The 5280 Pitch - Denver Summit FC Podcast

Denver Summit FC’s inaugural NWSL season ended on Decision Day with a 1-0 loss at the North Carolina Courage. The only goal was a 94th-minute own goal, and it came after Seattle had already beaten Orlando to take the eighth and final playoff spot.

I loved how we started this one. We had 70% of the ball in the first 20 minutes and won the expected goals 0.94 to 0.55. Then the second half got away from us, and you could feel the nerves through the TV. I walk through the numbers that show where it slipped, from passing that dropped well below last week’s level to a game that finished under 50% possession.

Abby Smith was my player of the match. She made five saves, stopped all three of Ashley Sanchez’s shots on target on the night Sanchez needed one more goal for the single-season record, and put up 1.15 goals prevented. I also explain what goals prevented actually means.

Then the MVP debate. Sanchez tied the record at 20 and won the Golden Boot. I’m Team Janine, and Janine Sonis finished with 12 goals and 8 assists from left back. You’ll hear Nick Cushing make his case for her, plus Janine and Lindsey Heaps from the postgame press conference.

Plus: the packed DNVR Bar pregame show with Mariah Dean, my grade on last week’s 2-0 prediction (it’s not great), and where we finished in year one. The full season recap is next week.

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Denver Summit FC head coach Nick Cushing grades our inaugural NWSL season, and he won’t go higher than a C-plus. Before Sunday’s season finale at North Carolina, I sat down with the man who built this team from scratch to find out where he came from and where this club goes next.

Most of you don’t know Nick’s road to Denver. He grew up in Chester, England, and his dad got him an Everton season ticket at three years old. He knew early he wasn’t good enough to play, so he started coaching kids instead. He talks about the coaches who shaped him and about later working alongside Guardiola at Manchester City. He also explains how leading City Women and then coaching in MLS prepared him for a league where, in his words, everybody attacks.

Then we get into Denver. Nick describes the empty grass field he toured before taking the job, and the three-bucket recruiting plan behind this roster. He explains why landing Colorado players mattered so much. He tells me why he thinks Janine’s best years at left back are still ahead of her, and what Tash has to do next season to become the difference-maker he thinks she can be. He also shares the goal number he set for Lindsey Heaps the day she arrived.

And yes, he gives the inaugural season a grade. He names the three things he says have to get fixed before 2027, tells me what he wants you to remember about year one, and describes his very Denver night at Red Rocks.

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Denver Summit FC put six past Racing Louisville in the cold rain at Centennial Stadium, and now the NWSL playoff math is simple: we win at the North Carolina Courage on Decision Day, and we need Orlando to beat Seattle. That's the whole path. And those six goals gave us the goal-difference tiebreaker if it comes down to it.

Louisville managed six shots all night, only one on target. Our back line, the group I've been hard on all season, kept them pinned in their own half. Kaleigh Kurtz scored her first goal in a Summit shirt off a Janine Sonis free kick, then set up the third goal with a long diagonal ball she and Yazmeen Ryan planned at halftime. And yes, she did the worm in the rain. You'll hear from Kaleigh, Tash Flint, and Nick Cushing from the postgame presser, including Nick on why Denver is the place to play in the NWSL.

Then it's on to North Carolina: Ashley Sanchez sitting on 20 goals, why the first goal decides Courage games, my three keys, and my prediction for Sunday. Every Decision Day match kicks off at 3 p.m. Mountain on ESPN+.

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Denver Summit FC center back Megan Reid stepped away from soccer for four years before she ever played an NWSL minute.

Before Denver, before Angel City, before the Canadian national team, Meg was a firefighter and paramedic. In this conversation she tells me why she walked away after her senior year at Virginia, what four years in fire and EMS taught her that soccer never could, and the one conversation at a firehouse table that sent her back to the game.

It's a road with almost no shortcuts in it. A late college commitment. Getting cut in preseason. A phone call that came while she was about to pack up her car and go home. She also shares a connection to one of her current Denver Summit teammates that I had no idea about.

If you think every pro got here on a straight line, this episode will change your mind.

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Denver Summit FC led Angel City FC 2-0 after 18 minutes on Saturday, then gave up three goals in 11 minutes and lost 3-2, a brutal blow to our NWSL playoff hopes. And folks, it wasn’t a fluke. It’s the fourth two-goal lead we’ve let slip this season, and it’s cost us 20 points from winning positions. Hold every one of those leads and we’d have 58 points, three more than league-leading Gotham.

I walk through how the 2-0 lead disappeared, from MK’s goal in the second minute and Lindsey Heaps’ volley in the 18th to Angel City’s three goals before halftime. You’ll hear from head coach Nick Cushing and captain Janine Sonis out of the postgame press conference. Separately, in their own words, they describe the exact same problem: the line drops against the direct ball, the team stretches, and we lose the second balls. Nick put it on himself, and he said this is the reason we’re 10th and not sixth, fifth or fourth.

Then the playoff math. Denver Summit is 10th with 38 points and two games left. I ran all 729 remaining combinations of results for us, Portland, Seattle and North Carolina, and we get in on 21 of them. I lay out the three things that have to happen, why goal difference is on our side, and why Friday night’s games matter before we even kick off.

Last, the Racing Louisville preview. That covers who they are right now, how we beat them back in May, my four keys to the game, and my score prediction for the last home match of our inaugural season. Come be loud at Centennial on Saturday.

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Denver Summit FC broke ground on its permanent stadium at Santa Fe Yards, and this NWSL milestone is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time. On Thursday, October 1st, I stood on the old Gates Rubber site off I-25 and Broadway with my microphone, and this episode is me mostly getting out of the way so you can hear the day from the people who made it happen.

You’ll hear club president Jen Millet’s speech about women’s sports finally leaving borrowed venues behind, which is the line that gave me chills. You’ll also hear Mayor Mike Johnston calling it “a field of her own,” and controlling owner Rob Cohen on why this stadium is meant to set the standard for investing in women’s professional sports. Then the shovels go in the ground with our captains, Kaleigh Kurtz, Janine Sonis and Lindsey Heaps.

I also spoke with Elizabeth Erfling, the Mortenson project executive running the build. She’s a Colorado kid like me who remembers when this site was an empty lot. We talk about who’s actually building this stadium, including Gratacon, a woman-owned general contractor out of Lakewood. You’ll get the facts that didn’t make it into the speeches too: 12,500 fixed seats, about 13,000 total with safe standing, a target completion at the end of 2028, and only the second stadium in the country built for a women’s pro soccer team.

Plus, Janine and Eva Gaetino talk about what it means to finally have a home of their own, Lindsey explains what this would have meant to her as a little girl in Golden, and Jen explains why all of this is part of the pitch to players around the league.

Angel City comes to Centennial on October 17th and Racing Louisville on October 24th, our last two home games of the season. Come be loud.

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Denver Summit FC beat Chicago 3-0, and the two biggest names on the roster played exactly like it. Janine Sonis has 12 goals and six assists from left back, Lindsey Heaps just scored twice, and the NWSL playoff line is still four points away. That's the push this episode is built to make sense of.

Kate Hanson breaks down the most controlled win of the Summit's season, from Janine's 8th-minute strike from distance to Lindsey's brace and Abby Smith's 20th career shutout on her birthday, with postgame audio from Nick Cushing, Emma Regan, and Abby Smith.

Also covered: the playoff math with three games left, a listener's stat on Denver with and without Lindsey on the field, why Devin Lynch and Lindsey are doing two different jobs, and the records this team has already set in year one. Plus the six Summit players headed out on international duty before Angel City comes to town on October 17th.

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Denver Summit FC led 1-0 in Kansas City and Abby Smith had just saved a penalty shot. Then the NWSL's only unbeaten home team scored three goals in 22 minutes. That's the collapse this episode is trying to make sense of.

Kate Hanson breaks down how a 4-1 loss at CPKC Stadium got away. We talk about the penalty save that flipped the momentum, Haley Hopkins' 18-minute hat trick, and why the high press that makes this team so fun to watch is also what got it beaten, with postgame audio from Nick Cushing and Janine Sonis.

Also covered: the playoff math with four games left, Sunday's trip to Chicago, and Janine Sonis, Emma Regan, and Yuzuki Yamamoto's national team call-ups. Plus a Meg Reid vs. Eva Gaetino deep dive and the NWSL's newest name, Atlanta City FC.

New episodes every week.

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Denver Summit FC can move into an NWSL playoff spot this weekend. It takes two results, and one of them is winning in a building where nobody has won all year.

But first, Saturday night. An hour of monsoon rain, a Seattle team sitting right above us in the table, and a 2-0 lead that started to slip just three days after we let one get away against Bay. This time we held on. Seattle had one shot in the first half, and their own coach admitted we wanted it more. That's the team we are.

I also get into the 47th minute. Sofia Huerta, Yaz Ryan, and a yellow card that I think should have been red. Plus what the rulebook actually says is the difference between the two.

Then it's Kansas City. They're 8-4-0 at home, they beat us 3-0 in July, and Saturday morning is the biggest road game of our season. I've got my keys to the game, my prediction, and exactly what has to happen for the Summit to be sitting in eighth by Saturday night.

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Eighteen points left. Five to make up. That's where we are after drawing 2-2 with Bay FC at Centennial, and it's why Wednesday night hurt the way it did.

We led that game 2-0. Eighteen shots, ten on target, three and a half expected goals through the first hour. Lindsey Heaps opened it off Natalie Means' first career assist, Janine got her eleventh of the season from a Yaz Ryan ball, and then we stopped playing. Three shots after the 61st minute. Bay scored in the 73rd and again in the fifth minute of stoppage time, and I walk you through how a game that was already won got away from us at the back post.

Then the math, because this is the part that matters now. Six games left. Kansas City is on 38, Seattle 37, Angel City 36, and we're on 32. Three of our last six are against teams in this race, starting Saturday. There's no version of the rest of this season where we get to drop points against anybody and still be fine.

I also get into the Abby Smith and Kat Asman debate that's taken over my comments, and why I think these last two games are on the defense rather than the keeper. Plus what Nick and Janine said after the match.

Then Seattle at Centennial, 6:45 on ION, with my prediction and the reasoning behind it.

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Denver Summit FC went up 3-1 in Los Angeles with half an hour to play. Thirteen minutes later it was 3-3. Two points gone, and an NWSL playoff race that just got a whole lot steeper.

But the scoreline is doing a lot of lying. Kate breaks down how Denver had more of the ball than Angel City and generated less than half the danger — 1.28 expected goals to 3.37, the second-worst defensive night of the season — and why a high boot inside your own box with a two-goal lead is a game management problem, not a tactics problem.

Then the good part: Lindsey Heaps scores her first goal in a Denver Summit kit, and her first NWSL goal since 2021, in the fastest back-to-back scoring sequence the club has ever seen. Janine Sonis reaches ten for the season from left back. And Kate gets honest about the goalkeeper rotation on Abby Smith's first night back from a knee injury, and whether Kat Asman deserved one more week.

And then — Wednesday. Bay FC at Centennial on Hispanic Heritage Night. The team that beat Denver in the first match in franchise history is now fifteenth in the league, can't score, and is playing its third match in nine days. Kate lays out the table, the seven-match run-in, and why winning this one is not optional.

With postgame audio from Nick Cushing and Lindsey Heaps.

This is Denver Summit FC women's soccer at altitude. New episodes every Tuesday.

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Denver Summit FC forward Tash Flint joins me this week, and folks, I've wanted this NWSL interview for a long time. You chant her name at the stadium. Now you get to hear her story.

Tash grew up in Salford chasing her brothers to training and playing with the lads. She was in Manchester United's academy at five, then moved to City when United didn't have a women's team for her to step into. At City she won the 2014 League Cup under a coach you might know. Nick Cushing.

She tells me what Nick sees in her now that he didn't see back then, and why she's not sure he'd have called if she were still in England.

We get into her knack for year-one clubs as Denver is her fifth club in its first season.

We talk Carson Pickett, the altitude, and yes, I asked about the shot. Where does that power come from? Her answer goes back to getting knocked around playing with boys.

She's signed through 2027, so I asked what would make Denver the place she finishes her career. Celtic comes up. Plus the 14ers chant, her dachshunds, and the tattoos.

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Denver Summit FC just beat the best defense in the NWSL 3-0, and it's the team we've been waiting for all season.

Scoreless at half. Then three goals in the final forty-one minutes — Yamamoto, Thomas, and Ryan all get on the board, Kat Asman gets her first clean sheet in a Denver shirt, and we end Gotham's ten-match unbeaten run for the second time this year. I break down the numbers behind what was honestly a ruthless performance, and I get into the rookie contracts nobody's talking about — three of our four rookies are already locked up through 2028.

Then the part that stings a little. Sunday's win barely moved us in the standings. Orlando's one point back now, and I walk through exactly what has to happen this weekend for us to actually gain ground.

The back half of the show is all Friday. We're at Angel City in a match that might decide our season, and I get into the full breakdown — their coaching change, the venue splits, and my actual prediction, model and all.

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Denver Summit FC beat the Chicago Stars 6-1 at Centennial Stadium, the most goals any NWSL team has scored in a single match this season, and I've got a lot to say about all of it.

Six goals. Five assists. Eight different players with a goal contribution. Melissa Kössler ended a 126-day drought with a brace, Yuzuki Yamamoto and Olivia Thomas both scored their first, and Lindsey Heaps came back at Centennial for the first time since the injury, wore the armband, and set up the second goal inside 19 minutes. I break down what Lindsey and Yuzu did together from the opening kick, why that was the most comfortable game Yuzu has had in Denver, and what Liv Thomas gave up to be here. You'll hear from Nick Cushing on the negotiation over Lindsey's minutes, and from Melissa and Olivia in the press room afterward.

Then the honest part. Chicago are last in this league and they were missing their two best attackers, so I go through what Saturday proves and what it doesn't.

And the table. Denver sit ninth on 27 points, four back of Seattle with nine to play and five of those at home. I lay out exactly what has to happen, why Angel City worry me more than Seattle do, and why our home record is the number nobody is talking about.

Plus a full preview of Gotham FC, Sunday at noon at Centennial.

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Chicago has scored two goals on the road all season. One win, no draws, ten losses away from home. They are last in the NWSL and they come to Centennial Stadium on Saturday night.

This is the one Denver Summit FC is supposed to win. Kate Hanson breaks down why that's exactly the problem.

Denver sit twelfth on twenty-four points with ten matches left. Seattle hold the last playoff place on twenty-eight. Six of Denver's final ten are at home, and five are against the four clubs directly in this race — Chicago, Bay, Seattle, and Louisville. The playoff path runs straight through Denver's own schedule.

Full availability report from Thursday: Lindsey Heaps back in training with the group after four matches out, Abby Smith day to day and back on the ball, and Nick Cushing's direct answer on whether Kat Asman has earned a second start after five saves on six shots in her NWSL debut.

Also in this one: how Cushing built the goalkeeper room around Karen Bardsley, the standard he set for Asman on the record, why Denver's fullbacks push to the halfway line and what that leaves behind, a full scouting report on Chicago under interim head coach Karina Báez, and three Colorado storylines nobody else is telling.

Plus Cushing on the final third: twenty-seven box entries at Portland, sixty-three percent of the ball, zero big chances. His words: frustrated and impatient.

Denver Summit FC vs. Chicago Stars. Saturday, 6:45 p.m. MT, Centennial Stadium. ION, Denver7, and The Spot Denver 3.

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Denver Summit FC held 62.5% of the ball at Portland, got into the Thorns' box 29 times, and lost 1-0 in an NWSL road match that looked nothing like the scoreline.

Abby Smith was out of the starting eleven for the first time in club history, which handed Kat Asman the first career start of her life — in the stadium that drafted her and never played her. She made five saves and held Portland under their expected goals and lost anyway, because Sophia Wilson ran past Denver's back line in the 44th minute and there was nobody left to chase her.

Nick Cushing sat down after and called the choice between his two backup goalkeepers the biggest decision of his day. Not the shape. Not the game plan. That's the part of this loss that points forward.

Plus: two streaks ended in the same ninety minutes, one of them league-wide. And I went through all 26 goals Denver have conceded this season to test a theory about the high line — and found out I was wrong, in a way that's more interesting than being right.

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Denver Summit FC take a point on the road in a 1-1 draw at San Diego Wave, and this NWSL recap starts with the news: Eva Gaetino came off in the 16th minute holding her hamstring. Nick Cushing's full answer on her status is in this episode.

Denver went into Snapdragon Stadium without Lindsey Heaps, lost a starting center back before the game was a fifth over, went down at halftime, and still walked out with the first home point San Diego had surrendered all season. Cushing called it two points dropped. I don't agree, and I explain why.

Also in this episode: Abby Smith's 300th career NWSL save, making her the 12th goalkeeper in league history to reach the mark. Janine Sonis has 8 goals and 4 assists — a defender leading her club in scoring, and why that's a warning sign as much as a great story. Yazmeen Ryan and Sonis have now combined for 13 of Denver's 25 goals, and Cushing answers directly when asked how anyone else gets involved.

Then Portland. The Thorns haven't lost a home regular season match in 12 straight. Olivia Moultrie is out for the year with an ACL tear. Sophia Wilson has 9 goals. Denver already beat this team in July — but that was at altitude. Saturday is Providence Park.

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Denver Summit FC beat the Utah Royals 2-1 on Saturday night, and every number from that match says they shouldn't have. Utah out-shot them 18 to 12 and doubled them on expected goals. Then put three of those eighteen shots on target. Three.

Kate Hanson breaks down why this NWSL result looked nothing like the rest of Denver's season, and why Nick Cushing's postgame answer about embracing the chaos of an expansion year is the most honest thing he's said all year.

Also in this one: an Abby Smith performance the box score completely misses, and the yellow card that made no sense. Janine Sonis at eight goals and a career-best eleven goal contributions, on the first direct free kick in club history. Kaleigh Kurtz's 150th appearance and the record nobody's talking about. One substitution in eighty-nine minutes. And a Continental Divide rivalry that nobody actually won.

Then Friday night in San Diego, against a team sitting fourth while finishing ten and a half goals below its own expected goals.

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Denver Summit FC have spent this whole season creating chances and not finishing them — and after Wednesday's 0-2 loss to the North Carolina Courage, that story doesn't hold up anymore. Denver took seventeen shots at Centennial Stadium and created zero big chances. Twenty-eight touches inside the Courage box, six corners, and not one clear look at goal. Tash Flint took seven of those seventeen shots by herself.

Kate Hanson went back through the last five matches and found the collapse underneath it: six big chances created, then five, then five, then two, then none. There's a second number in there too — Denver hasn't scored a goal from open play since the eighteenth of July, three matches and twenty days ago. Nick Cushing addresses it directly from Wednesday's press conference, including his answer on why the margins keep going against his team, and Kate explains where she thinks that argument runs out.

Also this week: Cushing's update from Thursday's practice on Lindsey Heaps' knee and what day-to-day actually means, his confirmation that the club is working the transfer window and is confident about bringing players in, Tash Flint on needing to be more ruthless in front of goal, and Ayo Oke's night. Plus a full look at Saturday's Continental Divide Rivalry match when Denver hosts the Utah Royals — a side sitting third in the NWSL while running five and a half goals ahead of its own underlying numbers — and the league's new 2027 calendar, which hands this club the shortest offseason in NWSL history.

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Denver Summit FC's leading goal scorer this season is a center back — and after Sunday's 1-1 draw with Boston Legacy, that's not a fun trivia answer anymore, it's the whole problem. Denver had thirty-eight touches inside Boston's box and nine shots. One goal came out of it, a Janine Sonis penalty.

Kate Hanson spent time digging into why: a league-wide check of all sixteen NWSL teams found Sonis is the only defender leading her own club in scoring, anywhere in the league. Nick Cushing addresses it directly from Sunday's press conference and this week's practice — including his real answer on the Kössler-versus-Thomas competition for the number nine shirt.

Also this week: what Liverpool legend Gemma Bonner's signing means for a defensive line that could use a little lift and what to watch for Wednesday when Denver hosts North Carolina Courage — the first meeting ever between the clubs, against Ashley Sanchez who is leading her team in scoring.

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