Denver Summit Can Jump Into a Playoff Spot Saturday. KC Stands in the Way.

Kate Hanson: This is the team that we have been building toward all year. And on Saturday night, after an hour-long weather delay and monsoon rain against a Seattle team sitting right above us in the race, we finally saw it. 41. That's how many goals the Denver Summit have scored this season. Nick Cushing said it at the start of the year that 39 to 41 goals is what it takes to get that last playoff spot. Well, we just hit the top of his range and we still have five games left to play. Welcome back to the 5280 pitch Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'm Kate Hanson So on Friday, I said 3-2 Denver. Well, the final was 2-1. But folks, honestly, I am happy to be off by a goal every single week if it ends with us getting three points. And remember, on Friday, after what happened against Bay, I said I would be watching every late Seattle substitution with my heart in my throat. Brittany Radcliffe came on in the 54-minute, and one minute later she scored. Of course she did. But, we're gonna get into all that. Here's what we got on the agenda today. I want to talk about why this win was so big for the Denver Summit in the table rankings and what my playoff tracker says has to happen. In the NWSL this week. We're also going to talk about how this team handled the weather and how they held that two-goal lead, which we've said a couple times might be the scariest lead in all of sports. We're also going to talk about that Sofia Huerta penalty that happened in the 47th minute And what the difference is between a yellow card and a red card in this league. And last but not least, we are going to talk about the Kansas City game that happens on Saturday morning in a building that nobody, not named Kansas City, has won in all year. So let's start with the table. Because, yay, we'll start with math. Right now. we're still sitting at 10th with 35 points. Seattle is ninth with 37, and Kansas City is eighth, holding that last playoff spot with 38 points. So we are three points back with five games to play. The top eight make the playoffs, and the first tiebreaker is goal difference. We are plus eight, and Kansas City is plus three. So Hold on to that number because we are going to be coming back to it. I want to think about where Seattle was a week ago. Coming into Saturday, they were five points clear of us. Now, they have lost two straight, a 3-1 loss at Angel City, and then, of course, the 2-1 loss against us. And the gap is two. We also won the season series. So we drew against Seattle back zero zero when they were playing in Spokane back in April. And now we have beaten them 2-1. So that's four of six points that the Denver Summit have against the rain. And Five games ago, Nick Cushing called this a five game season. Four at home and one on the road. he is on how it went.

Katie: Yeah, so five games ago, I said it was five game season because I knew with the four home games and then the one away game that there was a chance to be in the pack and to take 11 points from the 15 available was slightly disappointed. We didn't take 13, but to take 11, it gave us a chance. You can see tonight with courage losing and with us beating Seattle, you can see tonight that that pack is really set It's really tight now

Kate Hanson: And I have to say, we all got to see fired up Kate. I was fired up on that Friday episode after that draw that we had on Wednesday. Maybe fired up Kate needs to come to the podcast more often because the team that showed up on Saturday was a lot of fun to watch, but we're gonna get into that. With what Nick said, he said eleven of fifteen, three wins, two draws, and sixteen goals scored in those five games, which is the longest unbeaten run that the Denver Summit have had all season. You know, Nick sa also said that he was a little disappointed that it wasn't 13, and I love that because that is a coach who is expecting more from this group. Expansion year or not, he is expecting winners. We also, fun fact, have not lost at home since North Carolina on August 5th. I'm knocking on wood. Which brings me to the playoff tracker. If you haven't checked it out yet, go to fifty two eighty pitch dot com and click on the playoff tracker tab. I built it so that you can play out every single game in the NWSL that affects the Denver Summit every single weekend. And this weekend, the path to eighth is really clean. It takes two results. So number one, Friday night. Boston goes to Seattle at pl and plays at 6 30 p.m. Mountain Time. Boston has to win or draw. If Seattle wins, they go to 40, and that blocks us from getting to 8th This weekend. Now I know there's more time left, but I would sure like to already be sitting in eighth and then holding on and maybe going up higher in the in the table. But we gotta get to eighth first. So if that happens on Friday, the second thing that has to happen is Denver Summit needs to beat Kansas City. If we if we win, we go to 38 and Kansas City stays on 38, and our goal difference is five better than theirs is right now. So a win in Kansas City jumps us right over on. So if you're a regular listener to the show, by now you know that your your Denver Summit, have your heart. But you should be watching more NWSL matches. Tune in on Friday night and cheer for Boston. Cheer for the other expansion team only on Friday. And then on Saturday, obviously 10:30 AM, you're gonna wake up, have your morning coffee, and watch on CBS. Go run the scenarios yourself over on the tracker. I I made it to make it as easy as possible so that we know what needs to happen every single week because this the playoff dream is not dead, folks. It is still very much alive. Our destiny is in our own hands. So let's talk about what happened against the rain on Saturday. And I have to start with the weather. There was an hour-long weather delay before kickoff. It was monsoon type rain. I was not at Centennial on Saturday because I was helping my uncle move, but the rest of my family was there and they spent the whole rain delay sitting in the car waiting for that monsoon to pass. Let's talk about what happened at the game because after the monsoon happened, we took the pitch. It was about an hour delay. so Seattle came in and they already were playing their third game in a week, Once the game finally started, nobody took a shot for the first fifteen minutes. Which is crazy because we typically come out of the gate pretty hard. But after that fifteenth minute we took our first shot and then we took over. Sixteen shots to eight, ten on target to four, And ten on target actually ties our season high. We had 31 touches in Seattle's box, and they had 10 in ours. And in the first half, Seattle had one shot. One. Again, I guess fired up Kate needs to come to the show more often because our defense, Abby, everyone was clicking on Saturday night. And we'd have one more on the scoreboard too, if not for Claudia Dickey. She made eight saves, which ties her career high. Credit to her. She kept Seattle in it for a very long time. And you don't have to take my word for it. Take Seattle's head coach, like I said, Laura Harvey was really blunt after the game. She said her team didn't bring enough grit or competitiveness in that first half. She said they didn't really show up until after the summit scored the second goal. And then she said, quote, they wanted it more than us for the first. fifty minutes. Yeah, that's the other team's head coach telling you who wanted it more. That's the team that we are down the stretch. And I'm going back to social media again because I spend a lot of time reading the comment threads and everything. It's not just Denver Summit fans who are enjoying watching the summit play. Across NWSL Reddit threads In the NWSL threads pages, I see so many people from out of state that are fans of other teams commenting about what a fun team the Denver Summit are to watch. I know that we're new to the league, folks, but we are we're getting spoiled early on with the talent that is on the field for the Denver Summit. But let's get back to what happened post game. Nick explained exactly how we did it, how we came out and had that energy. And I love it when he gets into the tactics. So listen to listen to this one.

Katie: Yeah, yeah, it was tactical. So both our nines are working incredibly hard and both of them have added goals lately. Melissa in the Chicago game, Olivia back to back, right? But the way that Seattle are pressing tonight, we knew that they were going to put the nine and the 10 on the on our two sixes and they're going to jump our central defenders with the wingers. So we wanted to overload the sides and almost play two tens. And if you see the way that we built, we went with KK when Mondesau was jumping at. And we went KK and Janine and then we Tash on the line and then we put Yaz as well. So instead of playing risky where their eight bodies were, we just played round them. And when we got them on the side, we switched the play and I think it worked really well. And knowing that Lindsay and Tash are 10s that can deal with the ball under pressure and can wriggle out of tight situations, I thought it really showed in our progression in the first half.

Kate Hanson: So Seattle put their nine and their ten on our two sixes and they jumped our center backs with their wingers. Instead of forcing the ball into that, we just went around it. KK, then Janine, then Tosh on the line, then Yaz, overload one side, get them on the side, switch the play. and you could see it in who had the ball. Janine, once again, 79 touches, the most of anybody on the pitch, and she tried nine crosses from left back. KK completed 50 passes. Lindsay had 13 completed passes in the final third, which was the most on our team. That's a coaching staff with a very clear plan and a group of players who went out and executed it. Okay, so let's talk about the goals. In the 44th minute, Lindsay Heaps finds Delaney Sheehan. And Yuzuki Yamamoto made a run. I thought Delaney was gonna thread it too to Yuzu, but instead she sends it over everybody in the nice little chip shot right into the back of the net. It's her first goal since May. at Houston and her second of the season. Now, was it a cross or was it a shot? Delaney has a different opinion and Tosh has an opinion about Delaney's opinion.

Katie: haters, especially this one right here. She's going to say that it was a cross, but I'm standing on that it was a shot. Check the film. think I checked where the keeper's at. So, but she's my biggest fan. Mine was a shot. She reminded me the whole half. It's not a shot.

Kate Hanson: For the record, the the club's own stat sheet has it down as a shot. So Delaney, you win this one. But the assist from Lindsay makes it three straight matches with a goal contribution. She scored at Angel City, she scored again against Bay, and then she set up Delaney here. Then the 50th minute, Janine finds Tosh just inside the box, and Tosh That rocket shot makes it 2-0. Claudia didn't have it. She didn't have a chance. like I said, I was watching the game from afar and they show everybody rushing Tosh and then show just Claudia Dickey sitting on the ground. I mean, she knew she's like, man, that's how do I stop that? Folks, Tosh had seven of our sixteen shots, and six of them were on target. Nobody else on our team put more than two on target. Her previous season high this season was three on target in a single game, so she doubled it. And this was her first goal since Chicago on August 30th. That is six goals and four assists on the season for Tosh Flint. And she told the room afterward she thinks she could have had three or four. I mean, she's not wrong. I still want the club to put out the shot speed gun thing on Tosh to see how hard she shoots it because she has just got a rocket And when she finds space, that shot is really hard to stop. Additionally, our MVP Janine Sonas, that was her fifth assist of the season, which ties her best for a single season. She's had 11 goals and five assists on the year. Tied for fourth in the golden boot race. Again, from left back. She also had five chances created the most of anybody on the field. She just continues her MVP run. Janine Sonis is having a heck of a year, not just for the Denver Summit, but for her career. And one more thing before we move on. On Friday, I had another fun fact for you. I told you that this team leads the league in goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Well, Tosh's goal was number 13 in that time frame. So we come out of the locker room after halftime with a plan every single week. And again, also Look at who scored this week. Delaney and Tosh. It's not just Janine carrying us like she did for so much of the summer. Nick talked about that after the game. he said it's part of the standard now. A ten has to add goals. A midfielder has to chip in. And Saturday they did. So two nothing in the fiftieth minute. And again, if you listened to the Kate fired up episode on Friday, I'm sure you all knew what I was thinking when we went up to nothing and there was still forty minutes left of play. Cause on Wednesday, we were up to nothing at home and we walked away with only one point. So when Ratcliffe comes off the bench five minutes later and one minute later Pounces in a rebound and makes it two one with thirty-five minutes of regulation play left. I was nervous. I was like, no, not again. And it's it's great because Nick actually opened up his press conference talking about exactly this.

Katie: I think a deliberate... demand on each other and on individuals to defend the game. You can see how hard the team is running to recover. You can see the two central defenders, Aver and KK, and the two full backs are really engaged. Seattle caused us some problems. They went really direct and they went diagonals. We've got full backs that are learning the game. So it's a great learning moment. I just spoke to Natalie Means. She's been great for the two games she's played. She had some learning to do tonight and it's good for her. So, I thought we were really good for 65 minutes and I thought we'd grit the last bit out, which I think is important for us chasing a playoff line.

Kate Hanson: We held, we held this time, and Delaney won three tackles and had two blocks. Abby made three saves and had nine recoveries tied with KK for the most on our team. In second half stoppage time, Seattle had a free kick in the 92nd minute, and my husband said the entire stadium was holding their breath. Luckily, Maddie Mercado's shot got blocked, and here's Tosh on what the team said to each other after Seattle scored.

Katie: I think it's good, like you said, we're trying to hold on to the 2-0, it's something we are working on as a team. I think the massive thing today for us was to come away with the three points and not let a second goal in first Seattle. So that was massively important, it's something we did speak about. When they got their first goal, we did say, come on, like... We just need to switch on a little bit more, just don't be sloppy like we was. I think we let the goal back in quite easy to be honest, but I think it's something we are working on and it's huge taking it into the game on the weekend. I think it's what we all deserve, what we've needed and we just keep pushing from that.

Kate Hanson: So here's where I land. On Wednesday, we ended up with a draw. The exact same situation happened on Saturday, and we walked away with three points. Same score, same situation, and the difference was us. Well, not me and you, it was the summit. Three days. That is how long it took for this team to take the lesson from Bay. And actually put it on the field. And Nick said something after the game that I think sums up where this group is. He said, We're in our first season. So we're already way ahead of the curve for in performance. And now we're growing in mentality. Saturday was the mentality part. That is not a young team hoping that the clock runs out now that they have a lead. That is a team that says, We're gonna keep playing and keep pushing the full ninety. And something happened in the forty seventh minute that could have completely changed this game. On Friday I said the player I was gonna be watching was Sofia Huerta. I did not expect to be talking about her for this reason. In the 47th minute, the ball comes out to Yaz, and Yaz and Huerta are making a run to try and get to the ball first. Soccer is a physical game. I completely understand that. Anyone that says that it's not physical has not watched enough soccer. However, Yaz got the positioning, she got the body positioning, and then Sofia and Yaz link arms. And That happens. I get it. That happens from time to time. However, you don't typically continue running down the field with elbows linked. What happened next is something that I think that the NWSL needs to review because it was an extremely dangerous play. Luckily, since I was watching on TV, I was able to see it from multiple angles and multiple views. so after they're linked, Sophia loses body position on Yaz and starts to go down. And instead of loosening her elbow grip with Yaz, she c you can see her actually grip tighter onto her arm and pull her down sho shoulder first. So she essentially did almost a judo move on Yaz Ryan and pulled her down. Yaz had no way to protect herself Huerta pulls her down on her on Yaz's head. Yaz is lucky that she did not have a broken arm, a concussion. So many possible injuries could have happened from that move. It was a dangerous play and one that I believe does not belong in soccer. Anywhere. Now it was immediately stopped. Danielle Chesky runs over to Huerta and shows her the yellow. and I want to walk you through why this isn't just me being a homer. It's in the rule book. the laws of the game break a foul into three levels. The first one is careless. That's just a foul. Free kick, no card. The second one is reckless. That's when a player acts without regard for the danger of her opponent or the consequences for her opponent. Reckless is a yellow card. The third one is excessive force. That's when a player uses more force than she needs or does something that, quote, endangers the safety of an opponent. That is a straight red card. So when Chesky showed the yellow, she was saying that the play was reckless. My read is that the play endangered Yaz's safety. And that's the whole argument, folks. One level. Now, the NWSL has V A R. VAR is allowed to step in on a straight red card, but only if the call in the field was a clear and obvious error. The question VAR asks isn't was that the right call? No, it was was that call clearly wrong? And they did not send Chesky to the monitor. So Here's my question for you guys. If that play isn't a clear red, what is? If you remember, Janine Sonis got that red card in our very first match for a play which I think was way less dangerous. The league can still act. Back in July, the NWSL Disciplinary Committee reviewed a play from Kansas City's Penelope Hawking after the fact and gave her a one match suspension for major game misconduct. So there is a process. And there's a precedent this season. So as of this as of the time of this recording, there's been no announcement on Huerta. If that changes, you'll hear it from me on threads and Instagram first. But here's the part that got me though. Laura Harvey brought actu the coach for Seattle brought up this exact moment after the game. She said the tone of the match changed when Sophia Huerta got into it with Yaz. And she said it showed her team wasn't ready to compete. So even Seattle's coach saw that play as a turning point for the game. And honestly, watch what happens to Seattle after that play. Seattle picked up two more yellow cards. Now we had one all night and that was on Abbey for time wasting. We didn't lose our heads. We didn't lose our composure. We took the hit and we continued playing our game. And we won. And Nick called what we all saw on Saturday playoff football.

Katie: Playoff football, which is what you just saw out there, is two teams just fighting for the win. And for 65 minutes we had rhythm, had possession, we had goal chances. And for the last part of the game we had to absorb pressure, we had to deal with direct balls, we had to deal with second balls and... really pleased tonight that we dealt with that

Kate Hanson: Up next, we have Kansas City, and this is a big one. It's 10:30 in the morning, mountain time on CBS, Here's the problem, folks. Kansas City has not lost at home all year. Eight wins, four draws, zero losses. Twenty-eight of their 38 have come at home. On the road, they're three wins, one draw, nine losses. So their one team. At home and a completely different team away from it. And our road record three wins, four draws, five losses. Nick knows it. He brought it up himself.

Katie: So we need to improve our road record. That's one thing we want to do as a football club. We want to do as a soccer team. So Kansas gives us an opportunity to get a big win on the road. We missed out on Angel. We should have probably beat Utah. We should have probably got something in Washington. The evolution of us is to Can we win a big road game now? Great opportunity next week, right, at Kansas.

Kate Hanson: The last time that we saw Kansas City was July 3rd at Dick Sporting Goods Park. Feels like it was a lifetime ago. It was not a fun game. 3-0 Kansas City. Michelle Cooper scored both assisted by Bethune. Temua Chewinga added the third. They outshot us 13 to 7. Actually, let's talk about those two. Chewinga has 10 goals in 14 appearances. That's almost a goal every 90 minutes. She was out of the lineup from mid-July until late August, and she is back now. She scored against Orlando on September 11th. Bethune, she is tied lead in assists with 10. She was named to the NWSL best 11 of the month for the third straight time back in early September. But She did show up on Kansas City's injury report last week with a hip issue, and she hasn't been in their squad for their last two matches. So keep an eye on the availability report later this week. I'll again I'll post it on threads the second that it drops. If Bethune is out, Kansas City is missing a player who set up both of Cooper's goals against us. and Kansas City is coming into form. Right now, just like the Denver Summit are. They've had two a draw, two wins, a draw, and then that loss last week at San Diego. Luckily, Summit, we finally get a full week to rest after three games in nine days. So both teams are coming in with the same amount of rest. Here are my keys to the game. Key number one, own the start of the second half. We lead the league in goals in the first 15 minutes after halftime. I said earlier, we have 13 of them. If this game is tight at the break, first 15 minutes is our window. Key number two, put the ball on target. On the road this year, we're averaging about three shots on target a game. And across the whole season, it's closer to five. Saturday, we put ten on target. Now we don't need ten in Kansas City, but we need a lot more than three if we want to be the first team to win in that building this season. And key number three, if we go up, the game ends there. Every ball in our box gets cleared. Every back post gets covered. We learned that on Wednesday and we proved it on Saturday. Let's do it again. My prediction for this game is 3-1 summit. Yeah, I I think that we have got it. I think that we are firing on all cylinders. We're seeing scoring from people not named Janine Sonis. I'm picking Janine to get one in this game. I'm also picking the other co-captain Lindsay Heaps to get one. And I think that we are going to see another Yasmin Ryan goal. So those are my three goal scorers for this game. I have the summit winning three one. We all know this is a must win game. And I think the summit are finally clicking. this is the team that has been building all season. the team that we've been seeing flashes of all season. I think that they're finally gelling, they're clicking and everyone knows who's gonna zig, who's gonna zag, who's gonna run, who's gonna wait. The road record is a thing standing between us and the playoffs. We only have three wins away from home all year. And we're about to walk into one building in this league where nobody has won. But I keep coming back to Saturday night. An hour in the rain, a team that sat in eighth place coming into our building, a two-goal lead that started to slip, and a team that said, Not this time. Seattle's own coach told you who wanted it more. That's us. That's the team that we are. That's the team that has been building in Denver all year. And I think that that team goes to Kansas City and gets it done. That's it for this week's episode. If you liked it, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with somebody. That is genuinely the biggest thing you can do for an independent show like this. And it's how more people find women's soccer. Sign up for the newsletter at 5280pitch.com. I send out one email a week. It's different than what I talk about here in the show. There's always great merch drops in there, and you get special discounts in the merch store if you are on the newsletter. If you signed up and you haven't seen a newsletter in a while, check your spam. Gmail is tricky. And if you haven't checked out the playoff tracker yet, be sure to do that at 5280pitch.com. I'm Kate Hansen. This is the 5280 Pitch Women's Soccer Altitude. I'll talk with you soon.