Denver Summit Just Beat the Best Team in the League. Angel City Is Next.

Kate Hanson: 46% of the ball. Three of four shots on target. Three goals. Zero for the other side. That was Sunday at Centennial, folks, against the best defense in this entire league. Welcome back to the 5280 pitch, Women's Soccer at Altitude. I'm Kate Hansen and we need to talk about Sunday properly because that is the team I have been waiting on all. year. We also need to talk about Friday because I think that might be the biggest match we play all season. So let's get into it. We were scoreless at half, and if you were at the game, if you watched it on TV, on CBS, it was a lot of back and forth. All three goals came in the last 41 minutes. Yuzuki Yamamoto scored in the 50th off of an Io UK pass, Olivia Thomas scored in the 82nd off of a beautiful Yasmeen Ryan pass. And then Yaz said, hey, you know what? I will make it one more. She scored off of a great pass off from Tosh Flint. The thing is, we didn't run over Gotham. early and then just coast. We ground out a half and then we did not take our foot off the gas. We Put the pedal to the metal and used that altitude advantage. You could see Gotham was tiring in that second half. And that is when the Denver Summit just went all out. This is the second time the Denver Summit have beaten Gotham this year. I want that to sit with you all for a second because Gotham has lost only four matches all season long. Four. Two of those are to the Denver Summit. Against one of the toughest defenses in this entire league, the Denver Summit have scored five goals. And they have conceded zero. Nobody else in this league has beaten Gotham twice in 2026. Well, now they have. It's been us. It's been the Denver Summit. Sunday ended a 10-match unbeaten run for the best defense in this entire league. Seven wins, three draws going back to early July. We ended it at centennial.

Katie: Yeah I do think it's we're not necessarily we're just getting started. I think we're just getting started in the belief and sort of that step forward out of what we thought potentially was the building phase in the sense of good performances, good offensive volume, great commitment towards trying to execute results, you know, in all of those games that we didn't win, Boston and Houston and you can see the team pushing and I said didn't I in it? I can't I can't fault the determination and desire. I think what the team's done is probably got fed up of not that margin of making that step and you can see that now. There's a big win today. We spoke a lot this week about not relying on six one against the team without being disrespectful to Chicago. You know, it's it's it's it's not okay to just beat this the team bottom of the league six one. Now you've got to step forward and go and take on the team that's top of the league and believe you can go win. Incredibly proud of the team today.

Kate Hanson: This isn't a team that got frustrated at the bottom of the table and then just cashed it in against somebody. Cashed it in against somebody on Sunday. We beat the top of the league. And Nick made that same point himself all week. Beating Chicago 6-1 doesn't mean much if you can't go and do it again against the very best team in the league. Now, here's the part that actually got to me when I went back and looked through the numbers. Because I was at the game, but Mariah from the team was covering the match, so she was helping out with the socials and the post-game press. So I didn't have the chance to sit down and look at all the stats as they were happening during the match. When I went back through the numbers, I saw a game that we haven't really played all season. We had 46% of the ball. We completed 74 fewer passes than Gotham did. we completed 301 out of 388, whereas Gotham completed 375 out of 456. That's a game that shows the numbers heavily favoring a Gotham team. But we won. We got those three goals. Gotham put four shots on target against us and got Zero. We put four on target and got three. That is a different team than we saw back in July and early August. That was a team that was ruthless.

Katie: I think we're really just trusting each other and trusting the process. and just believing. I feel like we had a lot of pressure knowing that we needed to get goals and our forward line felt that pressure and now we're just I feel like playing free and just trying to get after it and I feel like it's showing in the game.

Kate Hanson: I know it has been hard as Denver Summit fans who've wanted this NWSL team for so long to see the slump that that we went through for those few months. It was hard, But Nick Cushing said repeatedly in press conference after press conference after press conference, they need to trust the process. And it's been hard to see the numbers showing a team that is just dominating matches not be able to get in that win column. But trusting the process. And the team has trusted the process, And now they are clicking. Now everything is falling into place at exactly the right time. Would it have been great to maybe fall into place a little bit earlier in the season so we weren't quite as in a battle for that eighth playoff spot? Sure, but it's definitely made the final 10 games of the season way more interesting. We've had nine goals in our last two matches. Six against Chicago, three against Gotham. Only one goal was conceded in both of those games. Best stretch of soccer this club has played in its short history. And it's not one player that's that's carrying it. We've we were seeing Janine Sanas just throw the whole team on her back and try and carry them through that dry spell. now we've seen contributions from the entire I I spent a good chunk of this show a couple weeks back telling y'all that if the finishing problem didn't fix itself, well then it wasn't a slump. That was the ceiling of this team. Well, thank you, Denver Summit, for proving me wrong. Nine goals in eight days say that I was very wrong about that one, and I will happily be wrong about that one every single week for the rest of the season. Yuzuki Yamamoto Yuzi. as she's called on the team, and Olivia Thomas have both scored two goals in these last two matches. Yozy's strike Sunday was the highest single shot value of the entire match. That was a very difficult goal that she scored. It was not a lucky bounce. And Yaz Ryan, I think she's playing the best soccer of her entire season right now. She had a goal and an assist on Sunday, match high rating from Fop Mob at 8.7. She's up to six goals, four assists on the year. we can't forget about Janine. Man, Janine, she didn't score, but she still put up a team high, 85 touches and 43 completed passes. She's still our leading scorer at nine on the year. And she is a defender. Io Uke, nine duels won, four tackles, both match highs. And her third assist of the season on Yuzi's goal to kick off the scoring in the second half. Io has found her footing and she has been fun to watch since the break. She has come back, looked more confident, looked faster, and she is a force to reckon with on that right side. I am loving seeing her find these connections and find these passes and start getting on the scoring sheet, But let's zoom out on the whole offense for just a second, because I think it's a good gut check. Sonas leads with nine goals, four assists. Ryan is right behind her with six and four. And Melissa Kosler, MK, has six goals of her own. Tosh Flint, five goals, four assists. Yuzi, two and two. Thomas, two and one. Okay, three assists from the back. Seven different players putting up real numbers. This is not a one player offense. Now let's talk about the other end of the field because Kat Astman had a night too. Kat got the start once again for the third straight match with Abby Smith being out. And I always look at the pregame availability report. let me walk you through it. When I first saw Abby Smith on the injury report, I was nervous. I didn't know who's gonna be starting. Was it gonna be Geordie? Was it gonna be Kat? Who was gonna take the number two spot behind Abby? Because Abby's been playing lights out. Kat stepped in and she played great in that first game. Second game that Abby was out. I knew that Kat was going to be getting that start again. And I felt confident because we were playing against a terrible Chicago team. I thought this is gonna be a great confidence builder for Kat. When I saw the availability report come out, and Abby was still on it, I wasn't nervous at all. Yes, we were facing Shaw, Sam Kerr, one of the top teams in this league. But I had confidence in Kat and Kat had a night. this was her very first NWSL clean sheet. was her third start. She has now started three matches in nineteen days. Portland, league leader, Chicago, well basement dweller, and then Gotham. And the first one she keeps off the score sheet entirely was the hardest one. Four saves, no goals conceded. at plus five seven, at plus.5 seven against Gotham Keeper Burgers minus 0.94 on the other end. Goalkeeping duel of the day. It went our way. Before Sunday, Gotham had never conceded more than two goals in a match all season. We're responsible for two of the six times all year. And you could feel the energy in the building. Man, that place was rocking. Fans, you brought it on Sunday. Despite that hot, hot heat, I know there's been a lot of back and forth about the water stations, this, that. We came out and showed up for our team despite the heat. And this team gave the crowd something to be excited about. Kat actually brought up the twelve o'clock kickoff before I even asked her about how much a noon start throws off the rhythm of your whole week, playing in the heat, all of it.

Katie: the first thing I want to say is like we never take for granted playing at home. playing here at this stadium now, it's ours. It's it's so amazing to play in front of our fans and we never take that for granted. So when people think like, it's not a big deal to come out and show out or, you know, maybe I'll just miss this one, I don't think you guys understand how much your presence and and attendance and cheering and loudness means so much to us and bring so much energy to us. I mean, again, you see it, it's it's so hard for teams to come here and play and and there's some natural, you know, things about that, nature and and things about Colorado and elevation. But again, you play i in this arena with these fans, this close proximity, it it makes it such an advantage.

Kate Hanson: I'll say this every single week. That atmosphere is not a given and it's not common in this league. There's a few other select stadiums where you will see a crowd like ours show up. The fact that our crowd is behind this team so much in year one is something to be really proud of, Summit fans. Typically, it's built over One Sunday at a time. But Denver fans, I I've I posted a few things after the match on social media and I heard from one person saying they drove up from Grand Junction and then watched the game and then drove home. People that drive from Colorado Springs, Fort Collins for a noon kickoff in the heat. Guys, that adds up to something, and the players notice. This is also our fifth clean sheet of the season, ten matches after our fourth one. Back in Louisville in late May. Clean sheets have been rare for this team, which makes Sundays just that much sweeter. And And one thing I want to point out is how deep our benches. Because I keep coming back to this one. We had a triple substitution on the 64th minute. Heaps, Reagan, and Uckey all came off for Flint, Means, and Lynch. Then a third rookie took the pitch with 11 minutes left. We're talking about Liv Thomas. Thomas scored on her only shot of the game. She only had six touches for the entire match. Two of our three goals on Sunday involved players who started the match on the bench. And that is not a coincidence anymore. That is depth. And the fact that we could show our depth at that point of the game. with the rookie class that we have is something to be really excited about, folks. Io actually talked about this exact thing in her presser too, how the locker room isn't tracking the the out-of-town scoreboard nearly as much as much as you think, given how tight the race is. Don't worry, I am. Everybody's just worried about their own performance, which brings me to something Nick said in that same press conference that I don't think got enough attention.

Katie: when you look at the likes of Yuna McCormick, Natalie Means, Olivia Thomas, Devin Lynch, put four rookies in to get us over the line. And I thought on sixty minutes we're under pressure a bit. It there was that little bit of a lull where an experienced team can go one one and then maybe take the game away from you. So I'm incredibly proud of them to just show the freedom and hunger and ambition to just Go and play

Kate Hanson: And here's what I don't think a lot of people realize. This front office did not sign four rookie flyers and hoping one would stick. Una McCormick signed a three-year rookie deal back in January through 2028, which was already unusual because most of that draft class got one-year contracts. Olivia Thomas, three years, also through 2028. Mutual option for the fourth year on top of that. Devin Lynch started on a one-year deal and got that extension in July that runs her through 2028 too. Natal Means is the only outlier here who's on a two-year contract. And that's still longer than most rookie deals in this league. Three of those four rookies that Nick just talked about in that clip that I shared are locked up through 2028. This isn't a club that is hoping that the rookie class pans out one sticks. They're they've already bet on it in writing before mo most of these players even had a single professional minute. So here's where I land on Sunday. I've said all year that this team was building towards something, and I've had to talk myself into patience more than once because of that. That team on Sunday was the team that I've been waiting on. I think we all have been waiting on. The passes were good, the back line stood tall, the finishing was there. All three. Happened in the same ninety minutes against the best team in this league. Now as I always said, the ladies in the locker room are not looking at what the rest of the league is doing every week. I am. I'm watching it like a hawk. And I love I like looking at different scenarios as to okay, well, if Angel City wins, then what happens here with the numbers? So there is a big race for that eighth playoff spot. It's gonna be really hard, next to impossible for the Denver Summit to get a s the sixth or seventh spot. Like there's gonna have to be a waterfall of losses from the teams that are already in the table. That eighth spot is up for grabs between Seattle Rain, Angel City. And us, Denver Summit. Unfortunately, Sunday's win didn't actually move us in the standings the way that you would like it to. despite us beating the number one team in the league, we're still at 10th. 30 points, 22 matches played, and we're still four points behind eighth because darn it. Seattle went and won two. One nothing over San Diego. San Diego, they Kiki Van Zanten got a red card twelve minutes into the match. So as soon as that happened, one of my friends, Sarah, sent me a message and was like, Well, it's gonna be real hard for San Diego to win now. San Diego, I was rooting for ya. But Seattle went and won that game one nothing. And that took Seattle from 31 to 34. We won, they won, the gap stayed exactly the same. And then Orlando went and beat Houston 3-1 on Sunday night, which that match got delayed by more than 90 minutes because of weather. They now have twenty-nine points for Orlando. So they're just one point behind us. So I'm gonna talk about Angel City, but here is the table, top to bottom. Seattle has 34. They are in eighth place right now. Angel City is right above us at ninth with 32 points. Like I just said, Denver Summit have 30. We are sitting at 10th. And then Orlando, they went and won, so now they're creeping up on us. They have 29 And they're sitting at 11th, Houston is sitting at twelfth. I mean this this is five teams stacked on top of each other racing for that eighth spot. So here's what I'm rooting for this weekend. Friday, there's some big matches, which ours is one of them. But Kansas City plays Orlando. We need Kansas City to win that. It keeps Orlando stuck at 29. Later, it's us. We are on the road at Angel City. Obviously, I want us to win. If we win, we go to 33 and then we go above Angel City's 32. Then Saturday, Seattle hosts Bay. Bay hopefully pulls the upset. Seattle stays at 34 instead of pulling further away. If you put all three of those together and by Sunday morning, we're at 33 points, just one back of Seattle, Angel City behind us, Orlando stuck at 29. That's one point from a playoff spot. And this whole thing runs through LA on Friday night. Which brings me to LA on Friday night at Bemo Stadium. It might be the biggest ninety minutes we play all season. Folks, if you thought that that Gotham game was an important one to win, that was nothing. Yes, it was important to win, but because Angel City won, it didn't move us as much as it could have. Friday night is our first time playing Angel City FC. it's going to be a very interesting game because Angel City and Denver, over this 22 matches each, are basically the same team. Same 34 goals scored, their possession average is 50.5%, ours is 51%, their expected goals per match is 1.56, 1.57%. That is a gap of only one one thousandth of a goal. The only real separation between ninth and tenth place is three goals allowed over the entire season. This is a mirror match. Two more things to watch on this game before I get into my prediction. First, Angel City is not the team that was scuffling around and trying to find their footing back in June. They fired their coach Alex Strauss on June seventeenth. Under him, through eleven matches, they only had 13 points. Now, under interim, Leif, Gunnar, Smeyrude. They have 11 matches and 19 points, two losses. If somebody is previewing this as a game against a bottom half team, they're running last season's scouting report to do it. Second thing, and I hope this is the part that actu this is the part that actually gives me hope. Look at where each team's good and where each team is bad. Angel City is worse at home than on the road. Four wins, two draws, five losses at BM at BMO. On the road, they have five wins, three draws, and three losses. We are the exact opposite. Our road defense is genuinely solid. A bit over one goal conceded a game away. almost the identical rate Angel City gives up at Bo. What kills us on the road is scoring. Under one and a fifth goals at the goals a game away versus nearly two a game at home. So Friday puts Our best trait, the road defense, against their worst one, which is their the home attack. That is the matchup I actually want on Friday. Additionally, they have some players coming back from injury. However, Lindsay Heaps played sixty five minutes this last match. So she is nearing ninety minutes back per game from her injury. Mayara Nijos, also seven goals, has been scoring off the bench in unlimit in limited minutes in each of her last two. Now they have Evelyn Shores, who has five assists and three goals. She is probably their most consistent presence, and she scored twice last week against Louisville. So here is a number that surprised me when I pulled it. We actually create more chances than Angel City does. So we have 61 big chances this season compared to their 43. Now, that being said, we waste more of our big chances than they do, but I think that we have turned a leaf here, folks. I think we got that monkey off of our back. We're seeing more scoring from different players, not named Janine Sonas. So even though we have sixty one big chances compared to their forty three, we've wasted more of our big chance opportunities. So we are converting right now statistically at the same rate that they are. However, over the past few weeks, obviously we can see that something has changed. Our pass accuracy is better than theirs, 80.5% to their 77%, and they foul more and they get carded more than we do. They have 26 yellows to our 21. And if this game is tight in the final third, I feel like that's where our training, our second lung from training at altitude, kicks into high gear and we are able to come out on top against this team. this team has a couple big names on it. Ali Sentnor's US women's national team, is on Angel City. She only has two goals on the season, but she did have a goal and an assist last Friday. And Giselle Thompson, another US women's national team member, twenty two starts, so she's played every match. She has a team high, thirty three key passes from the back. She is their most used outlet, and if we let her play free all night, we are going to be defending for ninety minutes. On our side, a few things to be on the lookout for. Abby Smith. Will she play? I'm feeling confident with Kat, seeing how she's been playing the past few games. if she's healthy, who gets the start? Will it be Abby again? Nick did say a couple weeks ago that if Abby's healthy, she is their number one. Does Nick give her a little bit more time and let Kat And and continue riding that hot hand with Cat Aspen. Ava Gaetino was not on the injury report this week, but she did not play. she did practice last week, but she didn't see any minutes. So that is something to keep an eye out for. I think Meg's Reed Meg Reed has done phenomenal in her place. But Ava did start for fifteen matches prior to this hip injury. Allie Brazier, she's missed the past few matches with an illness and personal reasons. And we're still waiting to see Gemma Bonner take take the pitch. She also was on this week's injury report, she was listed as questionable. But she has yet to see any minutes for the Denver summit. Like I said earlier, Lindsay Heaps is building minutes. Forty-five against Chicago, sixty-four against Gotham. And like I said, Meg Reed, who hadn't started before Gaitino went down, has now put in two straight full 90 minute matches. She, man, that she almost got that goal. I I watched it back because at the stadium, I couldn't see how they how that was offsides. But Meg Reed did have a goal that was called back for being offsides. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm sharing how that goal was called off sides, but that would have been great for Meg to to get her first goal of the season. We have a lot of moving pieces on our back line heading into one of the biggest tests of the season. I think that this is going to be a low-scoring match. My prediction is Denver Summit 1-0. Here are my keys to the game. So key number one, we have to score away from home. We create plenty. We just haven't been finishing it on the road the way that we do at Centennial. Key number two, their keeper Angela Anderson hasn't missed a minute all season. She has seven clean sheets, but she's also faced 70 shots. So she gets tested and we have to test her early and often. We have to come out with our foot on the gas, pedal to the metal. And key number three, we can't take our foot off the gas. Once we start strong, we have to keep going strong. Their sub off the bench, Priscilla Chalufa has four goals in under six hundred minutes played. Key number four, Kat Astman. If she gets that fourth start in nineteen days on the road in the biggest match of the year, how does she play? I believe this is a winnable match. So, this is what I'm gonna be watching for on Friday before kickoff. Right here live on the 5280 pitch. Yes, I'm gonna be back at DNVR Bar doing a live pregame and halftime show right here streaming live on YouTube. Come on down to DNVR Bar. It's always more fun to watch the game with friends. So I will be there. You can come and watch the show live. and DNVR is gonna have some great food and drink specials. But one of the things, like it you all know, I'm a very big Colorado Avalanche fan, I love listening to the pregame show on my way down. To the stadium or before the game kicks off. I love a pre a good pregame show. What to watch for, what the predictions are, all the things, what are the storylines. So I'm gonna do it for you guys. I'm gonna be live streaming on YouTube. Be sure to tune in or come on down to DMVR Bar to watch it live. we are clicking at the exact right time. Can Denver Summit keep clicking Against some of the toughest mental tests this entire season. We've shown that we're a much better team against the league's worst. and we showed against the best that we are not to be underestimated. We get to face Angel City twice in these next nine matches. we all know When they come here on October seventeenth, man, Denver Summit fans, we are not gonna make that a fun environment for Angel City to be a part of. Three of our next four matches are against teams either below us or fighting for that final playoff spot. This three week window is where the playoff line actually gets decided. Denver Summit's fate is in their own hands. If we want to make it into the playoffs, we don't need to hope for another teams to beat Angel City. We can take matters into our own hands. If you're new to women's soccer and you've only been watching the Denver Summit, now is an extremely exciting time to start watching some of these other teams play because just about every single match has implications on the Denver Summit's playoff future. if you're not following me on Threads or on Instagram at 5280Pitch, I've been trying to give as many different scenarios of who to root for, who to watch, all that before every single match that is of key importance for the Denver Summit. So be sure to follow me there. Like I said already, I'm gonna be broadcasting live from DNVR. Come watch the game there. if you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel yet, be sure to do that. Watch live or come hang out IRL at DNBR and join us for watching the Denver Summit take on Angel City. It's always more fun to do with friends. So here's where I land on the whole week. Sunday against Gotham. That is the team that I've been waiting on all year. shown glimpses of this team throughout the year. And to see us finally take the pitch and be that team, that strong defensive team, that team that has the that's finding the Oprah Man, the team that's finishing, the team with the speed that can finish out a match and wear down those opponents who aren't trained to run at altitude week in and week out. That is the Denver Summit team that I believe Kurt Johnson, Nick Cushing, they were building from day one. And this locker room is finally clicking. Friday, we are our fate is in our own hands. Win that match, and every one of those teams stacked up on us has to look up at us instead of the other way around. And I think we get it. One nothing, Denver Summit. There are a lot of other fun matches to watch this week that have serious implications on what happens to the Denver Summit and our playoff future. If you liked this episode, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with somebody. That is genuinely the best thing that you can do for an independent show like this. And it's how more people find women's soccer. Like I said before, I'm on Instagram, threads, I do live match analysis on threads. I post a ton on threads during the matches. Newsletter is at 5280pitch.com and the shop has new stuff up too. Be sure to go check out the merch store. If you're on the website, just click merch and then it will take you over to the merch site. So you can get decked out in your women's soccer at altitude gear And if you are on the newsletter, you get an extra special newsletter discount. So you gotta be on the newsletter if you wanna get the special merch discount. All right, folks, I'm Kate Hanson This is the 5280 Pitch Women's soccer at Altitude. see you on Friday. Not once, but twice. yes, folks, if you're still here at this point in the episode, well, kudos to you because you get some special insider information. You're gonna get get to hear from me not once, but twice on Friday. I'm dropping a special bonus episode with one of our the most requested interviews all season long. Yes, I finally got her in. So we are doing a special bonus episode on Friday, the sit-down interview. I'll let you guess. Guess in the comments on who this week's special guest interview is for the bonus episode on Friday. And then again, you'll see me live for a live pregame show streaming live on YouTube, or if you want to join me in person at DNVR Bar in downtown Denver off of Colfax. Thank you so much for being here. This is the 5280 Pitch. I'll talk with you soon.