Denver Summit Gave Away Two Points They Couldn't Afford. Bay FC Is Next

Kate Hanson: 61st minute in Los Angeles on Friday night. Janine Sonis makes it 3-1. Two goals up, half an hour to play. On the road. Denver fans were feeling good. Until 13 minutes later, it was 3-3. And I need you all to sit with that for a second because I've been sitting with it since Friday. 13 minutes. Two points. A playoff race that just got a whole lot tougher. I was at DNVR bar doing the live pregame show, and when Janine put that third one in, the room became unglued. People standing on chairs, strangers hugging, And then 30 seconds later, a boot goes up in our own box. That same room went dead quiet. Same building, same people, completely different night. So we've got that to get into. We've got Lindsey Heaps finally off the mark. We've got a goalkeeper conversation I've been going back and forth on all weekend. And we have Bay FC on Wednesday, which is a must win game, not an option. Let's get into it. Welcome back to the 5280 pitch, Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'm Kate Hanson I have a lot of things I wanna share. Post game press are Nick and Lindsey. And I've got audio from the postgame presser. I'm gonna play some of those. But first, let's talk about what happened on Friday. It was one-nothing Denver. Yuzu Yamamoto scores and actually in the pregame show I did say that Yuzu was gonna be our scorer for the night. However, I did say that it was just going to be a one-nothing game and Yuzu was gonna be the only scorer. Bo w boy was I wrong, because the final scores, we all know, was three-three. That was six goals, you guys. I said one. I thought it was gonna be a low-scoring affair. Definitely missed that one. But na in my defense, Yuzu scored. So I at least got that right. She got her third goal in three games in that second half burst. And that, like I said, is three league goals now and three straight matches for her. She got one in Chicago, Gotham, and Angel City. So Congrats to Yuzu on getting on the score sheet like crazy In this final trimester of the season. Mariah, who who helps out here at the 5280 pitch. She joined me in the live pregame show. So if you guys missed it, you know, it was a lot of fun. Definitely highly recommend coming out to the next live pregame show that we do. Be sure to follow on the socials so that you know when we are going to be doing these live pregame shows. Join us live on on YouTube or In real life, thank you to everybody that came down to DMVR bar and hung out, said hello, picked up a hat, grabbed a sticker, all the things. So thank you to every one of you that showed up. But Mariah joined me on the pregame show and she said two one, which was a little closer to the total. We were both wrong on that final score. But here's what actually bothers me from the match, and it's not the score line. I thought this was gonna be a much tighter game. Low event. One of those road games where you grind it out. get one late in the game and then get on the bus. Instead, Three goals away from home, which has happened exactly twice all season. The other one was that four one back in Houston. Back in May, you score three on the road and you don't win. So th that's what I'm gonna be spending time on in today's episode. So the first half, if you watched it, you probably thought Denver was fine. We had the ball, 53% of it anyways, passing at 78%. We looked settled. And then right before the break, Angel City scored one and you could kind of shrug it off and go, okay, we're still in this, But we are gonna be climbing an uphill battle in the second half. But go back and look at what this team was actually doing with all that possession. 1.28 expected goals. All match. Angel City had 3.37. Two and a half times the danger with less of the ball. Nine shots to 18, one corner, one in 90 minutes to eight. 22 touches in their box. 36 in Denver's. And then there's the 43 clearances, and Meg Reed had 13 of them by herself. 30% of everything Denver cleared all night from one player. Guys, that's not a team controlling the game. That is a team that was getting hit in waves and just heading it away. Nick brought it up postgame about whether having the ball actually counted for anything on a night like we had on Friday. And he did not sugarcoat it.

Katie: Yeah, I think firstly, the first half people will think that we had control of the game and I spoke to their GM and he said, you know, you had control in the first half. You know, control is not what we're after. We're after threat. We're after goal chances. We're after, you know, Being a team that can be two goals up in the first half. We had enough of the ball and enough progression to have that. second half, I said that at half time. Just you know, the step for us is to have the threat that we've had at home on the road.

Kate Hanson: Control is not what we're after. We're after threat. That is his own team that he's describing, and he's right. And the numbers back him all the way. More of the ball than Angel City, less than half the danger. That's control without threat. And that's the whole first half in one sentence. Where I'd push back a little is the second half, because the threat finally showed up. Yuzu gets one off of an amazing custler assist. 59 seconds later, yes, not even one minute later, folks, Lindsey Heaps smashes home a rebound off the crossbar for her first Denver summit goal. Then Janine makes it 3-1 at the 61st minute. And Denver is winning on the road by two. So the threat wasn't the problem. Three goals is a threat. The problem was everything happening at the other end the entire time. And here's the number that I keep coming back to. 3.37 expected goals against is the second worst night of this entire season. Only Kansas City was worse on the 4th of July. And they hung 4.03 on us. Take the penalty out. And Angel City still created 2.64 expected goals. Fourth time this season, Denver has given up three goals in a match. So let's walk through how it came apart because the sequence is the whole story. 61st minute, Janine scores off a she-han pass, three-one. The place was erupting. People were feeling confident. I mean, honestly, a couple of people left to go carry on with their night. Things are feeling good. Denver's got that two-goal lead. Only 30 minutes left. They've got this. This looks like a different team that has come out after the break. Well, at the 63rd minute, two minutes later, Chalifa s scores off the bench. And she'd been on the field for, like I said, she came off the bench. She's only been on the field for two minutes when she did it. Came off the bench, got the ball, three-two. And then the 74th minute, Iowake goes to clear a ball inside her own 18 And catches the Angel City player under the chin with her boot. Of course, it's a penalty. And Sentnor buries the PK. Suddenly it is 3-3. And look, that's a clearance attempt. I get it. She was trying to clear the ball out of a dangerous area. And I'm and it wasn't malicious. It wasn't a malicious. penalty. However, it wasn't a smart soccer play. To knowing where you are, but if you kick the ball if you kick your leg up that high inside the box, you gotta be sure that no one is around you. It a high foot in your own box With a one goal lead and a road game that you are winning, that is the moment where you head it out. Or you just take the throw, or or you give up the corner and reset. You do anything other than raise your studs to somebody's jaw. And here's Nick on what those goals cost us.

Katie: I I said to the team, it's not the world's worst result if we can go and do what we've just done and win two at home. But as we evolve the team, like playoffs twenty twenty s seven, we can't be giving goals away like that because if you give goals away like that, you don't win football games and and we're in the business of trying to win consistently.

Kate Hanson: Playoffs 2027. He said that out loud in the middle of September with all of us still mathematically alive. I'll let you decide how you feel about that one. But Lindsey went further than he did. And honestly, hers is the quote that I keep coming back to.

Katie: I echo a lot of what he said. I think more importantly, second half, like the way we came in and what we spoke about, we came out and executed. And I thought that was big time, especially away in a in a place like this. It's it's very difficult to play. So I was very proud of the team to go three three-one up. but I was just saying here, like I it's really hard to concede goals like that. and those are the little little details that We're learning. Obviously it's new team, expansion team, all these things, but to be a be a top team like we have to we have to figure those things out because it's our mistakes that are are costing us a win here.

Kate Hanson: Yeah, it's our mistakes that are costing us a win. That's the United States women's national team captain, twenty minutes after a road draw, saying the quiet part at full volume. It wasn't the referee, it wasn't the officiating, it wasn't the schedule, it wasn't the travel or the altitude or the expansion excuse. Us. Nick called them cheap goals. I'd I'd call them familiar ones. And honestly, that's the difference between a team that finishes tenth and a team that finishes eighth. I don't wanna just be doom and gloom. I do wanna talk about the good part. Lindsey that is one of the fantastic parts of this match. Lindsey Heaps scored her first goal for this football club on Friday night off of a rebound. Man, it was a beautiful goal. The crossbar spits it back out, and she is there and just buries it. No chance for anyone to stop it. It was only 59 seconds after Yuze's goal, which is the fastest back-to-back goals by one team in NWSL history. That was her first NWSL goal since October eighteenth, twenty twenty-one. Yeah, twenty twenty one, you guys. Five years. it was also her first full ninety minutes since she's been back from injury. Here's what she had to say about scoring that first goal in a Denver Summit kit.

Katie: obviously you could see I I think maybe I hit my max sprint afterwards. I feel like I was brought here to be in the attack and to create chances and and do things like that and I've been very frustrated to to not impact in that kind of way. And that's the kind of player I am. So I think it was a little bit of weight off my my shoulders there, but more importantly I just wanted to help the team today and I felt like the way that we came out in the second half that was you know, it gave me a lift, it gave the team the lift and and we kept going even after that. So I'm happy with it, but hopefully more to come.

Kate Hanson: Yeah, she she was here to bring in and help out on the attack, and that's her telling you she knows that she has to improve. And the rest of the night is what sells it for meade. Ten duels one, most of any player on the field of either team, four clearances. She was the best player out there for ninety minutes, and the goal was almost the least interesting thing that she did. So congratulations to Lindsey on her very first goal in that Denver Summit kit. I'd like to see her get another one on Wednesday when Bay FC comes to town. Before we move on. Because I don't wanna gloss over this. Janine Sonis has 10 goals in 22 starts. So she has 10 goals this season. I don't want to gloss over that because she is a defender. Now, three of them are on penalties, so seven from open play, but still from a left back. She is one of eight players in this entire league to be in double figures. Co-captain, playing defense. I am gonna I'm gonna do an entire episode on Janine Sonis's MVP caliber play that she's had this season because what she is doing is not normal. And I don't think enough people outside of Colorado have noticed, or maybe enough people even in Colorado have noticed what a feat and what a season Janine Sonis is having. Okay, one more thing before I get to the table. And I've gone back and forth on whether or not I want to talk about this all weekend. Friday was Abby Smith's first match back. She missed three with that knee injury. Obviously, she is our number one. She was save of the week in week two. She was in the bet March best 11. And I want to say, on the record, I love Abby Smith. She's been on the podcast multiple times. Great human being, having an exceptional year for the Denver summit. And I still wonder if Kat should have gotten. Just one more week before Abby got the start back. Now, here's why. On Friday, Abby faced six shots on target and saved three. So 50%. she faced 2.5 expected goals on target and let in three, which scores as a minus 0.5 goals prevented, which is obviously it's below the line. What was Kat doing while Abby was out? In those three appearances, she had nine saves, two goals allowed a c across three opponents, an eighty two percent save percentage, two wins, and a clean sheet against Gotham, the best team in the league at the time. It was the first clean sheet of her NWSL career. but a goalkeeper facing three point three seven expected goals plus a penalty she has no chance on is not why we drew that game against Angel City. The penalty was on the the high kick. The eighteen shots are on the ten players in front of her. Minus zero point five is a below average night. It's not a disaster. So where I land is this. Abby didn't cost us the game. What I think happened is a keeper on her first night back behind a back line that spent an hour under siege trying to protect the lead on the road. That's a rough assignment to hand somebody in week one back from a knee injury. Kat was playing well enough that Nick had a real option, but Nick has said all along that when Abby is healthy, she is the number one. She will be getting the start. It's not a competition question. And what's done is done. Abby is still our number one. But I just wonder maybe if one more week would have helped Abby in coming back. maybe a week too soon. Maybe it just maybe it wasn't a full one hundred percent. Maybe it was a ninety-five percent. But in that game we needed a one hundred percent Abbey because we didn't have the back line there to help give her the support. Now I want to talk about the table because it's math time, folks. we're still at 10th, 31 points from 23 matches, eight wins, seven draws, eight losses, and Seattle are still eighth, which is the last playoff spot. They have thirty seven. They're six points ahead of us, and they have the same amount of g games played. Angel City are ninth with 33. They're two ahead. basically if we would have won on Friday, it would have erased that. Orlando are now one behind with 30. They've played a game more. We only have seven matches left. Our inaugural season is almost over. We have 21 points on the table. But here's the part I like. Four of those seven are at Centennial. Bay on Wednesday, Seattle Saturday, Seattle the team sitting in the exact spot that we want, walking into our building in just five days. Angel City, we get to see them again in October on the 17th. Louisville, October 24th, the road trips of Kansas City on the 26th, Chicago, October 4th, and then Decision Day, North Carolina on November 1st. Four of the seven at home. And at home, this team is at five wins, three draws, three losses, scoring 1.91 a game. But over the last five at Centennial, we have Twelve scored and five conceded. Now I know that twelve of th six of those are from that Chicago game. The biggest thing for us to make the playoffs, we just have to stop giving points away in other people's stadiums. So here's here's Nick with the wider view of where this group actually is.

Katie: Nah, I think it's about having the mentality of just having a threat in every phase of the game. I think the most pleasing thing for me tonight was those two goals come in transition. And I think to win games on the road, you have to be able to create chances with the ball. We had a lot of the ball in the first half, what 64-65% of the ball? Got to create chances, not enough expected goals from that. And on the other side. You know, you look at the ruthlessness of our transition in those in the that fifty nine seconds, tells me that we're moving forwards and we're progressing forwards. And the aim for us is to continue that, create more chances with the ball, still think we need to be better with set play. You know, th th there's so much to achieve here, but like I said, this team that we played here, and it's not against this team, it's just I'm always evaluating reflecting on us. This team's in year six that we played today. we're in our eighth month. So we've got work to do, but we're definitely heading in the right direction. And with two home games now is a huge opportunity for us.

Kate Hanson: The part I want you to hear is the last line. A huge opportunity. And he's not wrong. Two home games in four days against the 15th place team and against the team holding the playoff spot that we want. Six points are sitting right there at Centennial this week. So let's talk about those two games. Wednesday night is the first, 7:30 at Centennial Stadium. It is also Hispanic Heritage Night. And we are welcoming Bay FC. Bay FC was the first team that we faced. In our NWSL existence. Fun fact, my dad went out to that game and got to know Olivia Thomas's mom at that game. But I digress. It's the first time that we've seen Bay Fay FC in a while. And this game is really important. What do we know about Bay? Well, we know that they can't score really. 22 goals in 23 matches, that's 0.96 a game. 15th in a 16 team league, 1.2 expected goals a match, which is also 15th. They've been shut out 10 times this season. And on the road, they are worse. So they only have 11 goals in 12 away matches, and they've been blanked in six of those 12. Half of their road games, they haven't even they've scored no goal at all. They've scored twice in their last four, and Their leading scorer is Carly Lema, and she has six all season. She came off the bench at Seattle on Saturday. I know that our Denver Summit back line. Is one of the better back lines out there. We've had some games where we don't show up our best. If we show up as our best self on Wednesday, this is a very winnable game, which brings me to the problem. The problem has a name. Jordan Sokowitz, 93 saves in 1,953 minutes, 4.29 a game. So she is stopping 76.9% of everything that's shot on target. And Bay make more saves per match than anybody in this league at 4.22. So here's the number that tells you everything you need to know about Bay FC's season. They should have conceded 40.38 goals, and they've conceded 32. That's eight and a half goals fewer than they had any business conceding. That gap is one person standing in a goal, having one of having a career year. So Wednesday's real question isn't whether Denver creates chances. This team creates the third most big chances per match in the league. It's whether they go in. Because 63.5% of them. Get missed, Which is fifth worst in this league. And against a keeper that's playing like this, every miss counts double. I know. I've I've talked about the finishing plenty this season, and I'm as as sick of it as you are. It's not the gonna be the story on Wednesday. It's just the thing that decides if you're comfortable with the game or whether you're sitting there biting your nails, wondering how this game is going to end. They're also without Kennedy Fuller, who's gotten 10 starts for them and is currently in Poland with the United States under-20 team at the U-20 World Cup. That's a real hole in their midfield. And luckily, it's not going to be getting filled this week. Additionally, they are the second most carded team in the league. 1.61 a match, 34 yellows, three reds, tied for the most red cards in the league. Claire Hutton and Madeline Moreau have five yellows apiece. Denver's 13th at 1.04. And like I said before, we already played bay with our very first match back in March. the first match in the history of this football club. And that score line, like I said, was two one on March fourteenth. Custler scored our ver scored in that game off of the Janine assist. Really, that was the whole show. But that was six months ago. And this team has scored thirty-six more g league goals since then. So, I know it's a Wednesday night in September. School is back in session. But we're playing a 15th place team. And I know the temptation is to save your voice for Seattle on Saturday. Say just say no. Come to the game. You need to be there. We need to be loud from the first whistle because r this team really is a different team when that building is full. And because Bay F C do not handle noise on the road, we need to be even louder. There's 12,000 seats in that stadium, and every one of them should be occupied and screaming to make a difference as we make this final playoff push. My prediction for the game is two nothing Denver. MK gets on the board again and I think that Yuzu's gonna make it four in a row. If Lindsey wants to help out with an assist, or if she wants to score again, I'd be fine with that. But I think it's gonna be MK and Yuzu getting on the score sheet against Bay FC. So where does that leave us? Thirty-one points, tenth, sixth behind the line with seven to play, but four of them are at home. Friday was two points. This team should have had. Denver was the better team for most of the match. And then gave away the one thing that they'd earned. But this is also a team that just scored three on the road for the second time all year. That's gone three matches unbeaten, 12 scored, and four conceded. That's got Lindsey Heaps finally putting balls in the back of the net and playing like the best player on the field. that's got a left back. And double figures on the score sheet. That's got Yuzu scoring in three straight. And that's got Bay FC walking into Centennial on short rest without one of their playmakers. Eight months old, four home games left. We're only six behind. I think that we win on Wednesday. I think we take six points this week. This group has gotten better every single month that it has existed. And month nine is where it starts showing up in the table. If you like this episode, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with somebody. That is genuinely the best thing you can do for an independent show like this. And it's how we get more people hopping on the NWSL and Denver Summit bandwagon because there's plenty of room on the Summit train. Be sure to follow along on Instagram and Threads at 5280Pitch. That's where injury and availability news happens. If you're not at the game, follow on Threads. We're doing live match analysis. And if you're at the game, be sure to check out the mascots that walk out, because my daughter's soccer team is going to be one of the mascots at the game this week. So I'm really excited for her and her team. my daughter, it's been so cute. She's the nine-year-old. She's been counting down the days literally since we told her that this was happening. She woke up on Monday morning and said, Mom, it's just 50 hours until I get to walk out with the Denver Summit. So Be sure to check out the mascots. One of the that's my daughter's soccer team out there, and I'm sure that this is gonna be a core memory for them. And if you see me at the stadium, obviously I'm gonna be there. Stay stop by, say hi. Like I said, I always have stickers on me. If you want one of the hats, the 5280 cool hats that you see running around, just let me know. I sold a bunch at DMVR Bar for the pregame show. I have just a few left. So if you want to save on shipping, just reach out, send me a DM, I'll bring one to the match. Happy to meet up with you and we can exchange there. But with that. I bid you ado. I'm Kate Hansen. This is the fifty-two eighty pitch women's soccer at altitude, and I'll talk with you soon.