The 5280 Pitch - Denver Summit FC & NWSL Podcast

Was Denver Summit FC's first NWSL season a success? I say yes. We scored 53 goals, third in the league, beat Shield winners Gotham 5-0 over two games, and put 63,004 people in Empower Field for our very first home game. Then I do the math on my preseason pick of sixth place, and why three leads we let slip were the whole difference.You'll hear GM Curt Johnson answer 5280 Pitch reporter Mariah Dean's question about whether year one was a success, plus head coach Nick Cushing on fixing the goals against and on Janine Sonis becoming "almost world class." I hand out report cards for every player who saw the field, from Lindsey Heaps (formerly Horan) and Yazmeen Ryan to Tash Flint and KK, and I share my offseason wish list. It starts with a striker, and with Colorado's own Sophia Wilson.And we finish with Queen Janine. 12 goals and 8 assists from left back, and she's a finalist for both MVP and Defender of the Year. Fan voting closes Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 6 p.m. Mountain. Go vote for Janine: https://g1j9uuaobs1.typeform.com/NWSLfansFollow @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads and Facebook. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaF Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272 Website: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC’s inaugural NWSL season ended on Decision Day with a 1-0 loss at the North Carolina Courage. The only goal was a 94th-minute own goal, and it came after Seattle had already beaten Orlando to take the eighth and final playoff spot.I loved how we started this one. We had 70% of the ball in the first 20 minutes and won the expected goals 0.94 to 0.55. Then the second half got away from us, and you could feel the nerves through the TV. I walk through the numbers that show where it slipped, from passing that dropped well below last week’s level to a game that finished under 50% possession.Abby Smith was my player of the match. She made five saves, stopped all three of Ashley Sanchez’s shots on target on the night Sanchez needed one more goal for the single-season record, and put up 1.15 goals prevented. I also explain what goals prevented actually means.Then the MVP debate. Sanchez tied the record at 20 and won the Golden Boot. I’m Team Janine, and Janine Sonis finished with 12 goals and 8 assists from left back. You’ll hear Nick Cushing make his case for her, plus Janine and Lindsey Heaps from the postgame press conference.Plus: the packed DNVR Bar pregame show with Mariah Dean, my grade on last week’s 2-0 prediction (it’s not great), and where we finished in year one. The full season recap is next week.Follow @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads and Facebook.🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaF🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272 Newsletter, blog, and more at https://www.5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC head coach Nick Cushing grades our inaugural NWSL season, and he won’t go higher than a C-plus. Before Sunday’s season finale at North Carolina, I sat down with the man who built this team from scratch to find out where he came from and where this club goes next.Most of you don’t know Nick’s road to Denver. He grew up in Chester, England, and his dad got him an Everton season ticket at three years old. He knew early he wasn’t good enough to play, so he started coaching kids instead. He talks about the coaches who shaped him and about later working alongside Guardiola at Manchester City. He also explains how leading City Women and then coaching in MLS prepared him for a league where, in his words, everybody attacks.Then we get into Denver. Nick describes the empty grass field he toured before taking the job, and the three-bucket recruiting plan behind this roster. He explains why landing Colorado players mattered so much. He tells me why he thinks Janine’s best years at left back are still ahead of her, and what Tash has to do next season to become the difference-maker he thinks she can be. He also shares the goal number he set for Lindsey Heaps the day she arrived.And yes, he gives the inaugural season a grade. He names the three things he says have to get fixed before 2027, tells me what he wants you to remember about year one, and describes his very Denver night at Red Rocks.If you like this episode, please hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with somebody. That’s genuinely the biggest thing you can do for an independent show like this, and it’s how more people find women’s soccer.📱 @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaF🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272🌐 https://www.5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC put six past Racing Louisville in the cold rain at Centennial Stadium, and now the NWSL playoff math is simple: we win at the North Carolina Courage on Decision Day, and we need Orlando to beat Seattle. That's the whole path. And those six goals gave us the goal-difference tiebreaker if it comes down to it.Louisville managed six shots all night, only one on target. Our back line, the group I've been hard on all season, kept them pinned in their own half. Kaleigh Kurtz scored her first goal in a Summit shirt off a Janine Sonis free kick, then set up the third goal with a long diagonal ball she and Yazmeen Ryan planned at halftime. And yes, she did the worm in the rain. You'll hear from Kaleigh, Tash Flint, and Nick Cushing from the postgame presser, including Nick on why Denver is the place to play in the NWSL.Then it's on to North Carolina: Ashley Sanchez sitting on 20 goals, why the first goal decides Courage games, my three keys, and my prediction for Sunday. Every Decision Day match kicks off at 3 p.m. Mountain on ESPN+.Check the playoff tracker one last time: https://5280pitch.com/playoff-trackerFollow @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads, and FacebookSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaFApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272Website: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC center back Megan Reid stepped away from soccer for four years before she ever played an NWSL minute.Before Denver, before Angel City, before the Canadian national team, Meg was a firefighter and paramedic. In this conversation she tells me why she walked away after her senior year at Virginia, what four years in fire and EMS taught her that soccer never could, and the one conversation at a firehouse table that sent her back to the game.It's a road with almost no shortcuts in it. A late college commitment. Getting cut in preseason. A phone call that came while she was about to pack up her car and go home. She also shares a connection to one of her current Denver Summit teammates that I had no idea about.If you think every pro got here on a straight line, this episode will change your mind.Follow @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads and Facebook.Newsletter and blog: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC led Angel City FC 2-0 after 18 minutes on Saturday, then gave up three goals in 11 minutes and lost 3-2, a brutal blow to our NWSL playoff hopes. And folks, it wasn’t a fluke. It’s the fourth two-goal lead we’ve let slip this season, and it’s cost us 20 points from winning positions. Hold every one of those leads and we’d have 58 points, three more than league-leading Gotham.I walk through how the 2-0 lead disappeared, from MK’s goal in the second minute and Lindsey Heaps’ volley in the 18th to Angel City’s three goals before halftime. You’ll hear from head coach Nick Cushing and captain Janine Sonis out of the postgame press conference. Separately, in their own words, they describe the exact same problem: the line drops against the direct ball, the team stretches, and we lose the second balls. Nick put it on himself, and he said this is the reason we’re 10th and not sixth, fifth or fourth.Then the playoff math. Denver Summit is 10th with 38 points and two games left. I ran all 729 remaining combinations of results for us, Portland, Seattle and North Carolina, and we get in on 21 of them. I lay out the three things that have to happen, why goal difference is on our side, and why Friday night’s games matter before we even kick off.Last, the Racing Louisville preview. That covers who they are right now, how we beat them back in May, my four keys to the game, and my score prediction for the last home match of our inaugural season. Come be loud at Centennial on Saturday.Follow @5280pitch on Instagram, Threads and FacebookSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaFApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272Playoff tracker, newsletter and merch: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC broke ground on its permanent stadium at Santa Fe Yards, and this NWSL milestone is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time. On Thursday, October 1st, I stood on the old Gates Rubber site off I-25 and Broadway with my microphone, and this episode is me mostly getting out of the way so you can hear the day from the people who made it happen.You’ll hear club president Jen Millet’s speech about women’s sports finally leaving borrowed venues behind, which is the line that gave me chills. You’ll also hear Mayor Mike Johnston calling it “a field of her own,” and controlling owner Rob Cohen on why this stadium is meant to set the standard for investing in women’s professional sports. Then the shovels go in the ground with our captains, Kaleigh Kurtz, Janine Sonis and Lindsey Heaps.I also spoke with Elizabeth Erfling, the Mortenson project executive running the build. She’s a Colorado kid like me who remembers when this site was an empty lot. We talk about who’s actually building this stadium, including Gratacon, a woman-owned general contractor out of Lakewood. You’ll get the facts that didn’t make it into the speeches too: 12,500 fixed seats, about 13,000 total with safe standing, a target completion at the end of 2028, and only the second stadium in the country built for a women’s pro soccer team.Plus, Janine and Eva Gaetino talk about what it means to finally have a home of their own, Lindsey explains what this would have meant to her as a little girl in Golden, and Jen explains why all of this is part of the pitch to players around the league.Angel City comes to Centennial on October 17th and Racing Louisville on October 24th, our last two home games of the season. Come be loud.Follow along on Instagram, Threads and Facebook @5280pitchSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaFApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272Newsletter and blog: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC beat Chicago 3-0, and the two biggest names on the roster played exactly like it. Janine Sonis has 12 goals and six assists from left back, Lindsey Heaps just scored twice, and the NWSL playoff line is still four points away. That's the push this episode is built to make sense of.Kate Hanson breaks down the most controlled win of the Summit's season, from Janine's 8th-minute strike from distance to Lindsey's brace and Abby Smith's 20th career shutout on her birthday, with postgame audio from Nick Cushing, Emma Regan, and Abby Smith.Also covered: the playoff math with three games left, a listener's stat on Denver with and without Lindsey on the field, why Devin Lynch and Lindsey are doing two different jobs, and the records this team has already set in year one. Plus the six Summit players headed out on international duty before Angel City comes to town on October 17th.Follow along on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook: @5280pitch🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jiBAbW0QXepwdqK0qhaaF🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5280-pitch-denver-summit-fc-podcast/id1859060272📩 Newsletter and playoff tracker: https://5280pitch.com

Denver Summit FC led 1-0 in Kansas City and Abby Smith had just saved a penalty shot. Then the NWSL's only unbeaten home team scored three goals in 22 minutes. That's the collapse this episode is trying to make sense of.Kate Hanson breaks down how a 4-1 loss at CPKC Stadium got away. We talk about the penalty save that flipped the momentum, Haley Hopkins' 18-minute hat trick, and why the high press that makes this team so fun to watch is also what got it beaten, with postgame audio from Nick Cushing and Janine Sonis.Also covered: the playoff math with four games left, Sunday's trip to Chicago, and Janine Sonis, Emma Regan, and Yuzuki Yamamoto's national team call-ups. Plus a Meg Reid vs. Eva Gaetino deep dive and the NWSL's newest name, Atlanta City FC.New episodes every week.Follow @5280pitch on Instagram, Facebook and ThreadsSign up for the newsletter at https://5280pitch.comCheck out the new hat: https://5280-pitch-shop.fourthwall.com/products/5280-rope-hat

Denver Summit FC can move into an NWSL playoff spot this weekend. It takes two results, and one of them is winning in a building where nobody has won all year.But first, Saturday night. An hour of monsoon rain, a Seattle team sitting right above us in the table, and a 2-0 lead that started to slip just three days after we let one get away against Bay. This time we held on. Seattle had one shot in the first half, and their own coach admitted we wanted it more. That's the team we are.I also get into the 47th minute. Sofia Huerta, Yaz Ryan, and a yellow card that I think should have been red. Plus what the rulebook actually says is the difference between the two.Then it's Kansas City. They're 8-4-0 at home, they beat us 3-0 in July, and Saturday morning is the biggest road game of our season. I've got my keys to the game, my prediction, and exactly what has to happen for the Summit to be sitting in eighth by Saturday night.New episodes every Tuesday.Follow @5280pitch on Instagram, Facebook and ThreadsSign up for the newsletter at 5280pitch.com