Bela Puccinelli is a natural entertainer. During her pregame ritual, that characteristic turns her warmups into a spectacle. It's like watching a magician rehearsing their trick.
Puccinelli tests her touch, juggling the ball between her feet, so effortless it seems as if her spikes are magnetic. She flicks the ball higher and higher, each time bringing it to a standstill within her stride.
"If I see a ball, I always want to be close," Puccinelli said. "When I was a kid, I used to play all the time, in my bed juggling, in the shower, everywhere I was with the ball."
Physically, the sophomore forward is on the pitch: her 5-foot-10 frame, powerful legs, tied-up bun bouncing with every hop.
But spiritually, she's escaped to another place. She transports back home.
To the 4-year-old in the streets of Curitiba, Brazil, with nothing but a ball and her imagination, where she developed her love for the game, where futebol is more heritage than sport.
Her beautiful game was played with bare feet on pavements, blasting balls between two flip-flops serving as goalposts.
"That's the cultural difference between the U.S. and Brazil," Puccinelli said. "We don't have too many clubs for kids, but we (play) in the streets, in the neighborhood."
That upbringing cultivated the flair she now possesses, making Puccinelli a unique attacking option. In her first season as a Sun Devil, she's already proving her impact.
Despite being behind juniors Kierra Blundell and Sierra Bergen in the pecking order, Puccinelli has shown an ability to thrive in limited minutes. On a team centered around defense, she brings a dangerous dose of creativity whenever she enters the game.
"She's a great teammate, and it's not really a surprise from getting to know her because she's an incredible person," coach Graham Winkworth said. "When somebody comes in that's new, you don't know how quickly they're going to adjust and feel a part of the team; she's already like a mother hen on the team."
Her journey to the desert started in Wichita, Kansas. Through her cousin, she became connected with FC Wichita. They gave her the opportunity to play for them while she was in high school.
Puccinelli's greatest achievements during her Kansas tenure came from back home. She earned a call-up to both the Brazilian under-17 and under-20 teams.
"It was one of the best moments of my life," Puccinelli said. "I grew up thinking about soccer, living soccer, and when you finally get the dream to play for Brazil, that was wonderful."
Her time with the Brazilian national team not only gave her the chance to live out her childhood dream, it also helped pave her path to ASU.
Assistant coach Rodrigo Selingardi is also Brazilian. His Brazilian network brought Puccinelli to him and the Sun Devils' attention.
"He was the guy who reached out to me, and I felt really good that (I) had another Brazilian around," Puccinelli said. "He was helping me a lot, and the energy here, the experience was just amazing."
Beyond simply sharing a linguistic bond, Selingardi understood the challenges of pursuing soccer as a woman in Brazil. Despite soccer's enormous cultural importance in Brazil, Selingardi said opportunities for young girls remain limited.
"Brazil is a very, when you talk about soccer, is a very sexist country, so there's not a lot of opportunity for girls to play," Selingardi said. "I really praise the girls that ended up playing at a high level in Brazil because the opportunities are very, very, very lower than if she was to be a boy."
Determination and her passion for the game are at the center of Puccinelli's journey. It's what cultivated her success in Kansas — despite being 16 years old and 5,347 miles away from home.
It's why she earned her name amongst the few privileged enough to don the Canarinha. What allowed her to instantly produce in the maroon and gold.
In her debut, Puccinelli only played 29 minutes. It was all the time she needed, as she scored the first two goals of her ASU career, while still adjusting to the new pace of play.
"She's got a lot of athletic qualities," Winkworth said. "But sometimes it's hold on to the ball, and then you've got defenders around you very quickly. So it's just playing two-touch a little bit, playing a little bit quicker when under pressure, and she's doing a good job of making those adjustments."
When Puccinelli first joined, she played with the mentality groomed by the streets of her hometown, dribbling her way through any crowd.
"When she first came here, she wanted to play very Brazilian, just dribble everybody, dribble, dribble, dribble and I'm like, 'Belly, you're not going to be able to do that in the Big 12,'" Winkworth said. "You don't want to take away some of their best traits by the way they play, but at the same time they need to play within our system, and she's done a good job in that adjustment."
The key modification has been being comfortable coming off the bench. In the conference opener, Puccinelli first came on the field with 40 minutes gone in the first half. Two minutes later, she put the Sun Devils in front, 2-1. It became her third goal, along with one assist, in her 301 minutes of play at the time.
"Being into the game outside (of it) is so important," Puccinelli said after the Sun Devils 3-1 win. "Being aware of what's going on, listening, always being part, even from outside, cheering for them and being part of the team. That's what made me go and do my best."
You can teach Puccinelli when to pass. You can teach her when to slow down. You can teach her a system.
What you can't teach is the way she plays the game. With a ball at her feet, she's four years old again — barefoot in Curitiba, flip-flops as goalposts.
Edited by Alex Swift, Alan Deutschendorf III and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporter at jakobarnarsson@gmail.com and follow @JakobA2004 on X.
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