Denver Summit FC Had the Ball All Night in Portland and Lost

Kate Hanson: 62 and a half percent of the ball. 29 touches in their box. 12 shots. Zero goals. That was Saturday night at Providence Park, folks, and I know, I know, we have been here before. It feels like I say a version of that sentence every single Tuesday. And honestly, I'm tired of it too. But that's not the thing I want to open with today because Nick Cushing sat down in that press room after the match, got asked about the result, and somewhere in the middle of that answer, he wandered into something I did not see coming at all.

Katie: You know, one thing we said about having a change in our goalkeeper was let's not try and protect Kat. Let's try and attack the game. That's our that's our mentality, that's our character. and I see the team in training every day. So I was more than Content with putting Kat Asman in. It's actually my biggest decision today was Cat or Geordie because they've both been training incredibly well.

Kate Hanson: His biggest decision of the day was which goalkeeper to start. Not the shape, not the game plan, not anything that happened in those ninety minutes on the field. Which goalkeeper? Now Back in July, Nick told us that this club went into the season carrying two number one goalkeepers on purpose: PPM and Abby Smith. And then PPM went out on loan to Crystal Palace, and we all just kind of quietly agreed that Abby Smith was that number one, and that was that. Well then Abby got hurt. And the guy who said he wanted two number ones just told a room full of reporters that picking between his backups was the hardest thing that he did all day. And that's not a throwaway line. we will come back to it. Welcome back to the 5280 Pitch Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'm Kate Hansen, and if this is your first time here, well, thank you so much for tuning in. We talk all things Denver Summit every single week, every Tuesday. Denver Summit lose 1-0 to the Portland Thorns at Providence Park. Sophia Wilson, 44th minute, her 10th of the year. I told you on Friday I had this one ending 2-2. I said a point in Portland would be a win in my book. well, we got nothing. So chalk another one up. My prediction record this season is not something I'm putting on a t-shirt. I want to talk about Abby Smith, because she was out and what that meant because There's more to there's more to her being out than just one game. Kat Asman's first career start and the answer that she gave that I have not stopped thinking about. Two streaks that ended on Saturday and one of them I almost missed. I did a bunch of homework this week where I went and looked at every single goal Denver has conceded this season, and it did not come out the way that I expected. So I'm gonna walk you through where I was wrong. And then the thing that I promised you last week, I'd say again if it happened again. And well, it happened again. So let's start with the goalkeepers. Shocker on Friday, Abby Smith got added to the injury report. I didn't see that coming. I don't think anyone else saw it coming. In fact, honestly, I was working on graphics for somebody else that I thought would not be playing to be out. and then when the NWSL released its availability report and Abby Smith was on it, I was like, holy cow, didn't see that coming. Because it's been it was the first time all season that Abby has been out. and Nick said afterward that he wouldn't have anything concrete until Sunday morning, maybe even Monday. But that on Abby specifically it isn't too serious. That is a huge positive. because if you're familiar with Abby Smith, it's been a long time coming for her to really get her flowers. she's been in the league for a long time and she had some major injuries. We if you listen back to the first episode that Abby was on on the fifty-two eighty pitch, well, after you're done today, go back and listen to that one because we talked about some of her injuries and what she had to overcome to get to this point. it's her knee. That was the the problem with why she missed so much time and why it took her so long to find her footing as a starter in this league. So the fact that she showed up on that injury report, and the designation next to her name was knee, made all of us a little nervous. It was not the game that you wanted to have your starting keeper on the sideline for. now I did talk to Abby and she said that she's hoping to be back soon. Nick also said it isn't too serious. So I'm gonna take that as good news because I've spent about half this season telling y'all that Abby Smith is the reason a bad night isn't a worse one. she's got 302 career regular season saves, she's top four in this league in goals prevented, and she leads the entire NWSL in recoveries per 90 at 11.4, which nobody else is close to. Now when that injury report came out and Abby was on it, everyone was wondering who Nick was going to put in net. and on threads, which If you're not following me on threads, be sure to follow me on threads. I do a lot more written stuff over on threads. But I shared it over to my Instagram stories and then I did a poll as to, after seeing a little bit more about both Cat Astman and Jordy Knights, who would get the nod in net on Saturday. And Majority of the people thought that Jordan Knights would get the call. Nick said it came down to Kat or Jordy, and there was no clear number two. He said that they've both been training incredibly well, and he called it his biggest decision of the season. And Denver's goalkeeper room in August. looked nothing like it did back in March. So if you didn't see the Instagram stories, Kat Asman is twenty six. She came to Denver in July on a loan from the Orlando Pride. That's a loan. And Portland drafted her in the third round back in 2024 and never once put her in that goal. Which means on Saturday night, she walked into the building that drafted her wearing a Denver Summit badge and made her very first career NWSL start. And she talked about what it was like to start against her former team.

Katie: I think for me it was it was trying to to minimize kind of all the hype that Portland likes to make it when you come here and play. it's not to be diminished, it's a great environment to play in. But they love to talk about how great it is for them and how much you should fear it. So I think it was just about remembering like it's another soccer game in a place that for three hundred and sixty five days I practiced at.

Kate Hanson: She also mentioned that she got the dodgy goalkeeper champ from the Riveters and that she thought it was really funny. I Kat Asmin, I love her already. Now, why does the backup job matter on a Tuesday in August? Because Kat is on loan. Her deal is not ours past this season. and the other keeper in that competition is Jordan Knights. Colorado kid, 21 years old, And she was the unused goalkeeper on that bench on Saturday, which means She's the one who lost the call. So right now, Denver's number two situation is a borrowed player from Orlando against a local kid, and somebody in that front office has a decision to make about 2027 that no one's really talking about yet. And remember, our first match next season is in February. That off-season is six and a half weeks. There is no time to figure this out in a leisurely fashion. Nick just told us on the record that it is real close between them. He did not have to tell us that. And Abby, coming out of that starting 11, didn't just open up a goalkeeper question. It ended a streak. Actually, it ended two of them. And the second one I almost missed entirely. The first one you already know, right? Abby has played every minute of every match. Well, she had. She was out now. And she's gonna be out, at least for a bit. Hopefully she's back this week. But it leaves us exactly one summit player who has been on the field for all ninety minutes of all twenty games. That's our Iron Woman, KK Kaylee Kurtz, of course. She is the first field player in the history of the league to start every one of her first 150 appearances. If you've not gone back and listened to the episode I did with KK earlier this year, please go do that. She's an incredible human. But she's now the last one standing on this roster. And the second one, I had to go back and check twice. Devin Lynch did not start. First time all season. And going into Saturday, Devon was one of only three rookies in this entire league who had started every single match for their club. The other two are Mimi Van Zanten at San Diego and Linda Olmark at Houston. That's the whole list. Emma Reagan started in Devin Lynch's place, and Devin came on in the seventy-fifth minute for Emma. So she did get some minutes, but the start streak for Devin is done. And I do want to be careful because I don't know why. Nobody asked Nick about it and he didn't bring it up. Could be the rotation, it could be a message. I don't know. She did come off in the forty-fifth minute in the previous game at San Diego. I am curious about the timing. Because Denver just announced Devon's extension through 2028 with a mutual option for 2029 just back in July. And five weeks later, she's out of the eleven for the biggest road game of the season. Well, two of the biggest road games of the season. I'm gonna be asking about that this week. I'll I'll put it on the socials as soon as I know anything. If you're not following 50280 pitch on Instagram, threads, and Facebook, that's where the injury and availability stuff lands first. Always. So be sure to follow me there. And one bit of actual good news on the team sheet. Ava Gaetino started. If you listened to the San Diego episode, you know that Ava came off in the 16th minute at Snapdragon grabbing the back of her leg. I spent about 10 minutes of that show worrying about her hamstring, and that was all for naught. She was back out there Saturday, she played the full 90, so whatever that was, it was as small as Nick said it was. I'm genuinely relieved. Okay, so that's who was on the field and who wasn't. Let's talk about the one who was actually keeping us in this thing. Yep, Catasman. Five saves, that's tied for the third most any Denver keeper has put up in a match this season. Portland generated 1.74 expected goals on the night and got one. So she held them under it. First career start in the building that drafted her against a club that has now gone 14 straight home matches in all competitions without losing. Kat was good. I want to say that clearly because the score line says 1-0, and people are going to scroll right past her. And there was one answer she gave that I thought was genuinely smart. And it turned out to be the key to this entire episode. So stay with me. Somebody in that room asked her about the 1v1s with Sophia Wilson because there were a few, and Kat was excellent in most of them. And her first instinct was to push back on the question. She said it wasn't just her and Wilson. She said every time there was a center back trailing KK or Ava or an outside back running back into the frame. and she said that as much as we think it doesn't get into the mind of the forward, it does. somebody chasing you down, puts pressure in your head. So her whole read was pick your head up, see where the forward is, see that your center back is working to get back, and then stay in your goal. Don't come flying out, don't go rogue, make yourself big, make the angle hard, make her actually beat you. And she said she played with Sophia Wilson for a year, so she knows the tendencies. She said the second you commit and come charging out, Wilson has the class to just slip it underneath you. So Kat held her ground and her words, looked at her, and said, Tuck it in a corner. That is a goalkeeper who has thought really hard about a really specific problem. On the goal itself, she was honest about it. She said it got past her in the part of her bubble where she thinks she could have made the save. And she'd have preferred it a little farther out. Hold on to the trailing center back thing. It comes back later and it's is the whole show. So let's walk it because it's 90 seconds that explain everything. The forty-fourth minute, right before the half, Janine is up the field. The center backs have shifted over to one side of the pitch. That leaves a channel. Jesse Fleming sees it and slides the ball perfectly through. Sophia Wilson does what Sophia Wilson does. She runs, beats KK in a foot race, one touch, finished. That's it. Ball in behind, foot race, 1v1, done. And Portland have not lost a single match this season when they lead at halftime. So the second that ball goes in at forty four, the game is functionally over and everybody in that stadium knows it. I wanted to believe, but they've been strong in the second half. Now, Sophia Wilson, again, Colorado kid. And folks, I said this three weeks ago after the North Carolina match when Allie Schlegel from Inglewood came into our building and put that game away. These Colorado kids just keep showing up to beat us. I'm sick and tired of it. Wilson did it again on Saturday, third time this season, a kid from down the road has taken points off of the Denver Summit. Now, Sophia Wilson is a free agent at the end of the year. Fingers crossed we can convince her to come and start putting some in the back of the net for the Denver Summit. But I don't let the pattern of Colorado kids scoring on us. I don't have a fix for it. I just noticed it. We still need someone to score goals for the Denver Summit. We're struggling there so bad. Someone needs to put some goals in the back of the net. but here's the part I hadn't put together until Saturday. Janine was upfield on that goal because that's the job now. She has to be up there. That's where the goals come from, and the price of her being up there is the exact channel that Fleming just played Wilson into. And that folks, that's not a criticism. Janine, please do not clip that and put it on threads. that is a description of the hole that she is covering. And the fact that it's covering us costs us something at the other end. Now, I watched that goal go in and I thought, ugh we do this every week. And I was so sure that the majority of our goals were these through balls, one-on-ones, that I went back and checked. and my answer was wrong. So going into this week, my theory was that most of the goals we concede come exactly the way that Saturdays did. Ball over the top, somebody fast runs onto it, our keepers hung out to dry. I was ready to say that that is the problem with our defense on this show is that We're too high up, our press is too high, and we're that's what's beating us. So I went and I pulled every single goal Denver has conceded this season. All twenty six of them. One at a time. And I sat down and classified how each one was actually built. Was it a ball in behind, a counter, a set piece, a penalty, a cross, a mistake? I was wrong. Ball in behind goals, the Saturday kind, was Are three that I can prove cleanly. Four if you're generous with a borderline one. Out of 26. So it's about one in five. Same as penalties, same as crosses into the box. Then I found the thing that actually matters, and honestly, it's better than what I went looking for. In Denver's first 11 matches this season, we conceded 13 goals. Ball in behind goals in those 13? Zero. Not one. Not a single one. Every single one of them has come since July 3rd. Nine matches since the restart, 13 more goals conceded, three of them the Saturday time. So this isn't who we've been all year. This is who we've become in the last seven weeks. And there's a second layer to it. When Denver holds more than half the ball in a match, we can seed in behind about 27% of the time. When we hold less than half, it is seven percent. The more we control a game, the more we get punished for controlling it. Nick had 62.5% of the ball on Saturday. And it costs them the match. And if you want the one image that explains the whole thing, it's not even the Portland goal. It's August 2nd at home against Boston. Boston's goalkeeper, Casey Murphy, standing in her own 18, drops a long ball past our last defender. Sammy Smith runs onto it and puts it through Abby's legs. The opposing goalkeeper picked off our high line from her own box. Nick brought that goal up unprompted in the North Carolina presser and he said you won't see it that many times in this league. And it's true, it's only happened four times ever in the history league. But he's also probably still thinking about that because it sucks. Now, to connect it back to Kat, because it's the same thing from the other end. Remember what Kat said. the reason she can survive a 1v1 is knowing there's a center back trailing. Somebody chasing that runner down, putting a little pressure on her head, which lets Kat stay home and make the angle small. Okay, so what happens when the line's that high and the ball goes over the top? There's no trailing center back. Nobody's behind the play because everyone was in front of it. The runner's got a clean lane and a head start. And the person who's supposed to catch her is the person who's already lost the foot race, which by definition means she isn't catching her. So Kat's entire way of surviving that moment, the things she'd thought carefully about and executed well all night, just gets deleted by the shape in front of her. Now I want to be really clear. I'm not saying drop the line. I don't think that Nick should drop the line. A team that struggles to score cannot also decide to sit deep and hope because then you've got nothing at all. The only reason we get 29 box entries at Providence Park is that we play the way we play. What I'm saying is the high line is a bet. And the bet only pays off if you score. we keep making the bet. We're just not able to cash in. Three times since July 3rd, zero times before it. Something changed over the summer and I don't think it's tactical because the shape hasn't changed. I think that the other teams are on to us. And unfortunately, we're showing up like an expansion team. The connective tissue just isn't there yet. Nick basically said this out loud in the presser. He said, maybe it's blending relationships, new players together, maybe it's something else. He doesn't know either, but he's looking in the right place. And here's the thing about a bet that only pays off if you score. At some point, you have to talk about the scoring. Which brings me to the promise I made you on Friday. I said if somebody other than Janine and Yaz didn't score in Portland, I'd say it again in this episode. I didn't want to say it, folks. Nobody scored at all. Twelve shots. twenty nine touches in Portland's box. Sixty two and a half percent of the ball and nothing. Here he is on it, and I want you to hear the frustration.

Katie: I looked at the stats and you know, we've come here to Portland in front of 22,000 and with 29 box entries compared to their, I think they were about 12, 13, with 64% of the ball. It's enough. You know, is I I do think, I understand with that where we're sitting in the league. And I understand that we're not executing results consistently. And that's my role. I get that. But I do think we have to be careful we don't get too greedy here. We're 29 times in their box and we had 64% of the ball. So that's enough. We have to find the next bit now. We have to find what the missing piece is,

Kate Hanson: And look, I think he is doing absolutely everything he can. The double sub at sixty four, Emma starting over Devin, Olivia Thomas on at seventy five, Yazuki on at eighty two. He is turning every dial he's got in that box. The dial he actually needs is not on this roster right now. Remember, the number I gave you on Friday, going into Saturday, Portland had created 47 big chances and converted 24 of them. 51%. Denver had created 54% and converted 17. 31 and a half. We create more, they finish more. That was the whole preview. And then that is exactly what the game got. Kat said the same thing from the other end of the field and honestly she said it better than I can.

Katie: I don't think it's a lack of practice and preparation. I think that we're trying to find it. I think we do a lot of creativity. Again, kudos to Portland. They their back line makes some some great saves. Clear some balls off the line, but in all honesty, while it was a loss tonight, I think the soccer that we played was was unbelievable. To come here and in the first 10 minutes to put, I believe, Portland on their back foot. That was that was impressive, and it's not an easy thing to do. And I think the reality is we have all the right pieces, and yeah, balls aren't going in the back of the other team's nets. And as much as is you know, it is what it is, it it was a zero. I think that we deserve to put one in the back of the net, but you're not given anything in this game, you have to earn it,

Kate Hanson: That is someone who has never played in the NWSL first night defending her teammates and telling you the truth at the same time. All right. So the table. Twenty four points from twenty matches. Six wins, eight losses, six draws, still at eleventh. Portland go to thirty seven, their third. And here's the part that stings about Saturday. This was a game where we where we were statistically the better team for most of it in one of the hardest buildings in the league and we came home with nothing. again. But I want to hold two things at the same time here because both of them are true. we've held 13 of our 20 opponents to one goal or fewer. 65% of the time. and Saturday was only the second time all season that Portland have been held to one goal or fewer at home. That's not bad defense, folks. Most nights, that's a genuinely good one. In an expansion year with three rookies who've been starting. The problem is that a team that can't score can't afford to concede even once. And we conceded once. That's it. That's the whole thing. Everything else is a symptom. Janine playing high is a symptom. the high line is a symptom because you press that aggressively when you need goals. And nobody's giving you one for free. Kat standing alone against a runner is a symptom. Nick burning five substitutions, hunting for a spark, is a symptom. The disease is that this roster doesn't have anybody who can win a match by herself. We don't have a Barbara Banda. We don't have a Sophia Wilson. Every goal we score has to be built by committee. and I know exactly where some of you are gonna go with that because I get messages from all y'all, I get the emails, I get the DMs. Well we're missing Lindsay. So let's talk about Lindsay because We keep talking about Lindsay Heaps like she is a player who got hurt in the middle of a run and we're waiting for her to come back. But that's not the timeline. Lindsay has made three appearances this season. Three july eighteenth, july twenty sixth, and august second. started and played all ninety and every one. Then she was the late scratch on August fifth. that little bit of swelling in the knee, and she has missed four straight cents. She's been in three matches out of twenty. So honestly, it it's not a problem that we're missing Lindsay Heaps. The honest version is that we've essentially never had her. This team's identities, its problems, its ceilings, all of it got built without her on the field. And I said this after the North Carolina game, and I'll say it again. If this group looks like it's never met when she's not out there, that's not a Lindsay problem. That's a we stopped having a plan that doesn't run through one player problem. Nick did say she's pushing him and the medical staff to be ready. I believe that. She is the captain of the national team and she is not a person who is used to sitting. But I'm done building arguments around her return. Whatever we are, we're that without her. All right. That was a lot of hard truth. So let me give you the other side of it because Nick gave it to us himself. Nick got asked about the mood in the locker room after the match and his answer is a phenomenal summary of this season.

Katie: there's a real like optimistic frustration in there because There's something to take away. There's a real positive attacking, a real intent there that we feel like, you know, when you get beat and you get beaten badly. We got beat by Kantas at home badly, and that's painful because you know you haven't done enough, and you know you've not really had the right mentality, and you know that you've sort of let each other down and our organization and our people. But when you come away from this game, you know that you're not that far away.

Kate Hanson: It's not a man who is panicking. Eight months into building a football club out of nothing, and he's talking about foundations. He said it himself, he'd rather be winning and playing badly in the short term, but what they're building is a foundation for a top top team. I think he's earned the right to say that. he also said the clock is ticking. And here's where I land. And it's it's a thing that I keep circling back to from three weeks ago. Nick told us there are two ways to accelerate a team. Develop the players you've got. or go get better ones. He said the window is open and that ownership in the front office and Kurt Johnson are all pushing on it. Saturday was another ninety minutes of evidence for the second one. And I don't say that to be harsh about MK or Allie or Olivia or Tosh, because every one of them is working. And Allie in particular still changes the temperature of a match every time she steps onto the field. In fact, I loved Nick's formation for this game. The four three three with Yaz, MK and Alley up top. I loved that formation. But we've now got a very long stretch of games where we get into Good spots more than the team that we're playing does and do less when we get there. That is not a bad luck sample anymore. That is pff a description. Gemma Bonner, by the way, was on the bench on Saturday, still has not played a minute, signed on the 1st of August. That is three weeks now. I'm dying to see her take the pitch. So let me leave you with this. Two things I'm carrying out of Providence Park. The first is Kat Asman standing in that goal in the stadium that drafted her and never played her. Five saves, holding the thorns. Under their expected goals, The second is Nick calling the choice between two backup keepers the biggest decision of his day. And those two things are the same story. Who's ever in that goal is going to keep ending up alone against a runner until this club solves the other end of the field. That's not something that you fix in a training week. That is a January problem, and I think that Nick knows it, and I think that's the way he keeps using the word foundation. I know it's hard, folks. In Denver, we are impatient. We've been We've been waiting for a women's team for so long. And now that we have one, we want to win. We're used to winning here in Denver. We have the Aves, the Nuggets, the Broncos. We we want winners. We don't like losing. However, I think we need to come back to the that word that he used. Foundation. We are going toe to toe with the top teams in the in this league. We're just missing a couple pieces. We're home this weekend at Centennial. I'm gonna do another episode for Friday. So keep an eye out for another bonus episode that will come out on Friday. Where we're gonna break down the next match. And tell me, tell me I'm wrong about the Highline. Seriously, I spent this whole episode saying Nick should keep playing it. and the bet of playing that high line just isn't paying off yet. I know some of you think we should be sitting deeper against teams with with the Sophia Wilson in them. Find me on threads, argue with me about it because I would genuinely love to be talked out of this one. If you like this episode, please hit subscribe, leave a review, 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. The newsletter is at 5280pitch.com. Merch store is up. The hat. with the 5280 on the side is still the best seller. Looks great on any sideline you happen to be standing on. I'm on Instagram, threads, Facebook at 5280 Pitch. That's where the injury news lands first. And if you're gonna be at the game on Saturday, please be sure to seek me out. I will be there. I'm gonna have a bunch of fun stickers. I know that I have my water bottle up for a portion of this episode, but I got a bunch of fun stickers. Come find me. I always got stickers with me. We didn't lose any ground by not picking up a point against Portland, but we didn't gain any ground either. And we are nearing the final third of the season. We have got to pick it up. Every game matters, every point matters. Hopefully Abby and Lindsay will be taking the pitch on Saturday. I'll have news for you and that's why I'm gonna put out another episode because I wanna know and I know y'all wanna know. I'm Kate Hansen, this is the fifty to eighty pitch women's soccer at altitude. I'll talk with you soon.