Denver 2, San Diego 3 and the Quote That Says Everything

Katie Brinkley: Welcome back to the 5280 pitch women's soccer altitude. I'm Kate Hansen. So Saturday night, Dick's Sporting Goods Park and the weather wasn't bad. I was very pleasantly surprised with how the weather turned out for us thank you Mother Nature for moving things along just a day to Sunday and giving us a cold night. But it was rain free, it was snow free, and over 16,000 fans came out to cheer on the Denver Summit. Yes, 16,932 people were in Commerce City for Denver Summit FC's first ever home match at the team's temporary home. Top of the table, San Diego Wave came into town. Emma Hayes, US Women's National Team Coach, was in the house. And the San Diego Wave were riding a four-match win they hadn't lost since opening night. And you know what? Denver came out swinging. Denver ⁓ led them two nil at halftime then, ⁓ yeah, y'all know what happened. You or you listened or you saw the score come in and immediately tried to figure out what went wrong so quickly because the final score ended up being Denver two, San Diego three. And depending on how you're feeling about it, The result is either devastating or it is a sign of exactly where this team is right now. Maybe both, probably both. But here's what I wanna do today. I wanna walk through how this game actually unfolded because the screenshots and the box scores, it doesn't tell the whole story. I wanna talk about the goals. I wanna talk about the second half collapse. And gonna use the word collapse because that's what it was. I'm also gonna play you some audio from the post game interview. have interviews, have Tosh Flint ⁓ Yasmeen Ryan. We've also got Nick Cushing and we have Younas Idaval, head coach of the number one team in the league, San Diego Wave. We're all talking about Denver Summit FC, what they thought of that game and what we can look forward to as the season continues because something that Jonus I said in the post game interview about Denver Summit FC, it's really important. And I think it's something that all of us as Denver Summit fans need to hang on to. So I'm also gonna break down Some things that I say in other podcast episodes that, as I was talking with some people at my daughter's game over the weekend, because they had a total of six games for the two of them over the weekend. And we were talking about some of the stats and things I share on the podcast and they had questions about what certain terminology is. And so a lot of you might be new to women's soccer, ⁓ just talking about soccer in that statistical sort of way. So I want to get into the formation that Denver uses, ⁓ what XG means, there's a story with all of this and we're going to talk about the players who showed up for the match and there are some performances ⁓ in Saturday's game that got buried in results. We're going to talk about all of that. We're going to talk about discipline. We're going to talk about what it actually felt like to be in the stadium on Saturday night, where it was Denver Unite night. That's my daughter's, got Dinger's autograph over here. But we're going to talk about what it was like to be there, because if you weren't there, ⁓ it was a night to remember. So all right, let's get into it. Denver started out absolutely flying. And before I get to the goals, I want to talk about how they came out, but because for 45 minutes, this was a tactical clinic. Nick Cushing had a plan and the players executed it perfectly. Denver played compact, the double pivot of Devin Lynch and Delaney Sheehan sat in front of the back four and clogged that's the central channels. San Diego, a team that wants to play through the middle, that wants Ken Zadali on the ball orchestrating everything, they couldn't find that rhythm. They had to go wide and when they went wide, Denver's full backs, Carson Pickett on the left and Janine Saunas on the right, they were ready. Pickett finished the match with five recoveries, second on the team. The press was working too. Denver wasn't just sitting in a low block waiting for San Diego to get tired. They had clear pressing triggers where San Diego centerbacks touched the ball under no pressure. Tosh, Flint and Melissa Kostel were closing them down, forcing the back pass, forcing Leah Friedman, the goalkeeper, to play long. And when she went long, Denver was winning those second balls at midfield. That's why Denver had 27 touches in the opposition box in this match versus San Diego's 13 because the system was working. The plan was working. ⁓ this is ⁓ a game two halves. And ⁓ the first was exactly what ⁓ I think Denver summit want to put out there for the rest of the season. We saw what this team is capable of. In the 16th minute, Yasmeen Ryan, picks up a ball in space between San Diego's midfield and their back line, and she drops an absolutely beautiful pass to Melissa Kussler. Kussler does Kussler does, bottom corner, one nothing. That's her fourth goal of the season. It's also the first home goal in Denver Summit FC history. Think about that for a second because... Cussler also got the very first goal for the Denver Summit and then she got the very first goal at home. And I think that that is what's so cool is Cussler, of course it's Cussler that scores. She's now scored in each of Denver's first three goals in club history. She's the first player in NWSL history to do that. Jordan Angeley was on the podcast a few weeks ago. I talked about Kusler as being in our best kept secret. She said, she's not anymore. And it's true. I think that teams are figuring out that Kusler, the clinician is to be Then comes the 32nd minute and Tosh Flint header ⁓ off of rebound. So after Kristin McNabb cleared the initial Denver Chance off the line, Tosh Flint sticking with it, and I don't know how she got it in or what she did, but it was a beautiful header. ⁓ And McNabb, by the way, who was trying to clear it that Tosh then headed back she's San Diego center back. and she had a phenomenal game defensively. She was everywhere, but on this one that rebound falls perfectly to Tosh and Tosh finished it strong. It was her second goal this season. So now I think it's really interesting because Tosh and Melissa ⁓ scores for the first games this season, which is crazy. all the goals we have and it's all come from two players. ⁓ think it's time the rest of our team to step up. Now, after the match, I asked Yasmine Ryan specifically about that first goal because watching it live, you could tell something was rehearsed about the buildup. And here's exactly how she described it. That's the part that gets me. We worked on this during the international break. That's not random. That is training, showing up on the field. That's a team finding its identity in real time. And if you remember, Ryan and Sheehan were late additions to this roster. So getting those extra three weeks to work together as a team, I think was huge for a lot of these players that were late additions. And it was a great first half. Denver goes into halftime against the number one team in NWSL up to nothing. The crowd was electric. And here's the thing, and this matters, going into Saturday, San Diego had a regular season record of zero wins, 23 losses, and six draws when trailing at halftime. Through 29 matches, they had never come back to win from a halftime deficit in club history. until Saturday. So we're going to talk about how it fell apart. And it fell apart over a very short span of time, honestly. The 49th minute, Leah Godfrey and Kimmy Oskineo do a little give and go on the edge of the box, and Godfrey calmly slots it into the far post, 2-1, just four minutes into the second half. And right there, right at that moment, you could feel ⁓ something shift. The crowd got quieter, the team got tighter, and then in the 57th minute there was a corner kick from Leah Godfrey to the near post and who was there? Well someone we just saw very recently do something very similar a week ago for the US Women's National Team. Yep I'm talking about Kennedy Wesley, San Diego's center back. She rises up and powers ahead or past Abby Smith. 2-2 And it was Wesley's first goal of the season for the Wave, second goal of her year here at Dick's Sporting Goals Park. But then we're going to talk about the third goal. And this goal is going to stick with everyone for a while. It's the 65th minute. Doudina, and look, Doudina was a problem all night for Denver. The Brazilian winger has incredible 1v1 quality. She beats her defender at the end line. Janine Saunas did her absolute best against her. There was a number of times that she just got beat. But Dudina drives a low cross, the face of the goal, Carson Pickett was trying to clear it and she directed it into her own net. Yep. Twas an own goal, which is probably the worst feeling goal that you will ever have as a player. There's no version that I want to talk about that doesn't feel cruel. ⁓ It just is. ⁓ So three goals in 16 minutes. 16 minutes completely, we saw Denver completely collapse. San Diego goes from 0-23-6 in halftime deficit games to 1-23-6 in one second half. So Denver's three game shutout streak, the only NWSL expansion side ever to keep three straight clean sheets in their first five matches. streak is over And our team, hadn't lost since opening night. So that's something I want us to stick with as fans because we are still expansion team. I had the opportunity to ask about the second half, about what changed and about what San Diego did differently. And here's what she said. can't let our foot off the gas, regardless of the score line. And that's a line that is going to stick with this team because we were built to outlast teams in the second half. That's one thing that Denver wants to have as part of their identity is that we play at altitude and we are going to continue playing when you get tired. we, let's, so let's talk about what went wrong because The temptation is to look at all three goals in 16 minutes and assume that Denver got out run on the field. They didn't. So I'm going to throw some numbers at you and I want to introduce something here because we're going to talk about it more this season. I've talked about it before. It's called XG. And that means expected goals. So XG is a stat that measures the quality of a chance, not just whether it went in. So every shot gets a value between 0 and 1 based off of stuff like distance from the goal, angle, body part used, what kind of pass set it up. So a shot with a 0.1 XG is a chance you'd expect to score on about 10 % of the time. A shot with 0.5 XG, it's a coin flip. A penalty kick, That's about 0.76, so closer to one, the better the chance. Why does this matter? Because XG tells you whether a result reflects actual performance or whether one team just got lucky or unlucky on the day. So now that I've explained what XG means, I want to talk about Saturday and Denver's expected XG. Denver's expected goals was 0.9. San Diego's expected goals was .93. Dead even. Shots, Denver had nine, San Diego had eight. Shots on target, four each. Touches in the opposition box, Denver had 27, San Diego had 13. Denver actually had more dangerous moments in the attacking third than San Diego did. Folks, this was not a blowout. This was not a game where Denver got dominated. This is a game where San Diego was just more clinical. And here's the thing about Leah Godfrey's first goal, that 49th minute strike that started the comeback. That chance was a .46 XG, almost a coin flip quality. That was a legitimate great chance. Denver gave it up and Godfrey buried it. But Wesley's header off the corner, that was a .12 XG. It was not a high quality chance, a header off a set piece that Wesley just willed into the net. And it was actually the exact same net that she scored on the previous week. All the goals got scored in that net. Anyways, that's not Denver getting opened up tactically. That was a center back in Kennedy Wesley making a play. And then the own goal. Dudina created it with individual quality on the wing. That's not a system breakdown. That is a world-class player doing world-class things. So when you look at the underlying numbers here, this game is going to tell you two things. One, Denver is good enough to play with the best team in the league. They are. The numbers say it. The eye test says it. And two, San Diego is the best team in the league for a reason. they take their chances. I also want to talk about the formation because this is really important. For the first five games of this season, Denver has played in a 4-3-3. So basically, that's four defenders, ⁓ three and three forwards. It's a very balanced shape. You can press, you can possess, and you can attack from wide. Saturday, Cushing changed it up. So Denver played a 4-2-3-1. ⁓ So a quick breakdown for anyone who's not deep into formation talk. So a four, two, three, one means four defenders across the back, then two defensive midfielders sitting in front of them. That's the double pivot. Then three attacking midfielders ahead of them and one striker up top. For Saturday's match, that meant Pickett, Kurtz, Sonnis, and Reed in the back four. Devin Lynch and Delaney Sheehan as the double pivot. Yasmin Ryan, Tosh Flint, and Aoki as the attacking three behind Kostler up at the top. You might be saying, okay, Kate why? Why does this matter? Because the 4-2-3-1 is a more defensive setup than a 4-3-3. Two holding mids instead of one. It tells you Cushing went into this match thinking, we need to be solid first, attack second, which makes perfect sense. They were playing the number one team in the league. And credit where credit is due for 45 minutes, it absolutely worked. Denver was compact. double pivot disrupted San Diego's rhythm. The attacking three got into pockets of space and created. Kussler held the ball up, two goals on the board. And then ⁓ again, the second happened and we saw what we saw in real time. San Diego figured it They started getting Leah Godfrey higher up on the field. put Kenzadali on the Balmore, went after the wide channels, and once it was up 2-1, the whole shape started to wobble. I'm gonna be really curious to see what Cushing does next match. Whether he goes back to the 4-3-3, whether he keeps the 4-2-3-1 and works on tightening it up in the second half, it really could go either way. Now, I do wanna talk about some individual performances. some really good ones got buried under that result and I don't want them to disappear. Kaylee Kurtz, Saturday's MVP in my book. Three chances created, most on the team, 44 complete passes, ⁓ on the team. She was Denver's primary distributor from the back. Yes, she did pick up that yellow card in the 59th minute and that compromised her ability to make hard tackles for the remaining 30. We'll get to the... ⁓ discipline issue in a minute, but Kurtz was the spine of this performance. She has been the spine of this team's clean sheet streak, and she's on track to set NWSL records for consecutive starts and consecutive minutes played. So don't lose sight in the impact that Kaylee Kurtz has on this team. I also want to talk about Janine Sanas. Look, the assist on Megan Reid's header that hit bar in stoppage time of the first half that was a perfect cross. Sanas attempted seven crosses Saturday, more than anyone on the field for Denver. She is, as a converted center back, playing more advanced this year. She has quietly been one of the most consistent players in this lineup. And yes, she had her hands full with that Brazilian top three on Saturday. ⁓ There was a couple times that she got beat, but you know what? ⁓ I feel that Janine had a fantastic game for the Denver Summit. And again, it's just cleaning up a few small things. And then the supporter section, they were chanting her name. Yes, I'm talking about Abby Smith. Three goals against Anne, her save percentage actually went up on Saturday. So she made two saves on four shots on target. Now I know the goalkeeper is the one in the back. The goals are gonna look like they fall on her and that's how this position just works, unfortunately. but I want you all to look at the chances. The Godfrey goal at the 49th minute as a point four six XG. That's a finish that you have to just tip your hat to. The Wesley header, Abby was screened by traffic in the box and the own goal that's not on her. She's still, she remains one of the best signings that this club has made. I loved hearing our supporter section chanting her name throughout the match. I think that we have to continue showing support to our players as we continue finding our footing. Everyone, again, we're an expansion team and Abby Smith has played phenomenally for us so far this season. These are the players that are showing up. ⁓ And on a night that ended they all deserve to be talked about, but those were three that stood out to me. throughout this match. And I want to talk about the discipline because this is a real tactical issue. Denver picked up three yellow cards on Saturday. Yeah, I know. Ayo Oki at the 55th minute, Kayleigh Kurtz at the 59th, and Ava Gaetano in extra time. But can you believe that? When I say that we had a 16 minute collapse, it really was 16 minutes. Yellow cards, goals, everything. If we could just get rid of that type of play for 16 minutes, that'd be great. Two of those yellow cards are big problems. Okay, at the 55th minute, it came right at the moment that San Diego was building momentum and Cushing took her off five minutes later for Yuna. Now you're losing a starter that you wanted to have on the field, partly because she had to be more careful for the rest of the game. But Kurtz at the 59th minute is the one that I think hurt this team the most because Kurtz is our most important defender. You're captain of the back line. the player setting those records. She picked up that yellow card at the 59th minute and from that moment until the final whistle, she had to be extremely careful with every single tackle. She has to think before she steps and San Diego is pushing ⁓ for the winner during that ⁓ window. And that a tactical problem because she couldn't play her hardest. Denver can't afford to play short or play tentative every game, especially with the number one team in the league. And by having two of our players, two of our stronger players get those yellow cards, it affected us tremendously. Now, speaking of Cushing, his post game might've been the most honest, clear-eyed press conference I've heard from a head coach this season. He wasn't dodging anything. He answered all the press questions. He wasn't deflecting, and he gave us a line that I think kind of sums up where this team is right now. Tough times make top teams. That is the long view. this is a coach that knows that the growing pains are real, who's not panicking after one bad result. He also told us, and I think this is worth paying attention to, owner Rob Cohen, We'll remember these moments as really important moments when we get to where we want to get to. So that's a coach building something. That's not a coach who's lost the plot or frustrated. He said one more thing that I want to pull out to about Ava Gaetano, because Ava's story this season is one I've been wanting to talk about and Saturday really brought it full circle. Ava was on crutches ⁓ at the home opener Washington just four weeks ago with the ankle injury. I didn't think that we would see her. There's been a lot of mystery about when she would come back, but we saw her come on late in the game. She came on in the 72nd minute and she played the rest of the game. She picked up the yellow card, which I already talked about, for someone that's coming back on, ⁓ ⁓ really excited to see her back in action because she was so solid for us ⁓ the first few games of this season. And Cushing got asked about her recovery and what it meant that she's already contributing, I like frustration. That's the standard. That's the energy. That's what this team is built on. Players who don't want to come off. Players who push to get back from injury. And a coach who sees that and values that. The atmosphere on Saturday was amazing. was the first chance for a lot of fans to see what the Denver Summit had at an actual home venue. The home opener at Mile High, that was... ⁓ spectacle. 63,000 people. This was different. This was at Dix, 16,000. The energy was something else. Tosh Flint got asked about the atmosphere postgame and what it's like to play here in front of these crowds, whether 63,000 at mile high or 16,000 at Dix. And here's what she had to say. That answer right there, that's not a throwaway answer. That is a player on an expansion team in their first inaugural season, recognizing what's happening here, right here in Denver, folks. The level of buy-in that this market has shown for women's professional soccer. And I keep saying this, it's unique. It's special. It's not happening anywhere else. And we're only six matches in. In last clip from the postgame presser, and honestly, this is one that I keep coming back to, after the match, we got to sit and talk with the San Diego head coach as well. And he got asked a question that I think every Denver fan needs to hear the answer to. As the top team in this league playing this expansion Denver Summit, what does the wave think of the Denver Summit? What's their view of what we're building here in Denver? And here's what he had to say. That is the head coach of the number one team in the NWSL calling Denver Summit FC one of the toughest opponents in this league. After five games, after an expansion rosters first home match, after a result that San Diego won. I'm not saying that losses don't matter because they absolutely do. The points matter. But the context matters too, and the league is paying attention. All right, so where does that leave us heading into next week? Denver's record drops to one win, three draws, two losses, six points through six games. And I did see the NWSL rankings on Monday. We're now ranked 11th, down two spots from nine. The clean sheet streak is broken, sadly. But hey, time to start new records, right? The team that hadn't allowed a goal in over 270 minutes, they just gave up three in 16 minutes. Let's erase that. That 16 minutes, I keep saying, let's just erase that from all of our memory. underlying numbers say that this team belongs. Playoffs ⁓ that goal ⁓ achievable. The opposing coach for the number one team in the NWSL says this team belongs. The fans, ⁓ plus of them on Saturday night. They all showed up. Next up is Boston legacy on the road. May 3rd two expansion sides. ⁓ This is to be really interesting to see. Boston is winless, has zero points. ⁓ This is a game that ⁓ should win. It has to honestly. And then This schedule keeps coming. Houston dash Orlando back at home. Here's what I keep coming back to Denver led the best team in the league to zero at halftime. What happened was a heartbreaker. The opposing coach left the building saying this is one of the toughest opponents in the NWSL. If you're a Denver Summit fan, you can sit with your disappointment. That's fair. That's real, but don't miss the bigger picture here. This team is exactly where Cushing said they'd be. They're learning in front of all of us. They're getting tested by the absolute best and they are showing up. They're showing that they belong. Tough times make top teams. Thank you so much for hanging with me on the 5280 pitch today. Episodes come out every Tuesday, wherever you listen to podcasts. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review. It helps so much. If you're not on the newsletter yet, head on over to The5280Pitch.com and receive special discounts and exclusive merch opportunities. because we have another match this weekend, I'm going to be doing another episode. So be sure to tune in on Friday for my pregame breakdown of what we can expect to see for the Denver Summit and the Boston Legacy. Connect with me on social so you never miss a beat. Until then, keep your head up, folks. It was a heartbreaker of a loss, but you know what? times top teams. We'll see you in the next episode.