Denver Summit Fall 1-0 to NC Courage. Is Janine Sonis the Real MVP?

FULL HIGHLIGHTS Denver Summit FC @ North Carolina Courage (0 1) 540 575: They find her. Sanchez trying to play it across block and a goal is scored off an inflection. Could an own goal. We'll wait and see. But North Carolina get one. It's unfortunate for Kaylee Kurtz. I don't think Kaylee Kurtz sees Abby Smith coming off of her line, just tries to toe poke it away from Gianna Paul into her own net.

Katie: Well, that is how the inaugural season of the Denver Summit ended. Didn't have that on my bingo card, right? an own goal by our Iron Woman in the ninety-fourth minute in North Carolina. That honestly, by that point, didn't even matter because Seattle had already won. so we lost one nothing. North Carolina won, and neither one of us. Are going to the playoffs. Welcome back to the 5280 pitch women's soccer at altitude. I'm Kate Hanson. So today it's just about Sunday's game. And next week I'm going to do a full season recap the whole year. But today I want to stay on decision day. We're going to talk about that first half, which I loved, and the second half, which I did not. We're going to talk about Abby Smith, who was the player of the match for me, and it wasn't even close. And we're going to talk about KK. And then of course we have to talk about Ashley Sanchez, the scoring record and the MVP race. You will hear from Nick Cushing, Janine Sonis, and Lindsey Heaps out of the post-game press conference. But first, let's talk about my prediction. Because I said 2-0 in last week's episode and I said it in the pregame show. I thought that Abby would get the clean sheet and I thought that we'd score those goals early and would get boring. And I was totally fine with boring. Guys, I was fine with boring, and it was boring, but we didn't have those two goals. So Unfortunately, I missed the mark on that. I did not have, like I said at the beginning, I did not have in my bingo card the only goal being scored, an own goal. I didn't think any of us really predicted it. That would be how the Denver Summit lost their final game of their inaugural season. Before we dive into the game, I did do a live pregame show on Sunday at DNVR Bar with the 5280 pitch reporter Mariah Dean. Man, it was packed. There were no open seats. If you were there, thank you so much for coming out and hanging with us. I try to run around and say hi to everybody, give you a sticker. If you're there and you didn't get a sticker, just let me know. I'll send you one. And I want to give a huge shout out to DNVR Bar because they had us out for multiple pregame shows this season. And they have been so good to me and this show. So thank you, DNVR Bar, for everything. I had a ton of fun coming down. If you are a Denver sports fan, they have giveaways. It's a great atmosphere. So if you're Aves, Nuggets, Broncos fan, go check out DMVR bar for more watch parties that they have all season long. And I didn't just do a pregame show last week. I also did a Friday bonus episode. I sat down with Nick Cushing, and that interview again aired on Friday. It's on YouTube, it's on all the podcast players. So go back and check it out as soon as you're done listening to this episode because it is a good episode. If I do say so myself, Nick Cushing, one-on-one And you'll want to hear what he graded this season. So let's talk about the game. I loved How we started this one for the first 20 minutes, we had 70% of the ball. We had three good looks on goal in that stretch, and we had seven shots by halftime. We looked dangerous, and honestly, we were by far the better team on the field. And the thing that I was so worried about on Friday was North Carolina getting out on the break. And they did get some fast breaks, but our back line recovered every time they did. They got back, they closed it down. Well, except for that one time, and Abby did have to bail us out. But That's what I want to see from this team. Because when our press, our high press doesn't work, man, that space behind us has been a problem all year. On Sunday, in that first half, Denver Summit handled it. We had that one time where Abby had to bail us out. And man, did she ever bail us out? Nick said after the game that we should have been up at halftime. I agree. He was asked about losing leads and not winning games that we should win. Here is what Nick Cushing said.

110126 DENvsNC PRESSER: why we lost leads and why we didn't win when we we should be two-nil up at half time here today. And I think those small details are the difference in being ten and being five and maybe being five and being first.

Katie: I agree with them. We should have been up at least by two, but it was nothing at halftime, which was the twelfth time this season we went into halftime tied. Here's the thing: Seattle and Orlando were also tied at nothing-nothing. And so at the break, everything was still on the table. We needed a goal and we needed Orlando to hold on. Janine and Lindsey sat down with the press after the game, and Press asked what the locker room was like at halftime. Here's their answer.

110126 DENvsNC PRESSER: think we were fantastic in the first half and the energy in in the locker room at halftime was let's keep doing what we're doing and really take it to them. you know, obviously there's always gonna be some tactical conversations, but the message was very much like we we're on top of this and we just need to continue to do what we can control and you know f let the outcome be the outcome at the end.

Katie: So that was the message. Keep doing what we're doing. Unfortunately, the second half was very different because when we came out for the second half, it was a different team and not in a good way. You could feel the nerves through the TV. The passing got sloppy. Passes that were connecting in the first half just weren't connecting anymore. And we weren't getting shots off like we were before halftime. There were 14 shots in the whole second half. By both teams, 14 total by both teams. and only four of them were real looks on goal. And then I was watching the Seattle Orlando game, and Seattle scored in the 68th minute. Jordan Bug, as soon as I saw that, it was deflating. I knew what it meant. We needed the win and we needed Seattle to lose. And it wasn't looking good on either front, but it felt like all of the air went out of that Denver summit. Watch party section. And the summit didn't know that Seattle has scored. That's one thing about Decision Day that's so great is all the games are at the exact same time, so that everything is on the table for every team. Which I love. If you're new to the NWSL, isn't that an awesome thing that they do to finish the season? I love it. So nobody knew. They were all still playing for something. Nick did make some changes in the second half of the second half. So in the 74th minute, Emma Reagan came on for Devin Lynch And we got to see Ali Brazier come on. It was the first time Allie has taken the pitch since August 22nd. She came on for MK and I was so happy to see Allie back out there. She missed seven matches from late August into October. So it was really nice to see her get 16 minutes on Sunday. And then Olivia Thomas came on for Tash in the 81st minute. But honestly, it just never got going again. I want to look at the numbers because they tell you a lot about how this game went. So We had 12 shots and North Carolina had 13. So it was actually pretty even there. But I want you to look at where those shots came from. We had 30 touches inside North Carolina's box, and North Carolina only had 18 in hours. And our expected goals was 0.94 to their 0.55. So we created the better chances. We just didn't finish any of them. MK was the one getting the looks. She had four shots. One of them was almost point blank. Tash had an almost point blank shot on goal two, but they were just right at Sheridan. Tash had three shots, MK had four, Lindsey had three key passes. Now, I said earlier that the passing fell apart in the second half, and the numbers back it up. We completed 357 of our 444 passes on the night. And don't worry, I did the math for you. That's 80.4%. Of passes completed. North Carolina was at 83.4%. And remember, against Louisville last week, we were at 87.4%. So that is a big drop. And possession for the whole game ended at 51% and 49% in North Carolina's favor. And I want you to think about that, folks, because we had 70% of the ball in the first 20 minutes. And we ended the night in under 50. That's not the Denver Summit way. That's not how the Denver Summit play. And I think that, like I said earlier in the show, I Denver Summit came out firing. They were on top, ready to win. And I think that when we had those opportunities and they didn't go in, we took our foot off the gas just a little bit and it ended up swinging everything into North Carolina's favor. We won the expected goals that we outshot them. We in the box. we did a lot of things the right way, but we didn't finish the way that we started. If we could finish games the way that we started, this team is a playoff team. Hands down. They will not miss the playoffs next year if they play the way that they do when they start a match. it's our second half where we just have been losing it. All right, but that's for next week's episode. Okay, so back to this week's game. Our defense did its job. We won 49 duels, two North Carolina's 30. Eva had eight clearances and two blocks. Io okay had four tackles and four interceptions. Folks, Io Ake had herself a night. I thought she was gonna get a goal the way that she was playing. She looked incredible. And it was her best per defensive performance of the entire season on Sunday. So Io had a 7.7 player ranking according to Fot Mob. And we'll talk about player rankings in a future episode if you're confused about it. But she had a seven point seven player ranking, which tied her with Janine for the second best rating on our team. And Janine was everywhere. She had 77 touches, four tackles. Four tackles and two key passes. Now, the player that led our team in player rankings was none other than Abby Smith. So Fot Mob has a number called Goals Prevented, which basically measures how many goals a keeper saved compared to what the shots that she faced should have produced. Abby was at 1.15. Goals prevented on Sunday. She was our highest rated player on the pitch at 7.9. The only player on the field rated higher than Abby Smith was North Carolina's keeper, Kaylin Sheridan. She had an 8.07. She had four saves. It was really, it was really a goalkeeper's night. Neither team scored a real goal. The only thing that got past either keeper was. Was an on goal. But Abby, my gosh, Abby Smith, she had an incredible game. I think it was the game of the season for her. She had five saves on Sunday, and two of those were on direct kicks. That is her fourth most saves in a game this season. And this was against a team with a lot of firepower. The one thing I keep thinking about came right after Emma got the yellow in the 78th minute. And I I thought that was a questionable call. A yellow was a little much, but again, calling that there, that was not something I wanted to see. North Carolina gets the free kick just outside of the box. And Abby saved it. Man, save the week, in my opinion. It was an incredible save. And she gave it her all on Sunday. We saw that the keeper that Abby Smith is And why Denver Summit wanted her to be a part of this inaugural season. And this is the part that I love. Ashley Sanchez needed just one goal to break that record. She had five shots on Sunday. Three of them were on target, and Abby saved all three of them. So on the night that Sanchez was trying to make history for the final time, she had four chances. We're gonna get into that, but Abby Smith was the one that kept her from making history. So Abby Smith was my player of the match. She kept us in that game when we weren't playing well, and she deserved so much better than how it ended. Which brings me to KK. You heard the call at the top of the show. It's the 94th minute. North Carolina gets the ball wide to Sanchez. I thought that Sanchez was going to shoot it, but she centers the ball to Gianna Paul. She wanted to find her at the back post. And KK does what a center back is supposed to do. She tries to poke it away. Unfortunately, she doesn't see Abby coming off of her line. Maybe she didn't hear her. She didn't know that Abby was right there and could have stopped it. What ever happen, it goes into our own net. God, and it stinks because Kaylee feels awful about it. she does. And honestly, when it happened, my first thought was, I just want to go pat Kaylee on the back and let her know it's okay. Don't worry because Seattle is winning. Because they were. Our season was already over by the time that ball went in. That goal didn't change anything about where we finished. Nick's for Nick's first answer in the press conference summed up the whole night. Here he is.

110126 DENvsNC PRESSER: another game that got away, another game that we should win, another game where we have the majority of good parts, but we faded at the end.

Katie: We faded at the end. And honestly, that's exactly what it looked like. All right. So I said I wanted to talk a little bit about Ashley Sanchez because I talked about her a lot in the Tuesday episode. Mariah from the 5280 pitch team. She and I talked about it in the pregame show. And actually at the media day after practice, we talked to KK and Nick about Ashley Sanchez. So she was on everyone's mind. Going into this game. And she should have been because she came into Sunday with 20 goals, which tied the NWSL single season record that Temwa Chiwinga set back in 2024. She tied it back on September twenty-seventh against Utah on a penalty. And then she had four games to try and pass it. And she couldn't do it. So she ends up finishing tied with the record. and she ends up winning the golden boot. Now you guys know that I am team Janine. I've said it on this show over and over. Janine has been our MVP all season long. And Janine finished with 12 goals and eight assists. That's 20 goal contributions from a left back. She ended up finishing tied for Fourth in the golden boot race. Despite all that, I do think that Ashley Sanchez is going to win MVP because people love goal scorers. And she scored 20 of them. And her story is honestly a really good story, too, because she got called back up to the national team this year after missing the past few appearances. She's the first American to score 20 goals in a regular season. And that's also from Last season, where she scored only two goals the entire season. This year she scored twenty. That is quite a comeback season. Now Nick was asked to make the case for Janine. And before he even got to Janine, he wanted to say something about Sanchez. And I really like this.

110126 DENvsNC PRESSER: I said to Ashley Sanchez at the end of the game, Maybe you didn't get the record, maybe you didn't get the all but I hope that doesn't dilute what people see and say and what she feels about the season that she's had, because she's had an incredible season and a season that is really, really high level.

Katie: I thought that was really classy. Nick is a straight shooter. He didn't have to say that and I appreciated that he did. But here's what he had to say in his case for Janine for MVP.

110126 DENvsNC PRESSER: Janine, for me as MVP based off, she's putting up attacking numbers for a defender. And okay, we play her in offensive positions, but To not only be the captain and take the penalties and lead the team in the initial part of the season and then support Lindsey as a vice captain. she's won us multiple football games this year, whether it be Utah, whether it be, you know, scoring in the port for me, she's been the perfect example of s of the player that we want in our team, can bear the responsibility of winning and has the ambition and the hunger to be the difference within the team consistently. Has the humble, honest character to accept when she makes mistakes and be on the training field, working incredibly hard every day to improve that and absorb the knocks. And I think for me, that is a true reflection of somebody that should be the most valuable player, is somebody that hasn't always been it all hasn't always been ups. There's been some downs, but actually you absorb the downs and you make sure that you come out on top. And I thought tonight she was gonna score. The end of the game she was pushing and pushing and pushing. Career year for her.

Katie: Yeah, Nick said that he thought that Janine was gonna score at the end of the game and that she just kept pushing and pushing. And honestly, I thought that she was too. How cool would that have been? But Sanchez, if she ends up winning MVP, I totally get it. She had a great year. But if you watch Denver Summit, and if you're listening to this podcast or watching it on YouTube, obviously you watch the Denver Summit. But you know what this, you know what Janine meant to this team. And what this team meant to Janine. In after that June break, where we were having a real hard time finding the back of the net, Janine put this team on her back and helped carry us to some draws, get us some wins. I think that Janine Sonis is definitely the MVP of the Denver Summit for year one. I really think that she, if overall, most valuable player is more than just someone that scores goals. It's someone that gets assists, someone that helps on defense, all the things. I think that Janine Sonis should win the MVP. And I'm gonna keep saying it until they announce who wins the MVP. So here's where we ended up. As you all know, Seattle ended up beating Orlando, one-nothing. they took the eighth and final playoff spot. North Carolina ended up finishing ninth with 45 points. And we finished 10th with 11 wins, 11 losses, and eight draws. That's 41 points. Six below the line. Now, like I said, Janine and Lindsey spoke with the press after the game. And one of the things they said was that they're so proud of this team for making this last game meaningful. It all the games happened at the same time on Sunday, but not every single game meant something for all the teams. The Denver summits had something to play for, had something to travel for, And in our first season, in our inaugural season, folks, we went into decision day with a chance to make the playoffs. I'll take that. I posted on Threads On Monday morning. So how we feeling today, Summit fans. Because I was real disappointed. Despite the f the Broncos coming back and winning in very dramatic fashion, that helped a little, but Denver Summit, I was feeling pretty down. I was disappointed in the way that the second half went. I was disappointed with the way that I thought that we should have been playing. But one of the mu one of the common things that I've heard that I heard from my threads followers was pride. That they were disappointed, that they were sad that the season was over because it was so much fun to watch. It was so fun to finally have the Denver Summit here, to finally have an NWSL team. That they were proud of the season that they had and sad that it was over. And I feel the same way. Next season, I will be back. Season's over for the Denver Summit, but not for yours, truly. I will be back with a full season recap. So make sure that you are subscribed so you don't miss an episode. If you're subscribed, then you would have known about the bonus episode with Nick Cushing that dropped on Friday. You would have known about the pregame show, all the things. So make sure that you're subscribed on the podcast player, on YouTube, wherever you consume this show. And if you like this episode, it's the first time you're here. Make sure you subscribe, leave a review, please share this with somebody because that is genuinely the biggest thing that you can do for an independent show like this. And it's how more people find women's soccer. And I wanna thank you guys. Thank you for being here this whole first season with me. When I started the show back in December, All I knew is that I wanted more people to have a spot where they could go and learn more about women's soccer and the Denver Summit. So thank you for being here with me. I've loved every minute of this inaugural season. We have seen so much happen already. And I can't wait to see what happens in the next season. And it's going to be here sooner than you guys realize because things are kicking off real quick because of the Women's World Cup. All right, folks, I'm Kate Hanson. This is the 5280 Pitch, Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'll talk with you soon.