Her parents were UNC athletes. Now she wants to help the Tar Heels win a soccer title.
The Olympics, the World Cup and the Ballon d’Or can wait. There’ will be plenty of time for Brianna Pinto to chase after those dreams of playing on the U.S. National Team and being recognized as the World Player of the Year starting this summer. The junior midfielder for North Carolina’s women’s soccer team has an immediate goal in mind with one final shot to get it.
Her next game with the Tar Heels could be her last. Pinto, who leads the Heels with 13 goals this season, was picked third overall in the 2021 NWSL draft by Sky Blue FC. She could have started her pro career as her former teammates Emily Fox, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and Taylor Otto, who went No. 11, chose to do. But Pinto wanted one more crack at the NCAA tournament.
The No. 2 Tar Heels will face Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals Sunday at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary for a berth in the College Cup. UNC hasn’t added to its record 23 championships since winning in 2012, which is the longest drought in program history.
“Right now, my main focus is winning a national championship, I came to Carolina in hopes of doing that, and I’ve come up short, with my teammates twice now,” Pinto told The News & Observer. “I know since I’ve declared for the NWSL draft because I want to start my professional career early, I only have one more chance to do it, and that’s in the next two and a half weeks. I want to leave Carolina as a national champion.”
Family matters
A national title would give Pinto bragging rights in her family for sure. Pinto’s father, Hassan Sr., played men’s soccer at Carolina from 1990-94. Her oldest brother, Hassan Jr., who is currently playing with Loudoun United FC of the United Soccer League, played at Elon and the 2019 season as a graduate transfer at Duke.
Her youngest brother Malik was all set to play his first year at Princeton, but when the Ivy League canceled the 2020 season due to COVID-19, he parlayed it into training with FC Cincinnati ahead of their Major League Soccer regular season.
Her mother, Meleata, didn’t play soccer, but she lettered for UNC softball from 1990-94.
“We’re really competitive, without them, I don’t think I’d be where I am,” Brianna Pinto said. “We are competitive against each other. We’re each other’s biggest supporters and I think having a support system is important.”
Brianna Pinto may end up being the most accomplished of them all. She was just named a semifinalist for the Mac Hermann Trophy, which is the highest individual honor in NCAA Division I soccer. She’s been first-team All-ACC in each of her three seasons at UNC.
At 16, she was the youngest player in the modern era to make the senior women’s national team tournament roster while playing in the 2017 She Believes Cup. She followed that in 2018, serving as the face of U.S. Soccer while giving a speech as part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup United bid in Moscow, Russia.
It’s the reason why her dreams aren’t limited to however her career at Carolina plays out. She has aspirations to play for the U.S. Olympic team and on to the World Cup as well. And she’s not shy at relaying her ultimate goal of winning the coveted Ballon d’Or honor, which recognizes the world’s best soccer player. The award has been around since 1956 but only began recognizing women’s players in 2018.
“The total dream is for Brianna to play on the United States women’s national team and the greater dream is for her to win the Ballon d’Or, which is the best player in the world,” Hassan Sr. told the N&O. “We’re just stepping towards building her character, building her game, building her psychology, building her mentality to achieve those things because we think she has the athletic ability, the technical ability and the mental prowess to achieve that.”
Competitive streak
Hassan Sr., would bring his kids along when he played in noon pickup soccer games with members of the men’s and women’s soccer staff and players of various levels. Brianna was just in middle school and was often both the youngest and the only female playing. But she held her own enough for UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance, who was a regular participant in those noon games, to take notice.
“Her job in that game was just not to lose the ball,” Dorrance told the N&O. “She would get it. She would have to keep it. Most youth players don’t have the respect for the ball that an older player would have. She pulled into that philosophy and her dad was really good at encouraging her to do all the right things with the ball because he knew the game.”
Her father couldn’t make her love the game. That happened organically as her will to win did. Her brothers had a lot to do with it. Meleata Pinto said her daughter used to compete at everything with her brothers from who could tie their shoes the fastest, to who would be the first to buckle their seat belts.
Everything was a competition. That trickled over to school too, where Brianna Pinto wanted to be the best.
“I was always very conscious of girls’ spirits and willfulness, you know, because it’s not really embraced in our society,” Meleata Pinto said.”I wanted her to be strong, be confident and be proud of her opinions, her drive and what she wanted to do in life. So I really wasn’t interested in trying to diminish that.”
‘My gosh, this is a Tar Heel’
That was the competitive spirit that Dorrance witnessed that solidified his plan to recruit her. Pinto was playing on a club team in a Florida tournament. Dorrance said she was a dominant player, though her team was not, so she tended to draw all the attention from their opponents.
“I saw this little kid just fighting, you know like absolute, grim death to try to help her team win,” Dorrance said. “It was like every time she got the ball she was surrounded by the opponents because her teammates weren’t at her level. And what I absolutely loved was her commitment to try to make a difference. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is a Tar Heel.”
The third try for a national title has been the most challenging for Pinto. Back in August, the season began in earnest with the Heels trying to replace three starters it lost early to the professional ranks: Lotte Wobben-Moy, Alessia Russo and Lois Joel.
When the NCAA decided to push its soccer championships back to the spring as yet another ripple affect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Heels lost sophomore defender Julia Dorsey, who’s on a lacrosse scholarship and re-joined that team.
Maycee Bell, the 2019 ACC Freshman of the Year, has been injured and isn’t likely to make it back even if they reach the title game. And Izzy Brown, the daughter of former N.C. State basketball standout Chucky Brown, transferred to Minnesota.
It all caused Dorrance to make adjustments and landed Pinto in a center forward position.
“She could play literally any position on the field,” Dorrance said. “She has the athleticism to play on the flank. She has the technical ability to play centrally. She’s just sort of like (former UNC midfielder) Crystal Dunn, who’s one of the most versatile players in the world, wherever the hole is on the team I know you could drop her there and I know she would adjust and play the position well.”
She wants to win a national championship
The Tar Heels lost to Florida State 1-0 in the 2018 national championship game Pinto’s freshman year. As a sophomore, the Heels played Stanford through two scoreless overtimes before losing 5-4 on penalty kicks in the 2019 title game. Pinto is determined not to let that happen a third time.
“It’s her dream school and she’s been watching UNC since she was probably like 3 or 4,” said Malik Pinto. “She’s wanted to win a national championship and she’s gotten so close to that twice. And so, in this year, she’s got to go out on a big statement. Whatever happens, it’s just been amazing to see how hard she’s worked and I hope she can accomplish her goal. I’ll be proud of her for sure.”
UNC vs. Texas A&M
NCAA women’s soccer tournament
When: 1 p.m., Sunday
Where: WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary
