"Let's Make This As Impossible As Possible": Inside Denver Summit's Build-Up to Centennial Stadium's First Match

Denver Summit FC hosts Portland Thorns FC in the first-ever match at Centennial Stadium Saturday, with Lindsey Heaps making her Summit debut against her former club.

Centennial, Colo. — Lindsey Heaps stood on the Centennial Stadium grass Thursday for the first time, a day before facing the only other NWSL club she has ever played for, and the question everyone wanted answered was simple: how do you make a brand-new building feel like a fortress by Saturday?

"Teams have to come play in altitude and obviously the heat right now," Heaps said. "But we also have the amazing fans behind us, that are loud and loud throughout the entire game. So let's make this as impossible for other teams to come play here. And yeah, we gotta take advantage of that, and I think we will."

That's the assignment Denver Summit FC has set for itself heading into Saturday's noon kickoff against Portland — a club sitting third in the NWSL table, 27 points to Denver's 16, arriving at a stadium that didn't exist a month ago.

The numbers say it's closer than the table admits

Portland's record has outrun its underlying numbers this season. The Thorns' expected-goal difference sits at minus 0.6, 11th in the league; Denver's is plus 0.6, 10th — the eleventh-place team is generating and preventing better-quality chances than the third-place team it hosts Saturday. Portland has covered that gap with elite goalkeeping from Mackenzie Arnold, who leads the league with 5.4 goals prevented, and hot finishing from Sophia Wilson. Denver's goalkeeper isn't far behind: Abby Smith sits third in the NWSL at 5.0 goals prevented, four tenths back of Arnold.

Head coach Nick Cushing has his own version of that math, delivered after last week's 2-2 draw with Houston. "The way that I judge the games are on chances and opportunities," Cushing said. "We were nine chances and three opportunities to their five... I think if we just look at our defensive structure, five chances at home is too much, so we have to plug that hole." Denver set club records that night with 26 shots and 10 on target — and still only came away with a point, because both Houston goals arrived off crosses. Portland is tied for the most set-piece goals in the NWSL this season, which makes Cushing's "hole" the exact one his opponent is built to find.

Asked how the coaching staff is preparing for Portland's attack, and Wilson specifically, Cushing put her in company with the league's other headline scorers. "The way that we prepare for most teams — Barbra Banda, Rachel Kundananji, Trinity Rodman — every team has a really high-impact contributor," he said. "We know Sophia is really quick. We know that if she gets those chances and opportunities in and around the goal, she's really clinical. So we gotta make sure that we don't increase those moments."

Heaps, who has known Wilson for years on the national team, offered a version of the same warning wrapped in genuine affection. "I love that girl," she said. "I feel like she has this sense of freedom and poise to her game right now... She is doing incredible. I hope she doesn't do that on Saturday. But we gotta do everything possible to stop her, and remember to stay switched on all game — because that girl can destroy a team."

A debut seven months in the making

Heaps signed with Denver in January on a four-year deal, then finished out her contract with OL Lyonnes in France before becoming eligible to play this week. Saturday is her first match in a Summit jersey — against Portland, where she spent six seasons, won two Shields, was named league MVP in 2018, and scored the lone goal in the club's 2017 championship final.

She downplayed any nerves about the moment. "It's more just a sense of, like, very confident in the team," she said. "I feel like I've integrated well with the group, because they've been so great with me and the staff as well. For me, it's just like getting going again... an exciting challenge." Cushing, for his part, described the week of integration in similar terms: "I continue to say — I can't really communicate what that is. It's the little bit in between. It's the unknown that makes the good teams great... having Lindsey and being able to integrate her into the leadership team is definitely gonna help."

Reporters also caught Heaps off guard with a detail from the U.S.–Japan match: Sophia Wilson had reportedly said, on air, that Heaps failed to recruit her to Denver in the offseason — and that Wilson will be a free agent again this winter. "I didn't know that. Well, that's news to me," Heaps said, laughing. "Well, great to know. Thank you very much. I will get working... it's just home for her. She wants to be here."

The building itself

Club president Jen Millet has been living in construction timelines for months, and Saturday is the payoff. "This feels like a home because it is truly built by this team, designed, executed," Millet said. "You see the team out here — we have an all-hands meeting out here tomorrow, not a meeting, but everyone's just gonna come out and do what they need to get done to make sure that we're ready to welcome fans on Saturday." On the matchup itself, she didn't hide her enthusiasm: "It's a dream matchup — welcoming Sophia back, having Lindsey be part of the first match here at Centennial is incredibly special. We have two U.S. women's national team players going head to head here on Saturday, so that's really exciting. It couldn't line up better."

Millet also pointed to what she sees as the deeper story behind Saturday's crowd. "Colorado has shown up huge for this club since before we even had a name, a player," she said. "The fact that we've sold out matches after the opening sort of proves that this is not like a blip moment. This community is here to stay." Denver's average home attendance leads the NWSL at 25,775 per match — Portland is second at 18,698 — meaning the two best-supported clubs in American women's soccer share one 12,000-seat building Saturday, with a forecast high of 90 degrees and no shade over the stands.

Cushing, walking the new facility for the first time this week, put it more simply. "I purposely said I want to be the first time in as the first training session today," he said. "I love it... I think the color is the most impressive. It's our color."

The verdict

Portland's talent and its bank of points make it the favorite on paper. But Denver's underlying numbers, its home crowd, and a debuting captain who's already told her own team to make Saturday "as impossible as possible" make this a lot closer than 11th versus 3rd suggests. Cushing has already identified the hole his team needs to plug. Whether Denver plugs it in front of 12,000 fans in a stadium that opened its gates for the first time Saturday morning is the whole match.