"We've left too many points on the table": Inside Denver Summit FC's 20-point problem

Photo Courtesy of @victorgraphy_20

"We've left too many points on the table": Inside Denver Summit FC's 20-point problem

In the 18th minute Saturday night, Lindsey Heaps trailed a play she had started herself. She had sprung Janine Sonis down the field. Sonis crossed, Sarah Gordon cut it out, and the ball came back to Heaps just outside the box. She volleyed it first time with her right foot, near post, past Angelina Anderson.

Denver Summit FC led Angel City 2-0. Melissa Kössler had already scored in the second minute, getting to a Sonis corner ahead of Anderson and finishing from point-blank range. It was Kössler's seventh goal of the season and the sixth for Heaps, formerly Lindsey Horan, since she arrived in Denver.

The lead lasted 14 minutes.

Angel City scored in the 32nd, the 39th and the 43rd, and went into halftime up 3-2. Nobody scored in the second half. Denver had 45 minutes at home, down one, and couldn't find the equalizer. Anderson stopped Sonis in the 53rd minute. In the 75th, Evelyn Shores cleared one away in front of goal after a chance from Una McCormack.

The loss left Denver 10th in the NWSL with 38 points and two games to play. It also added to a number that hangs over the whole inaugural season. Denver has dropped 20 points from winning positions, across eight matches where it led and didn't win: four draws and four losses. Hold every one of those leads, and the Summit would have 58 points. Gotham leads the league with 55.

"I think it's clear that we have work to do"

There is no hard-luck version of Saturday in the box score.

Denver had the ball: 58% possession, 83% passing to Angel City's 79%, and 10 corners to six. Angel City had the chances. They outshot the Summit 18 to 6 and had 20 touches in Denver's box to Denver's 11. FotMob had their expected goals at about two and Denver's at about one.

Sveindís Jónsdóttir started it in the 32nd minute off an Evelyn Shores assist. In the 39th, Gisele Thompson played a ball forward, Taylor Suarez timed her run behind the back line, and she finished far post past Abby Smith. Four minutes later, Ally Sentnor hit one from outside the box, Thompson's second assist of the night.

Nick Cushing didn't pin it on the opponent.

"I don't necessarily think it's what Angel City do to us," he said. "I think it's clear that we have work to do in absorbing pressure and either sustaining or regaining momentum in the game. Too often we've been up and left points on the table, or gave points away based off giving leads away."

Too often is putting it lightly. Across 28 matches, Denver has held a lead and let an opponent tie it or go ahead nine times. Eight of those cost points. Four of the nine were two-goal leads. San Diego came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in April. Angel City erased a 3-1 deficit for a 3-3 draw in September. Five days after that, Bay FC came back from 2-0 for a 2-2 draw with a 95th-minute goal. Then Saturday. Three of those four two-goal collapses have come in the last six matches.

The collapses come fast. Six times this season, Denver has given up two or more goals inside 15 minutes. San Diego did it in eight. Boston did it in four, both in stoppage time. Kansas City did it in six in July. Saturday was three in 11, the only time all year the Summit have given up three that quickly. Five matches show up on both lists: San Diego, Boston, Angel City, Kansas City and Saturday. In every one, Denver had a lead and lost it inside one of those bursts.

When the Summit score first, they are 9-3-4. That's 16 matches, and seven times the first goal wasn't enough.

Cushing said Angel City are really direct and really fast, and that Denver gets apprehensive with the direct ball. When the line drops, the team stretches, and the space gets too big to win second balls. He also said Angel City's long throws caused "far too many problems," even though none of them produced a goal Saturday.

"We have to fix it quick"

Cushing didn't blame the officials or the opponent. He put it on himself, and he named exactly what it has cost.

"The reason why we're sitting in 10th is because of that. It's the reason why we're not in sixth or fifth or fourth," he said. "We've left too many points on the table. So it is definitely something that we got to fix, and in the impatience of wanting to win and being postseason and wanting to be challenging for trophies and home playoff games, we have to fix it quick."

There are two games left to fix it in. The Equalizer called Denver's playoff chances extremely slim after the weekend, and the 5280 Pitch playoff tracker at 5280pitch.com agrees. Slim is not the same as gone.

The top eight teams make the postseason. Portland is seventh with 44 points, Seattle eighth with 43 and North Carolina ninth with 42. Denver, at 38, can reach 44 at most, so it needs to finish above two of those three. Angel City jumped to fifth with 46 by beating the Summit.

It comes down to three things.

Denver has to win both games. No draws. That means beating Racing Louisville at Centennial Stadium on Saturday, then winning at North Carolina on Nov. 1. The second win mostly handles the Courage: once Denver beats them, North Carolina can only finish above the Summit by beating Portland first.

Seattle can't win either of its last two. The Reign play at Utah on Friday night and host Orlando on Decision Day. Two losses keep Seattle at 43. One draw gets them to 44 and a tie with Denver, which goes to goal difference, the league's first tiebreaker. Denver is plus-7 and Seattle is plus-3.

Portland and North Carolina play each other Friday. A Portland win or a draw is fine for Denver. A North Carolina win means Portland also has to lose at Houston on Decision Day, which would leave the Thorns at 44. That would also come down to goal difference, and Portland is plus-6.

So Denver has to win twice, Seattle has to fail twice, and Portland has to avoid losing Friday or lose to Houston. Both Friday games finish before Saturday's kickoff, so the Summit will know whether the door is still open by the time they walk out at Centennial.

"We have all the pieces here"

None of the math matters unless Denver beats Racing Louisville first.

On paper, Louisville is a team Denver should beat. Racing sits 15th at 7-3-18 with 24 points, is already eliminated and hasn't won in eight straight. On the road, Louisville is 2-0-12. Over its last six matches, it has scored three goals and conceded 11.

The catch is how Louisville loses. Last Friday's defeat at Boston was its ninth one-goal road loss of the year, and Racing won the expected-goals battle in that game. Louisville keeps games tight and loses late. Against a Denver team that has given away nine leads, that's not a script anyone at Centennial should feel safe with.

The two teams met once before, in May, and Denver won 1-0. Abby Smith made two late saves to keep the clean sheet. Louisville had more of the first half, with 32 final-third entries to Denver's 21. After halftime the Summit pressed higher, and Racing coach Bev Yanez said afterward that her team struggled to play through it. Louisville didn't get a shot for the first 42 minutes of the second half. Denver had 60% of the ball and outshot Racing 14 to 8.

At home this season the Summit are 6-4-4. It's not dominant, but against a team that is 2-12 on the road, three points is the expectation.

Saturday is also the last home game of Denver's first season. Whatever happens Friday night and on Nov. 1, it's the last time this group plays at Centennial in 2026. The 14ers were chanting "Queen Janine" on Saturday, and Sonis heard it. She said this fan base has been with the team since day one at Empower Field, and that she wants to give them a win in the last game at home.

After Angel City, she was asked whether the team is missing something.

"I don't think we lack anything. I think we have all the pieces here. It's just small details. It's good clearances. It's keeping the lines condensed. It's winning second balls," Sonis said. "In this league, the margins are so small, and we're not getting played through. Teams aren't breaking us down line to line to line. We're conceding goals from very small moments, which is equally as frustrating and as encouraging, because they're fixable moments."