doing because we’ve been doing amazing.”
Jourde knows that no matter what happens, Sampaio’s radiant personality and positive energy will always draw people to her.
“I think how generous she is, she’s just herself, and she doesn’t try to change for anyone.” Jourde said. “She just kept being herself and I think that’s what I think is the most special thing about her is that no matter what, where, when, she’s just gonna be this genuine person and I think that’s why people love her so much.”
The Trojans are looking to finish the regular season with a win against UCLA on Sunday at Dignity Health Sports Park’s main stadium under Sampaio’s leadership before they prepare to play in the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.