Denver Summit Beat Chicago 3-0. Now They Need 9 Points and Some Help.

Kate Hanson: 18. That is how many goals Janine Sonis has had a hand in this season. Twelve goals and six assists in twenty-six games from left back. And here's the part I can't stop thinking about. Before this year, Janine had 17 goal contributions in 69 games across four NWSL seasons. So on Sunday in Chicago, She passed four seasons worth of work in one year. Folks, our two biggest names are playing exactly like our two biggest names right now. Welcome back to the 5280 pitch Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'm Kate Hanson So last Tuesday, in our last episode, I said Chicago was the one game on our schedule that we should win. They were last in the league with 17 points, and I said this is one we have to take, no excuses. But I also told you my worry, my concerns. Chicago doesn't need to be good for 90 minutes to hurt us, as we've seen throughout the year. All they needed was one transition moment. And then of course, Mallory Swanson is not on the injury report, so I was a little nervous. And I said that the lesson from Kansas City had to make the trip to Chicago with us. Well, the lesson made the trip. Chicago finished with a 0.37 expected goals. That is the lowest we have given up in a game all season. The previous low was 0.57. That transition moment that I was so worried about, it never came. Okay, so Obviously, we gotta talk about Sunday. I loved Sunday. Loved it. 3-0 on the road, a clean sheet, Janine scores, Lindsay scores, a brace, and Abby gets the shutout on her birthday. After what happened in Kansas City, that is exactly the bounce back I wanted to see, that the Denver Summit needed to have. So what we're gonna do today is I want to start with the table because the math got a little better for us this weekend. A lot still has to happen. We're gonna get into that. Then we're going to walk through the game. We're gonna talk about Janine and Lindsay because I think one of them isn't getting enough credit nationally. And I wanna clear something up about Devin Lynch and Lindsay Heaps because I see that comparison all the time. And I don't think it's a fair one. We'll we'll talk about the clean sheet. We will talk about the clean sheet and what this team has already done in year one. And last but not least, six of our players are headed off on international duty. So I'll tell you where everybody's headed. So let's start with the table. Because I guess that's just gonna be the theme for this show. We'll always start with math. Get it out of the way. Right now we are sitting in 10th, but with thirty-eight points. Ten wins, nine losses, eight draws, and our goal difference went from plus five to plus eight on Sunday. So Chicago gave us the three goals back that Kansas City took. Here is what is around us. North Carolina beat Seattle one nothing on Friday night and that shook things up. North Carolina is now eighth with forty-two points. And remember Eighth is that last playoff spot. Seattle dropped to ninth with forty points. So we are still two back from Seattle and four back from North Carolina. And Gotham and San Diego have both already clinched. We have three games left. That's nine points on the table, which means the most that we can finish with is forty seven. So, like I said, we have an international break. We have a little bit of a break here. Next game is Saturday, October 17th, and we are at home against Angel City. Saturday, October 24th, we're home again against Racing Louisville. And then Sunday, November 1st, that's decision day. We close the regular season at North Carolina. So two at home, one on the road, and that last one is against the team sitting in the spot that we want. Emma Reagan was asked about Exactly this after the game and I think that she said it perfectly. Here she is.

Katie: Just that w that's exactly what we have to do. we've set ourselves up well this game, obviously. You know, we we can't do anything about games that have happened. We have just the games in front of us and we have to take those one game at a time and like you said, nine crucial points to put ourselves in as much of the driver's seat as we can. Obviously stuff is gonna happen in other games, but we can control how we play and how we show up in each of our remaining matches.

Kate Hanson: Nine crucial points. They can't do anything about the games that already happened, and they can't control what happens in other games. They can only control how they show up going forward. And I love that because that is the right mindset. calver, I am a fan with a calculator. So let me do the part that they won't. Let's say we win all three and get to 47. What else has to go right? Now again, I have the playoff tracker. You can play around with it and see all this for yourself. If you're more of a visual person, go to 5280pitch.com slash playoff dash tracker. Or if you just go to the homepage, there's a link on the side that you can click on. Go to playoff tracker. But to see what else has to go right, we have to finish ahead of two teams that are above us right now. And the two right in front of us are Seattle and North Carolina. Seattle has 40 with three games left. They if they win two and draw one, that's forty-seven, same as us. So to finish behind us outright, Seattle can't take more than six points from their last three games. They have to slip at least once. And North Carolina, if we beat them on November first, they can still get to forty eight by winning their other two games. So North Carolina cannot win both of those. They have to slip at least once, too. and if anybody ends up tied with us on points, that is tiebreaker territory. And that's that's a whole other episode, which we'll get into if the time comes. So here's where I land on the playoffs. I'm confident in this team. I think that we can win all three but I'm also realistic because a lot has to happen that has nothing to do with us. we need nine points and we need help. The good news That last game is head to head with North Carolina. So if we take care of business at home against Angel City in Louisville, November 1st becomes a game where we control a big piece of this ourselves. Like I said before, go play it out for yourself on the playoff tracker at 5280pitch.com. Just again click the playoff tracker tab. I built it so that you can run every single game that affects the Denver Summit every single weekend. And the math It's still tight, but it's not over, folks. Not even close. Okay, so let's talk about Sunday. And honestly, I think that this was the most in control I've seen us all season. It started fast. In the eighth minute, Emma Reagan finds Janine and Janine hits it from way outside the box, past Katie Atkinson, and we're tied up one-nothing. That is the earliest goal we've scored in a game all season. So I guess in franchise history. And that's our tenth goal from outside the box this year, which leads the league. Now, was it a cross, was it a shot? I don't care. It went in. And it's also Emma's first assist of the season. Hold on to Emma because we're gonna get back to her later. Then in the twenty-sixth minute, Janine flips it around. She's the one with the assist this time. She feeds Lindsay. Lindsay finishes and it's two nothing at the half. That is the third time in our last five games that both Janine and Lindsay have scored. And fun fact. When both of them score, we haven't lost. Three wins and two draws. So folks, you should be feeling pretty good if Lindsay and Janine get on the scoreboard. And then in the seventy-sixth minute, Yaz Ryan gets the ball to Lindsay in transition. First shot gets deflected, and then she buries the rebound 3-0. That is Lindsay Heap's first brace since September 7th, 2018, and only the fourth of her career. And here's the part that got me. The numbers underneath that score line, because you know me and my numbers. We had 61.9% of the ball, our highest possession number all season. We attempted 552 passes and completed 464. And both of those are season highs. That is Math folks, that is 84% passing accuracy. We had 138 passes in the final third, and Chicago had 82. We outshot them 17 to 10. All of that. And you would think Nick would be thrilled with all of that possession, right? Not at halftime, so listen to this one.

Katie: Yeah, having having almost four midfield players, whether it's two sixes and two tens in there, you can see that we can progress and dominate the ball. I was a little bit frustrated at halftime that I thought we were overplaying at times, we were playing too many passes and Although possession to us is important, for me possession is about progressing the ball into the final third and we were keeping the ball on the same side too much and enjoying playing together. But too many passes. you know, possession doesn't win you games, it's about progressing the ball to get in the final third. So thought we'd done that much better in the second half and definitely much better in the moments we created chances.

Kate Hanson: So what he's saying is we were having a little too much fun passing it around to each other in the first half. Too many passes, keeping it on the same side, and not getting it into the final third. And for Nick, possession only matters if you're going forward. And if you watch the second half, you saw that change. We weren't just passing it around anymore. We were going somewhere with it. We had intention. And he said the two things he asked for before the game were high energy and dominating the transitions. That third goal is exactly that. We win it, we go forward, and Lindsay finishes it. One more thing before we move on. A few individual lines because a lot of people played well. Yaz led the team with four chances created, and KK completed 62 passes, the most of anybody on the field. I feel like that's just kind of turned into a repetitive statement of how many passes KK can lead the team with. we didn't pick up a single yellow card or thank goodness, red card all game. Not one. All fantastic stats to keep in mind for this team win. This was also our first road win since May 29th at Louisville. Yeah, that surprised me too when I saw it. That is 128 days. We've now scored in seven straight games, and we haven't been shut out since August 22nd at Portland. Over those last seven, we have scored 20 goals and given up eight. and with the six-one win back in August, that is a season sweep of Chicago nine-one. Whoo now Chicago, like I said, they are last in the league. They're five twenty and two. So I'm not calling this a statement win. But it is a take care of business win. This is a perfect win that we needed after Kansas City. And we got it without giving up a goal. And if it was because of some of our biggest names. Let's talk about our biggest names. I'm starting with Janine on purpose because I get it. Lindsay Heaps, she's the captain of the US women's national team. We're gonna get to see her still playing on this break here, but with the national team. She's from Golden, she's played for Rush. She's going to get the headlines. And she should. She's earned every single one of them. She's one of the best midfielders in the world. But wow, what a year Janine Sonis is having. She has 12 goals now, which ties her with Temwa Chewinga for fourth in the league. She has six assists, which leads our team, and that is 18 goal contributions. And I keep saying this, but she's left back. She's a defender. Our left back leads our team in scoring. And not just our team, all defenders. She's up there for the golden boot race. Will she get it? Most likely not, because Ashley Sanchez is having a phenomenal year. But for Janine Sonis, holy cow. And to go back to that number from the top of the show, I said 17 gold contributions in 69 games across her first four. NWSL seasons. And here she is with eighteen in twenty six games this year. She has basically tripled her rate. On Sunday, Janine had 98 touches, which was the most on the team by a lot. She had four shots, put three on target, had a goal and an assist and five crosses. She was everywhere. Emma Reagan said after the game that Janine is having the season of her life, and I don't think anybody in that locker room would argue with her. And it's not just Denver Summit fans that are starting to realize the year that Janine is having. Janine and Lindsay were both named to the NWSL Best Eleven for September. How cool both of our co-captains. I just think about the national conversation about this team, and it seems to always start with Lindsay and it sometimes stops there. And if you watch or listen every week Like you regular 5280 pitch fans do, you know Janine has been the engine of this offense all season, of this team all season. She has consistently put this team on her back and is having a season to remember, not just for her, but for Denver fans, soccer fans, NWSL fans as a whole. Okay. I I do need to talk about Lindsay because what she's doing right now is ridiculous in its own way. She has five goals for Denver and four of them have come in our last five games. She's had a goal or an assist in five straight. And Sunday was her first multi-goal game in a summit shirt. She's played ten games for us with five goals and three assists. And her 0.54 goals per 90 minutes is the best rate of anybody on our team. Who scored this year? Janine is right behind her at zero point four seven, and Janine ha still has the most goals by a mile with twelve. So these two players are the engine of this team right now. And I'm I'm so happy that they're both on fire at the perfect time of the season. And I'm so happy that they're wearing Summit Green. This is where I want to give a shout out to a listener. So I get all your DMs, I see your comments, thank you to I don't know your real name, but Instagram user AS56G on Instagram. You slid into my DMs with a stat and they asked me to share it. And it's a really good one, so I am sharing it. with Lindsay on the field, we've played ten games. Five wins, three draws, two losses. That is 18 points. Without Lindsay, we've played 17 games. Five wins, five draws, seven losses. That's 20 points. So I want you to think about that. Seven fewer games and only two fewer points. And when you put it per game, it's 1.8 points a game with Lindsay and 1.18 without her. So after they shared this with me, I had to go and dig deeper because that's what I do. every single number checks out. So whoever you are, you did your homework, and I love it. But here's the thing I found when I dug deeper. Without Lindsay is mostly before Lindsay. And we were still finding our footing. We were a new team. lots of rookies on our team. Lindsay's first game, you know, was with us july eighteenth, and thirteen of those seventeen games were before she played a single minute in a summit shirt. Only four were games she missed after she got here. And those were North Carolina, Utah, San Diego, and Portland. So a lot of that gap is the first half of our season versus the second half. Emma Reagan took a starting spot in August, and Nick says the attack has been clicking from the work on the training field. So I'm not gonna say we win because of Lindsay. But I will say this, since Lindsay got here, we've been a 1.8 points a game team. Additionally, two of her ten points are on the Chicago games that finish 6-1 and 3-0. So six of those 18 points are against the last place team. Just something to keep in mind. Folks, keep sending me stuff like this. Seriously, DM me on Instagram or Facebook or Threads if that's your favorite. I'm on all the meta platforms. If it checks out or if it's something I haven't thought about. I'm gonna go dig deeper. I'll put it on on the show. So thank you again for sending me that stat. It was fun to look into and something that honestly I hadn't really thought about at that level. So thanks for sending it in. On Sunday, Lindsay took four shots and put three on target. Her expected goals was 1.16, which is more than half of our 2.17 for the whole team. And she scored two. So she got herself into the right spots and then she finished them. She also completed 19 passes in the final third, the most on the team. I want you all to think about the goals that she did too. It was her crashing the net. And this is something that I feel really does not get appreciated the way that it should. A lot of People I'm I'll trust me, there is nothing better than seeing Tosh Flint wind up and fire at home. I love those goals. Those are phenomenal goals. But what Lindsay got on Sunday were the messy goals. The goals that come from hard work and out hustling the defense and being in the right spot at the right time. A lot of times those goals go unappreciated and those are runs and things that happen Throughout the game, and sometimes you just don't see them because the ball doesn't go in the back of the net. Having someone like Lindsay on our team, giving it 110%, going after the messy goals, going after the the cleanup duty. That that's one thing I love about Allie Brazier's game, which I can't wait to see her come back when she whenever she comes back. But Allie always is hustling after the ball, putting the pressure on the keeper. And that's something that really goes unappreciated for a lot of the game. So when I say that the biggest names are are playing like our biggest names, this is what I mean. Janine is having the season of her life. Lindsay is in the best stretch she's had since she came home. One more thing about Lindsay because I see this conversation starting to creep up time and time again. And before Lindsay got to the summit when she was still playing for Leon I saw a lot of comparisons between Devin and Lindsay. And Since Devin Lynch has not been playing, there's been some comments about it. So I want to talk about the whole Devin Lynch or Lindsay Heaps or Emma Reagan, who should be on the field. And here's the thing: I love Devin. I love watching her play. But I don't think that you can compare the three. Lindsay and Devin, yes, they're both midfielders, but they are completely different players. Devon is more defensive. Lindsay is more attacking, and folks, The numbers back that up big time. Per 90 minutes, Devin makes 4.32 tackles plus interceptions. And Lindsay makes 0.87. So Devin wins the ball back about five times as often. She has 47 tackles and 37 interceptions this season. Now flip it. Again, these are two very different players, two very different styles of play. Lindsay creates 2.06 chances per 90, and Devin creates 0.51. So Lindsay creates about four times as many chances. Lindsay has eight goal contributions in 829 minutes. Devin has one assist in 1,750 minutes. here's the funny part. Their passing accuracy is almost identical. 79.1% for Devin and 79.3% for Lindsay. Lindsay just has the ball a lot more. Now here is where I think some people might be confused because when Lindsay came in Devin's numbers started to go down. And so I think people think, Lindsay came in and took Devin's spot. That's not what happened. They they actually started together four times this season: July 18th, July 26th, August 3rd, and September 17th. Devin didn't lose her starting spot until August 23rd. And the player who took it wasn't Lindsay. Like I said before, it was Emma Reagan. See, I told you she'd be back. Emma has started all eight games. Since August 23rd. And Emma is a different kind of player too. Devin wins the ball, Emma moves the ball. As a starter, Emma attempts about 10 more passes per 90 than Devin. And she completes 87% of them. On Sunday, she completed 55 of her 61 passes. That's 90%. So we we really didn't swap one ball winner for another. We swapped ball winning for ball movement. And we're asking Lindsay to create the chances. Now, that's my read on the lineup. Nick has never come out and said, this is why. But In the postgame press conference, he was asked about Devin Lynch on Sunday, and I really liked his answer. So here he is.

Katie: I still I think Devin gets us playing forwards as well. And I just think we gave Emma an opportunity out of being out the team and rotated through that three-game week, and it's been tough to take her out the team. That's you know, that's part of a of a winning team, right? That You give people opportunity and they have to make it almost impossible for you to take them out. And Dev will get her chance again. She's been brilliant this year, really, really good at regaining the ball, but also good with the ball.

Kate Hanson: So he's basically saying Emma earned it during that three game week. And now she's made it really hard to take her out. And Devin will get her chance again. I mean, we just signed her to an extension. Earlier in that same answer, he said picking a team is the toughest part of his job right now, and that competition for places is what a team pushing for the playoffs looks like. And he doesn't think the scoring jump is down to the change at the six. He credits the work on the training field and in the video room and the relationships in our t in our attack. They're finally clicking. So for me, It's not Devin or Lindsay or Emma. These are all different jobs, and honestly, this is a good problem to have. It means that we have A very talented roster with a deep bench. Okay, let's talk about the back line too. Because after Kansas City, I needed this clean sheet. And I think that the Denver Summit did too. This was our sixth clean sheet of the season and our first since we beat Gotham 3-0. And it came right after we gave up four in Kansas City. Abby made four saves for her fifth shutout of the season. So let's give a round of applause to to Abby Smith. and that's the twentieth regular season shutout of her career. She is just the 14th player in NWSL history to get there. And how cool is this? She did it on her birthday. She said after the game this is the first time that she's ever played on her birthday because they're usually traveling or it's an off day. So again, happy birthday, Abby. I think honestly, yes, what better gift can you have than that? A shutout win on your birthday. And here's why Nick cared so much about that zero. Even up three nothing, that zero, that shutout meant a lot. Here he is.

Katie: Yeah, definitely. I just said to the coaches in there. if we'd have conceded at the end and it'd have gone three one, I think there'd have been a real deflation in the group and and in the staff. Just that you know You still get three points, but I think it's about standards and expectations and about the demands that we put on each other that going into the playoffs, trying to get in, keeping clean sheets is a critical part of that and being a a hard team to play against, whether you're you know, one nil up or three nil up or or zero zero, I think it's critical that you can keep clean sheets and be a really hard team to play against.

Kate Hanson: So if we'd given up one late and it ended 3-1, he said there would have been a real deflation in that locker room. Still three points, but that's not the summit standard. And I love that because that is a coach who's already thinking about November. That is a team that has a winning mentality. Okay, so I talked about being realistic. about the playoffs. Now I want you to hear the other half because whatever happens in these last three games, these numbers from our inaugural year are ours. We have 38 points. That is the most ever for an expansion club in its first NWSL season. Among every first-year club, it ties Portland in 2013 for second. Only North Carolina in 2017 had more with 49. So we have 10 wins, which makes us just the sixth club ever to reach double-digit wins in its first season. We have 45 goals in 27 games, 1.67 a game. The the record for a team in its first season, not counting the original 2013 teams, is North Carolina in 2017 with 1.58 a game. So if we score three goals in our last three games, that record is ours, folks. We have five players. Five. With five or more goals. Janine, like I said earlier, she has twelve. Yaz, Tosh, and MK have six each and Lindsay has five now. We are already the first team in NWSL history with four, five goal scorers in its first season. And now it's five. And you guys, you're on this list too. We are second in the league in attendance. Which kinda surprised me. Seventeen thousand two hundred and ninety one on average in year one. we gotta sell out those last two games, folks. I mean, we need to get that attendance record. I I was shocked that we were in second place. Let's get first. Sell out those final two games. Be there despite whatever the weather says. I don't know. It was too far away. I don't know what the weather's gonna be. But you need to be there. This team needs you and we are that twelfth man whenever they take the pitch. So yes, a lot does need to happen for us to make the playoffs. But this is not a team that is just Lucky to be here. This is a historic first year, no matter what happens down the stretch. And unfortunately, we have to wait. it what a hard time to have all that momentum come into us against beating Chicago. And then we have to just sit and wait. We don't yes, we do not play again until October 17th. That's 13 days between games. But six of our players will not just be resting and hanging around. As I said last week, Lindsay is with the US women's national team. Janine and Emma are with Team Canada again. Yuzu Yamamoto is with Japan And MK is with Germany. and then after I made the graphic and posted it out on social, it was announced that I. Look for the games. If you would are interested in watching them play, let me know. Happy to send out some more information on when they play and where they play. But these are all games that if you're missing some women's football, go look for those players and cheer them on while they play for their nation's team. Cheer on all six of them. And send them some love on the social. Again, I will post match times on threads and Instagram as those games get closer. And the biggest thing is hoping that everyone comes back healthy for Angel City. So are we making the playoffs? Here's where I land. We need nine points, and we need Seattle and North Carolina to slip. That is a lot. But after the game, somebody told Abby that the broadcast kept saying that there was no pressure on an expansion team to make the playoffs. And this was my favorite answer of the night.

Katie: Yeah, I think there's when people like start saying there's no pressure to make playoffs, like I'm sorry, why are we playing professional sports? Like, it's just it is what it is. Like, we want to be in playoffs. We're not going to be satisfied if we don't. And a piece of that is like, yeah, you can say that, but like there is a piece of you that you have a bit of pride in the club that you're playing for that you wanna be pushing for playoffs and you wanna win a championship. So sure, like Let everybody else say what they want to say, but we know what we want and we know what we're striving for.

Kate Hanson: That is this team. People can say an expansion team gets a pass. This team does not want one. They want the playoffs, they want a championship, and honestly, so do I. So the next game, again, is October 17th, Angel City. It's gonna be at home. If you're not gonna be at the game, well, you should be there, but if you can't make it to the game, check it out on Ion and the Spot Denver 3, which if you have the the rabbit ears or a traditional antenna, it's channel 3.1 on the antenna. Get your tickets, bring somebody who's never been, be loud. You guys we have the second best attendance in the league, which is great, but Let's get gold. And we need to be the loudest team in the league on that night. Our team needs us to show up because two of our biggest names are playing like two of our biggest names. Our keeper just hit 20 career shutouts. And our coach is mad that we had the ball too much. I think that we beat Angel City. I will have an episode before the Angel City game where we can break down everything. Next week's episode will be a very special episode about what is yet to come for your Denver Summit. I was at the groundbreaking at Santa Fe Yards. I'm gonna have a ton of video footage and interviews from that momentous day. What a day not only for Denver soccer, but for women's sports in general. I'm gonna be breaking down everything that happened that day in next week's episode. Be sure to tune in or watch it on YouTube. Like I said, we have a lot of video footage. I had my photographer Victor out there as well. My reporter Mariah came. Whole 5280 pitch team was in attendance. So you're gonna want to check out next week's episode as well. That's it for this week's episode, though. If you liked it, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with somebody. That is Biggest thing that you can do for an independent show like this, it's how more people find women's soccer. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter at 5280pitch.com for the 5280 weekly. Send out one email a week. It's different than what I talk about here on the show. There's always great merch drops in there. You get a special discount. If you did sign up and you don't see it, check your spam. Say it's not spam. And if you haven't checked out the playoff tracker, be sure to do that at 5280pitch.com. Everything fun happens at 5280pitch.com. I am Kate Hansen. This is the 5280 Pitch Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'll talk with you soon.