Denver Summit FC Host Chicago Stars: The One They're Supposed to Win

Kate Hanson: Four points, ten games. And the worst team in this league is coming to Centennial Stadium tomorrow night. Denver Summit FC sit twelfth, twenty-four points from twenty matches. Right now, Seattle is holding the last playoff spot. There are 10 games left in the first season this club has ever played, and six of them are at home. It starts tomorrow against the Chicago side that has scored two goals on the road all year long. This is one that you are supposed to win. So let's talk about how. Welcome back to the 5280 Pitch. I'm Kate Hansen and Saturday night, 6.45 p.m. Mountain Time, Centennial Stadium, Denver is going to host the Chicago Stars. It's gonna be on Ion, Denver 7, or the Spot, Denver 3. Earlier this week, I said that I was gonna do another episode because I was real interested in the availability report. Now nothing will be official until Friday night. But on Thursday, Nick Cushing and Kat Astman spoke with reporters, and you're gonna hear from both of them in this episode. So here's what we're going to talk about today. We're gonna talk about the full injury and availability report that I know of right now, plus how this goalkeeper room got built, how Denver is likely to set up, a proper scouting report on Chicago, there's a few fun storylines about this Denver Chicago matchup that I think that might maybe a few of you are not aware of. And then we're gonna talk about some keys to the game and my prediction for Saturday's matchup against the Chicago Stars. Let's start with the table because everything else hangs off of it. twenty games, six wins, six draws, eight losses, twenty-four points, twelfth in a 16 team league. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to go on another podcast that talks all about NWSL. And before the season started, I said the summit were going to be sixth or seventh. In the the final table. And I I really believed that. I think our roster is a very strong roster. And if you look at our roster alone, well we are. We are dominating a lot of the statistics. We're just missing a couple pieces, and one of the most important things we're missing right now is that cohesion. The thing that happens when you are a brand new team. Right now, like I said earlier, Seattle is eighth. They had the last playoff spot, and they have twenty-eight points from the same twenty games played. Four points is all it comes down to. But if you look down the table, Denver is one point clear of racing Louisville and two clear of Bay. So this is a fight in both directions. Now, the part I don't think enough people have looked at are Denver's final ten matches. So, tomorrow, Chicago. Chicago comes on Saturday. Gotham is next on the 6th of September over Labor Day weekend. Angel City away on the 11th, Bay at home on the 16th, Seattle at home on the 19th, Kansas City away on the 26th, Chicago again in Chicago on the 4th of October, Angel City at home on the 17th, Louisville at home on the 24th, and North Carolina away on the 1st of November to close out the regular season. Six of the last ten are at Centennial. And here is the number that matters the most. Five of those ten are against Chicago, Bay, Seattle, and Louisville. The four clubs directly in this race with Denver. Four of those five are at home. This team's playoff fate runs straight through its own schedule. And Denver does not need results elsewhere to go its way. Denver needs to beat these teams around it at home starting Saturday. The math it's still hard. Denver is averaging 1.2 points a game at the rate and at that rate, this team finishes on 36 and Seattle is already on 28 with the same 10 to play. Denver has to be a better team over the next 10 weeks than it's been over 20 games. And the schedule's not the excuse. The schedule is our opportunity. Denver, if you have not been to a game, if you are kind of going back and forth if you should go or not. You need to be there. We need the home field advantage. Our fans, the 14ers, the the supporters section, everybody has been showing up for this team. the final games of the 2026 season. Especially against these teams that are beneath us in the table. We have got to show up and be that twelfth man. This is our opportunity to make a real difference for our home team. Now on Thursday, I got the full availability report. So Lindsay Heaps, matches missed with swelling in the knee. Yesterday was the best news yet. She was not training on her own. She was with the group. Cushing called it far more positive. She's still day-to-day, still depends on how she reacts after training with the group. And then he gave the specific answer. He said if she's involved tomorrow, so Friday, it's more likely the bench than the starting eleven. He also said he's a brave coach, but not brave enough to take on Lindsay Heaps, who is, in his own words, chomping at the bit to get back in front of this crowd. So bench, most likely. Not a start but at least she's on the bench and not up in the stands. Worth remembering what Denver has actually gotten from her in three appearances, one assist, which it's hard to s get nitpicky here about it because she came here mid-season, tried to find her footing into a team that already had established a little bit of cohesion. But she had that assist to Natalie Means to for the game winner against Portland. This unfortunately, this club has barely seen the player it built their summer around. Second player that was on the injury report last week, that was a bit of a surprise, Abby Smith. She is still listed as day-to-day, but she was also back on the ball, also training with the full team today. We had the opportunity to ask Coach Cushing if Kat Aspen had earned another start after her five saves on six shots in her debut against Portland.

Katie: No, think if Abby is ready, it's automatic. She's our number one. but I think we're just looking at it day to day. We're looking at whether Avi can continue day on day. Again, she's been on the balls again today. She's been practising. So for us, it's a positive, but we'll take it as it comes.

Kate Hanson: That's as clear as it gets. She's our number one. If Abby Smith is fit, if she's healthy, Abby's playing. And she should. Smith is the twelfth goalkeeper in NWSL history to reach 300 career saves. She's on 303. She's fourth in this league this season with 65. Now, Kat Asman is the fallback. It sure sounds like she is our number two currently. And after that Portland game. I understand why. She had a she had a great game. It is worth understanding how Denver got here because that goalkeeper room was built very intentionally. So Karen Bardsley is the goalkeeping coach, one of the first hires Cushing made back in February, and his goalkeeper at Manchester City. She had 82 caps for England, three World Cups, almost a decade at City. He said he knew her work ethic and her mentality, and that he brought her in because she drive a high standard in that department. He also said Denver didn't just sign three goalkeepers. Remember they had they recruited Abby Smith, we had Pauline Peyroud Magin and we had Jordan Knights competitive, curious, willing to be pushed. Now, as we all know, Pauline is on loan to Crystal Palace, She's a French international with more than seventy caps in four and a half years And Cushing said the marker for replacing her was finding a keeper with that same mentality that PPM had. Somebody who would embrace the competition and would want to get better. He says that Kat Asman has brought exactly that. And then in the same answer, he set the bar. So listen to where he puts it.

Katie: I do think making your debut is impressive. But putting performances together is the next challenge for Kat. So if she is the goalkeeper that we pick, I think Portland is irrelevant. It gives her experience and gives us something to build on, but has to produce that performance again against Chicago.

Kate Hanson: Portland is irrelevant. That is a head coach saying the debut was nice and that the job starts tomorrow. Five stays at Providence Park buys Kat Asman, exactly nothing except a chance to maybe do it again. That is a high standard. It's also, I'd argue, the most encouraging thing in this whole episode. Because a club four points out of the playoffs in year one should be talking like that. Another thing to note, yes, and Janine both picked up Knox in Portland. Neither has been ruled out. I will update the socials tonight, the second that I know, so be sure to be following me on threads, Instagram, Facebook At 5280Pitch. Because if Saunas is out, or if there's any question to her or Ryan. It completely changes this match. Devin Lynch was not marked with any injury against Portland, but she did miss the starting 11 for the first time all season. She's been one of three rookies to start every match. I'm gonna be watching to see if that was a rotation or something bigger. On Chicago side. It's a familiar name, yes. Folks, Mallory Swanson, She is back. And she's been getting around 60 minutes a match. Last week she had an assist and a goal. So we'll get into a little bit more about Chicago side here soon, but I want to talk about Denver Shape, and this came from an unusual source, the keeper. So we asked Kat Astman what it was like being a part of a back line group, because Cushing pushes both fullbacks very high up and around, the halfway line. Here's what Kat had to say.

Katie: Yeah, I think it just takes a lot of communication and trust between the three of us. I think we watched some of the clips back from Portland. We talked about it, we realized we can, in a sense, fix a lot of the things that came from their their opportunities they had in that game before the ball was ever played. I think there's a bit of organizing and Nick. sends the fullbacks high because he has the utmost trust in in our two center backs, whether it is a mix between the three of them, any any any one of them being in that position, like there's trust in the fact that you can leave them back with top forwards because they are top defenders. So I think continuing to communicate, continuing to organize, always putting ourselves on the front foot and and we'll be golden.

Kate Hanson: That is the tactical pitcher of this team in one answer. Denver's fullbacks are attackers. Janine on one side has eight goals, five from open play as a defender. Iowa K On the other side, she has been so much fun to watch as she has found more comfort and freedom in Nick Cushing's style of play. And I know we are getting very close to seeing either a goal from her or a phenomenal assist. Cushing pushes them up the pitch, and what's left behind is a trio. Two center backs. Ava Gaetino and Kaylee Kurtz, and the keeper. Kat said that Nick sends the fullbacks high because he trusts those center backs against top forwards. she also said that the group went back and watched the Portland clips together, and their conclusion was that most of what Portland created could have been prevented before the ball was ever played. It's just organization, not heroics. That is a goalkeeper doing real analysis just six weeks into her time at this club. And it tells you exactly what to watch tomorrow. If Chicago gets anything, it will come in behind those fullbacks. Against a team that has scored two road goals all season, I feel like Denver should be able to live with that risk. Now let's actually scout Chicago because I don't think most people have. They haven't been a ton of fun to watch. Mallory Swanson, like I said, she's been out injured. the Chicago Stars are 16th. 16 points from 21 games, 12 goals scored. That's about half a goal a game. They have been shut out in 15 of 21 matches, 71% of their season, with nothing on the board. But they've allowed 41 goals to go in. Denver creates big chances at 3.15 times Chicago's rate. Let that sink in. And and the road numbers for Chicago are worse. Away from home, Chicago is one win, no draws, and ten losses. Two goals in eleven away matches. Twenty-five conceded. Their only road win all year was one zero at bay in May. Now who on Chicago could actually hurt Denver? Who should we be having an an eye on as fans watching the game? Well, there's Jordan Hoytma. She's a Canadian international Olympic gold medalist, and Chicago paid a serious price to get her from Seattle this past winter. She leads the stars with four goals, a third of everything Chicago has scored. If Denver center backs have one job tomorrow, it's watching her. Chicago's most used attacker, Nadia Gomez, is number two on the most wanted or most watched list. She's a Portuguese international, two goals and an assist across 18 appearances. And then Mallory Swanson, which we're gonna come back to. And goal It's been Katie Atkinson. She started the last six and has sixty-one saves and thirteen appearances, which is four point six nine a game. That that number tells you plenty about how much work that back line gives her. Now the trap of this game, and it's real. Chicago beat Racing Louisville 3-2 last Saturday. They ended Louisville's club record winning streak. Three goals matched Chicago's season high. It was Karina Baez's first win as interim head coach, and Baez is the fifth person to coach that club since the start of last season. Before that win, Chicago had gone five without winning, scoring one and conceding seven. So a team that had nothing, that changed its coach three weeks ago, that just found three goals from somewhere, that's not gonna be a corpse that's gonna be easy to walk over. That is a group that has just been told that the new thing works. Cushing was also asked how he scouts an opponent in that position, and I I really liked his answer. He doesn't read the table that way. Every match is an opportunity, and they plan every week to win. And then he put it plainly: they're fighting and scraping to get off the table. And Denver is fighting and scraping to get above the line. This is two desperate teams, folks. Opposite ends. Kind of. We're both still in the bottom half of the table, but Denver has playoff potential. Chicago is going to be a lot steeper of a climb. Now, Chicago and Denver have never played each other. Denver has faced 13 of the 15 other teams in this league. Chicago and Angel City are the only two left. And Denver plays both of them twice in these final 10. Saturday is the first meeting in the history of Denver Summit FC. For a first ever meeting, there is a lot going on. Number one. Two Highlands Ranch kids on opposite sides. I said I was gonna come back to Mallory Swanson. Here we are, folks. She captains Chicago's attack. She was born in Littleton, raised in Highlands Ranch, Mountain Vista High School, Real, Colorado. Janine Saunis is Denver's leading scorer. Also from Highlands Ranch. Same town. Denver's top scorer, Chicago's best player. That is the picture of tomorrow night right there. Now Swanson has been working back from a long absence. She has two goals and an assist in 10 appearances. Around 60 minutes a match right now. But, like I said earlier, she scored and assisted in that Louisville win and made the league's team of the week for it. So she's rounding into form at exactly the wrong time for Denver. Number two. Lorne Donaldson is back in Denver Soccer. So Chicago's new interim director of coaching came in on the 12th of August. Donaldson played at Metro State right here in Denver. He built Real Colorado, which is based in Centennial, the same town as the stadium. Through that club, players like Janine Sanis, Jalen Howell, Mallory Swanson, Sophia Wilson, all came through Real. Now I want you all to appreciate this for a minute. Denver Summit, we keep running into players who grew up 20 minutes away from Centennial Stadium. Folks, that is not a coincidence. That is a state that has been producing this top-level talent for two decades without a professional team to keep it. I know we finally have the Denver Summit, but I mean, for real, what took so long? It is about time that Denver had an NWSL team. Speaking of year one. And ten games left. There is a brand new shirt available in the 5280 Pitch merch store. I think you're gonna love it. I'm gonna, if you're watching on YouTube or if you're watching on the Apple video side, I have it up on the screen what the new shirt looks like. You're gonna want this shirt, folks. It is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. But it's the ultimate I was there t-shirt to be reppin' around the Denver Summit in this final s in this final phase of the season. So be sure to go to 5280 Pitch, check out the merch store. And this brand new awesome t-shirt that just dropped. Newsletter folks, yeah, you saw it a few days ago when I released it to you. So if you're not on the newsletter yet you wanna get the insider info and that additional newsletter discount, be sure to sign up. And if you're signed up and you haven't seen the emails, well check your spam. Anyways, back to the match. So what actually has to happen on Saturday? Key number one. We have to score more than one goal. Right? We have to start scoring some goals. Like I know that the floodgates are gonna be opened when we just when we get two goals in a game. Denver has 25 goals in 20 games. Janine Sonas has eight of them. 32% from a left back. Add Yasmeen Ryan, Tosh Flint, Melissa Cussler, and four players account for twenty-one of the twenty-five goals. Eighty-four percent. Now, that's not a knock on those four. It's a roster that needs that fifth scorer to emerge and have the spotlights shine on them from the heavens. We need that fifth scorer. And against an opponent that has conceded 41 goals, Saturday's your day to step into the light. Step into that spotlight, and you can be our fifth scorer. Key number two, the final third. we asked Nick Cushing about this directly. 63% of the ball at Portland and nothing at the end of it.

Katie: Just building the relationships, building the demand and expectation of each other to make the right decision, to play the right pass, to execute the right technique. I think 63 % of the ball and 27 box entries is a huge positive away at Portland, but I the game at zero chances for us. three opportunities which tells us that we've got to make more of all of that volume that we have. I think the pleasing thing is that we have done that especially at home if you look at the Boston game and those type of games when we've been really productive in the final third we just haven't scored enough goals. It's the evolution of our team I think you can see with North Carolina with Sanchez and can see with Portland, with Sophia Wilson and many other teams that if you have a goal scorer or you have a lot of goals in your team it affects your league position. It is the next evolution of us and something that I'm incredibly frustrated and impatient about but also invested in working through the process.

Kate Hanson: 27 box entries at Portland. 63% of the ball. And he confirmed the rest himself. Zero big chances. Three opportunities. That was the third time this season Denver created no big chances in a match. All three finished with Denver scoring nothing. He also named the gap. He he pointed it North Carolina and at Portland with Sophia Wilson, his argument being that a genuine goal scorer moves your league position, and Denver doesn't have one yet. And then he used the words frustrated and impatient about himself. We've heard him say this before in other press conferences. he's built a game plan where we're in position to win a game. And we're just not winning the games. We're just not finishing. Key number three. Don't let them settle. Chicago has been shut out in 71% of its matches. A team like that needs the game to stay level and quiet. Denver's defensive floor is real. 13 of 20 opponents held to a goal or fewer. 65%. If Denver scores first, folks, this is over. So here's where I land. I think Denver wins this. I think Sonas or Ryan gets the opener. I think they get the first goal before the half. and I think that will light a much needed spark under the team for the second half. My final prediction is two nothing. Nah, I'll take three. But no two nothing. Two nothing. And I want to let you know what I'm watching, because it's not the score line. Denver has controlled matches this season and gotten nothing out of them. And there is no opponent left on this schedule who punishes that less than Chicago. If this team creates chances and takes them, Then the run of ten with six at home and four home matches against the teams that are in this playoff race, that is a genuine playoff push. If Denver puts up 60% of the ball again and can't turn it into goals against the worst roadside in the league, well then the finishing problem isn't a slump. It is the ceiling. And ten games won't be enough. But I don't want to be doom a gloom. I think they get it right tomorrow. I am watching the chances, not the score, and I think that they get it right tomorrow. So Saturday, Denver Summit FC versus the Chicago Stars. 645 Mountain at Centennial Stadium. Be there or be square. We all need we the summit needs you. The summit needs you there. They need you there early. They need you loud. Show up for this team. We are not out of it yet. We are just barely on the outside and a couple of matches away from being in. I would love to be right and get that sixth or seventh playoff spot. But at this point I'll take eight. I I think playoffs for this team is important and that we can do it. If you can't be there, the game will be on ion number seven or the spot number three. I'm gonna be watching Lindsay Heaps in the warmups, watching who takes the goal kicks, watching the space behind Sonus and OK when those fullbacks go. Alright, that is it for this episode. Be sure to be be sure to follow me on the socials for any surprise, scratches, and additions to that injury report. very active on threads during the game, so be sure to follow me over on threads. I'm active on Instagram and on Facebook. I did drop the new shirt, so be sure to head over to the fifty two eightypitch.com. I will include a link to the shirt so that you can just go straight there and pick it up because pat myself in the back. I think it's pretty sweet. make sure to subscribe and follow along, leave the show a review, because when you do that, it helps push the show out into the algorithms and make more people aware of not just your Denver Summit, but of women's professional soccer. So be sure to share this episode with a friend. let me know what your predictions are for this match. I think it's a must-win if we don't win this game, it's Going to be a lot of question marks about where the Denver Summit goes from here. And with that, we will see you in Tuesday's episode of the 52-80 Pitch, Women's Soccer at Altitude.