Full Transcript for SUMMIT UP | Boston Legacy Recap + Houston Dash Preview [S26E06]

just gonna say, hopefully we can share out some places that'll be showing that. believe 99ers opened last year for the Women's Champions League final. I was in Lisbon, so I wasn't here, but we can confirm with 99ers that they're planning to open for that match. And then if anyone like me is headed to Salt Lake City that day, I'm gonna try and get in touch with our friends in Salt Lake and see if there's a spot we can meet up to watch that before the, whatever we're called on this mountain NWSL derby. speaker-1: That's ⁓ so magnanimous of you. figured it would be too soon for you to talk about or participate in, speaker-0: I it last year. okay. She can have a chance this year. And Oslo is expensive, so I'm saving some money. The Salt Lake City trip should be a little bit cheaper than the Oslo trip would have been. speaker-1: Just a little bit. speaker-0: I don't think Frontier goes to Norway. speaker-1: All right, well, as of two days ago, the sod had been laid at the common spirit performance center down in Centennial. This is welcome news for a timeline that features the summit returning from the world cup break for their first home game back and in their freshly built two year temporary stadium. For those that haven't remembered or heard about this before the summit will be playing for the next two years at a 12,500 seat temporary stadium. In Centennial near Dove Valley, where they will also have a women's purpose-built training center after they're finished with their time there when the Santa Fe Yards Permanent Stadium opens up. That stadium will be reverted to the Cherry Creek School System and a really cool public-private partnership that's going to benefit a lot of soccer players in South Denver. Speaking of timelines, Carson Pickett hit a massive 15,000 regular season minutes played last weekend. Kudos to the Lauren Holliday Award nominee on yet another accolade announced last week. Any other news on your radar? speaker-0: I will say there was a couple stories floating around with Carson meeting young kids with limb differences in the Colorado community I think at both home games so far So if you haven't seen those news hits that you should I will say also there was a cool story That Nick Rothschild did on Melissa Costler and kind of how she ended up at UMass for for college soccer and sort of revitalized her interest in a professional soccer career, kind of coming to America, and her interest in returning to the U.S. So that's on his Instagram. speaker-1: Nice. I'll definitely check that out. Moving on, we saw the battle of the expansion teams in Boston. Boston was winless coming into this game, but did pick up their first point midweek versus North Carolina Courage. I think a lot of Denver fans assume this would be a fairly automatic win for Denver, but as derbies go, even expansion ones, you got to play the full 95 minutes as it would seem. So let's talk about them. What do you think, Haley? speaker-0: Yeah, I saw there was like this ominous, I don't know if you've seen the circle of parody. So every year in the NWSL, someone does this like full circle of when every team has beaten somebody and you can like complete this full circle of parody in the NWSL because parody is the word they like to tout around. And I saw going into this game that if Boston beat Denver, it would be like the earliest completion of the circle of parody. That I'm not in my stomach thinking about it and unfortunately. It did come true, in terms of how we got there, Nick reverted back to his kind of standard lineup with a healthy Gaetano, starting at right center back for Megan Reed, and Yuna came back in at right midfield. I think we've seen a fairly predictable lineup for Nick so far this season. And I think for folks who haven't been following Boston and just kind of saw that they were winless, maybe weren't really looking at some of what they had been producing and some of their stats. They played Chicago and they lost 2-0, but they had 28 shots and like an XG of four. So they just weren't finding the back of the net, but they were certainly generating a lot of opportunities. Like you said, Matt, they did get a draw against North Carolina. They put two goals past them and gave up a two goal lead, which is something we're slightly familiar with here and ultimately tied. But yeah, think Boston has, I think, an underrated They have a lot of international players that are really fast and physical. And I think we saw that and I think it contributed to some of the choppiness of this game. But we did, you know, we started out with a Denver Summit goal a little bit against maybe the run of play. Yasmin Ryan finally got her first Summit goal in the 18th minute. Rocket outside the box. I think that was a big relief to her and nice for Denver to see someone else get on the score sheet for once. speaker-1: Yeah, that was a hell of a goal to break the dam on. was just like bangers only. Yeah. speaker-0: It was sort of the theme of the day. Denver only really found the goal when they shot from outside the box. Inside the box was a little bit of a challenge. And then unfortunately in the 44th minute, Michelle Prince equalized for Boston and Denver went into the locker room 1-1. I think there's kind of two viewpoints on this half. I'd say like the neutral and non-Denver view on this game is Denver was lucky to be in it at one. Boston had 12 shots and six on target in the first half. with an XG, which is expected goals of 2.16. And Denver only had four shots, one on target and an XG of 0.25. So, you know, I think felt a bit lucky statistically to be in there 1-1, but I think when you give up a goal in the 44th minute right before halftime, you never feel good about that because, you know, you probably should have held on. And I think that's, you know, what Janine's view and the view from the locker room was, is, you know, they should have gone into halftime with a little bit more of a lead there. They had some other

chances. They could have put away not necessarily big chances. I think they were getting in the box, but the final pass and the final cross just wasn't quite there. What was your vibe at halftime, Matt? speaker-1: So I admittedly didn't get into this game until around the third minute because I fell prey to the F Paramount Plus that obviously means I have CBS Sports Network, but no, that is not true. So rookie mistake on my end. I did end up getting into the game, but ⁓ not until halfway through that first half. for me, it just looked like a team that maybe was a little bit tired, maybe a little bit injured, maybe... without some solutions. I love that goal from, from Yasmin, but I didn't feel super confident going into the half about this one. speaker-0: Yeah, for sure. Second half, think, started fairly even. Boston controlled it a little more, although I will say that just like didn't feel like a game where either team was having long stretches of possession. It was a bit choppy, ⁓ bouncing around a lot of duels. ⁓ But we did see some of the earliest subs I think we've seen from Nick Cushing. Emma Regan came on for Delaney Sheehan. Io came in for Yuna in the 57th minute. And then about nine, 10 minutes later, we get Allie Brazier with some meaningful minutes for the first time in a while in for Kirsten Pickett. I was waiting to see what this sub was going to mean, but essentially, IO dropped into right back and Janine ended up moving over to left back, marked up against her fellow Canadian in Prince. And then Olivia Thomas came in for Yasmine Ryan. So the goal scorer exits the field, but Olivia Thomas kind of. you know, getting at least a half hour on the field instead of some garbage minutes. So I thought that was good. I thought she did well. And then a little bit later, Natalie Means comes in. She's the last sub for Denver, the 77th minute. like literally within seconds of that sub, Tosh finds the go-ahead goal. Basically steals the ball off her own teammate. don't know if Liv Thomas intended for that assist, but it worked out well. Someone tried to ask Tosh in the post game, you know, what her, what she saw on that goal. My guess is that she sort of saw the keeper. out and thought, you know, she had a window there to hit it. Natasha's answer was she was so mad about the loss that she didn't remember her goals. So she couldn't really comment on what happened. But yeah, I think at this point, you know, you're sitting there with a 2-1 lead. You're like hoping they can hang on after seeing what happened against San Diego. You know, at this point, like Boston had 14 shots from inside the box. Some had only had five. Just wasn't really making those connections in the opponent's box. Fortunately, 90th minute comes around. Summit starts to lose a bit of steam there, and Traore has a pretty nice goal, I'd say, for Boston. You know, don't want her to get that chance, I believe. You kind of a spin, half volley type hit in the 90th minute, and you're

all tied up, thinking maybe you can hold on for a point. And then Bianca St. George in the 94th minute, just like wide, wide, wide open on the left side of the field there. It seems like all the Summit players got a little dragged over and... Yeah, made it fairly easy for her. And Boston kind of steals the win 3-2, which I think was a heartbreaker, especially after last weekend's for both the players and for Nick. What was your gut reaction there, Matt? speaker-1: Yeah, it's I felt like the the scene in Lost where Jack's like we have to go back Kate We have to go back like I never thought I'd want those zero zero draws the those back-to-backs Because it seems like we either let in zero goals while scoring zero goals or when we score goals. We also let in three which I mean on the on the table you'd like those two points, but from a speaker-0: Too vulnerable. speaker-1: a casual and from a fan standpoint, do think these five goal games are much more entertaining. This one, I was curious on your take for this because I think it's twofold that that downfall at the end of the game, 90th and 95th minutes goes back to the trend we've seen. Janine has brought up, I think she brought it up in this post game, I think it was brought up last post game. Nick has brought this up in training that this has to be a 95 minute squad and It seems maybe the honeymoon period is over and the attrition is starting to hit where they don't have the energy or the cohesion to last whistle to whistle. And so we kind of saw the second half of San Diego when that occurred, they didn't come out with the same kind of control and fire that they did have the first half. And then in this one where all they needed to do was just hold on. that to get those two goals at the death, it's just a backbreaker. One of my positional concerns I want to talk to you about is first, I really enjoy Yuna McCormick. was glad to see her back in the lineup. And then when we make those subs, we bring on Allie Brazier at wing, which puts Janine over to the left and then Io to the right. I don't particularly like switching sides on defensive subs. I know Some coaches tend to do this with their fullbacks more often than not. But I think our versatility here came back to bite us. I think once you get to the 90th game, and this is something we talked about with Janine specifically after the mile high game, it's the idea of injecting new energy, fresh legs into the match versus the well- ironed out lanes and half spaces that the defense has become so locked into. So I think when you, you mix something up, like bringing Io in at wing and then putting her at right back, which forces Janine over to, to left back, I just worry that it messes with the chemistry and makes it super easy for like Triorade to come in with a head full of steam and cause problems and the entire back line to get called out like that last goal. speaker-0: Yeah, I think like I can rationalize the decisions in a vacuum. You know, I think

Janine's very familiar with Prince. It goes against her in Canadian camp. I feel a bit for Io who, you know, gets asked to come in at right midfield and within 10 minutes she's changing positions and adjusting to a game. And, you know, she's a young player who's still trying to find some consistency. So I think that's that's probably a challenge. Brazier had some good chances, could not quite get them on frame this game, which was a bit of a bummer. I think she's been eager to get out there and, you know, similar to Yasmeen, think, is just like waiting for that first one to go in. And, you know, if she does, obviously, I think it's a different game. But yeah, I think for me, you know, I think the general, you know, you have a loss like this and the internet starts to lose its head a bit, which I find amusing a little bit. I think a lot of people are going for the defense. I don't necessarily blame this all on the defense. think the If you watch the Boston midfield, they like literally pass the ball straight up through the center of the field around our midfielders. So I think there's still something to figure out on the midfield side. Ultimately, defense is the last one standing besides Abbey and Goal. And I do think despite the scoreline, Abbey had some saves that kept them in this game. But I just don't think we're possessing out of midfields. I think we're losing the ball in midfield and we're not able to kind of win it back. Hopefully Lindsay fixes some of that. think maybe Yuzuki, know, when she starts to get some more minutes is a more kind of possession driven player. I think you just need some players who can actually like progress the ball through the middle and find feet, not find Boston's feet. But yeah, I mean, I think like if you didn't watch this game, you saw a scoreline of three, two, and you saw some of the stats behind it and the shots, I think you'd say like that seems like a fair, a fairly representative scoreline. But I think with the way that the momentum went in the game and for how hard Denver battled to stay in it as long as they did. It definitely feels like a much more heartbreaking and maybe more lopsided loss than it really was when you look at those last five minutes. speaker-1: I'm totally with you on that one. know the defense is going to get the guff for that, but I do think we need to sort out this midfield. What I think both of us have talked about, we've seen a lot from the attacking measures the team takes is to really just get it out wide and then either launch it straight up the flanks or try to hit Tosh or Melissa on a diagonal and basically just skip over the entire two to three positions in the midfield. We do have a lot of youth there. have Devin, we have Delaney, who, is a early season trade. So that's one of the, position groups that's specifically hard to meld with. But until we start finding solutions to control possession in the midfield and advance the ball in a threatening manner through the midfield, I think it's, it's just going to tuck her out the team and then let them be a sieve kind of at the end of games. Like we saw with, with that ball moment you were talking about from Boston. I do think it's funny that we have now both had the lead and lost to the, I think they're still the best and what was the worst team and, and WSL in the last two weeks between the wave and Boston legacy. speaker-0: It's the NWSL, baby. But yeah, any team can beat anyone. I don't think this is necessarily representative of the status of each expansion team. And what Nick talked about, we'll get a little bit to the postgame. But Boston had nothing to lose. They got no points on the board. They have a home game. Just kind of go for it. And I don't know that Denver has like. played with that sort of like freedom and looseness and not that I don't know that it would totally benefit them if they did. like, you know, I think like Denver's approached it more cautiously. You know, you're seeing a lot of repetitive lineups. I know that's because Nick's trying to get these relationships to click and getting players kind of used to each other. And hopefully that eventually pays off. But yeah, it just felt like we were down a player even though we weren't. It's like you're in the attacking box and you're somehow outnumbered. You're in your defensive box and you feel outnumbered. So yeah, think we just couldn't get, I think it was a very transitional game and we couldn't get all of our players kind of up and down the field with each play. speaker-1: A couple of silver linings at doing a point out. Great to see Ava back in the starting lineup. We saw her training proceeding this match. She talked about the injury and the desire to be back. And then also Melissa Costler had taken a, looked like an ankle knot in training the week ahead of this match and she suited up and good on that. So great performance to see both of them in the starting lineup after those injury concerns. speaker-0: Yeah, pretty much a fully healthy squad outside of Jasmine Inkey now. So more players available to make Nick's life difficult in sort of choosing those lineups. These last few games before, you know, they'll get that World's Cup break and hopefully be on the training pitch, kind of making those connections and working with each other. But yeah, let's move on to the post-game press conference. We got to talk to Janine and Tosh. As I said earlier, Tosh did not remember her goal because she was so pissed. ⁓ I think Janine showed some visible frustration as well. You blow those games and you have to face the media 15 minutes later after what I'm sure was a somber locker room experience. I asked Janine about, she was on the right, she was on the left, kind of got different perspectives of what that Boston front line looked like. And she said, they're a fast and a physical front line. What I thought was interesting in terms of how Boston managed the midweek game is that some of their Typical

starters actually were on the bench against Denver and kind of came in in those last 20 minutes, which is when they nicked the two goals that led them to victory. So, you know, she mentioned that they brought on, you know, players maybe in a different order than they were expecting. And some of those starters that kind of came on towards the end gave them a bit of a lift and that, you know, we weren't just able, we weren't able to kind of match that intensity and energy that late in the game and that, you know, they need to learn from it. know, Jeanine said, you know, we're being tested and this is a challenging time, but we're doing enough, we're creating enough. It's frustrating, but we have to rise to the challenge and we have to get back to the training pitch. It only gets more difficult from here. And ultimately consistency is the goal across a long season, but you you got to start somewhere. And then I asked Nick about the early subs, not something he's necessarily known for doing. You know, he said he noticed a lack of intensity. They weren't winning enough tackles. They were kind of late to positions. They just weren't at it. You know, he has to figure out. It's his job to figure out why and figure out the game management piece. But, you know, his ask of the subs is to bring energy and bring intensity to this game, try and win those duels, try and recover in your positioning. You know, he said that it looked like Denver was the one that had the midweek game and not the extra few days off. Meanwhile, Boston was a bit fresher having had the midweek game. So yeah, I think it's interesting, you know, the altitude, everyone thinks that Denver should be carrying more fitness and whatever than other teams, but I don't know that we've seen that. evidence of that in these last couple games yet. ⁓ And yeah, Nick was asked about just like lack of control and lack of possession, very patchy possession throughout the game. And, you know, he said that's something they still need to figure out ⁓ and that these are painful moments and it's kind of up to the team to turn them into something powerful and kind of use it as motivation and start to flip the momentum of the season. speaker-1: On the note of the post game, there is a bit of an Easter egg in the media assets that came out from the team. That was really funny. Tosh and Janine are squared up in the camera for the zoom and Tosh is like looking, she uses some color for language. She's like, ⁓ my, look like, ⁓ but Janine, you look like, and like, could tell like Tosh was about to give Janine a compliment, but Janine was just like so locked in as the captain of a team that just gave up the lead ready for this breast cough. I thought it was really fun to see that relationship there. speaker-0: They get told it's not recording yet, which was not true. But yeah, that was a funny human moment. speaker-1: Yeah, we'll never tell. But I thought that was a really good point, what Nick said about the midweek game. Usually you hear coaches take that as an excuse to say like, ⁓ we had less time to prepare. We had a higher fixture congestion. But Nick was like, no, we didn't even have that excuse. Like, there's no reason we should have looked like that. They are the ones that had the midweek game. So taking ownership of that, I think all three of them in that press conference did. speaker-0: Yeah, I'm not on the Nick out train. saw some posts online of some folks that are... There's some people calling for Nick to be fired already, which I think is a little rash. So guys, hang with it a little bit longer. speaker-1: There's a Nick Alton I was not aware of that. we're, seven games in. Okay. Yeah. It's like some true Euro league coaching tenure talk right there. speaker-0: He's got to last longer than Armis last in Kansas City, right? That's the... ⁓ speaker-1: Too soon. speaker-0: Yeah. Next up, Summit travel to Houston away this week, hopefully with some better weather than Houston had last week for Seattle. That was a downpour and a storm system I wouldn't look forward to sitting to if I was a fan. ⁓ Houston's having a pretty decent start. think they've been towards the bottom of the league the last couple of years, been close to some playoff spots and stretches, but haven't quite figured it out. You know, they lost Yasmine Anzaleni, obviously to Denver a few weeks ago. know, but I think Fabrice got NWSL Coach of the Month, I believe, for last year. They're on a slight slide right now. They had a loss to North Carolina and a draw to Seattle. So hoping Denver can make the most of that. They do have a midweek game against Utah, and Denver once again gets a midweek rest. So we'll see how they handle it this time. That's all going to come back and bite us. We have a ton of midweeks on the second half of the season. But, ⁓ We'll have Lindsay buy that and hopefully they'll be fine. speaker-1: To be fair, think most of those midweeks are backloaded home matches too. speaker-0: ⁓ for sure. It's a very weird, ⁓ especially if you're playing fantasy, though, like, the match weeks are like off. Just like some teams will have played like two more games, three more games than other teams for a while. So looking at the table with the games in hand and picking your fantasy players when some have two games and some have one game is a challenge for us folks here this season. But, ⁓ speaker-1: Always remembering the bottom line. speaker-0: Yeah, important things. But yeah, we have a lot of former Houston players. Abby Smith used to play for Houston. I'm hoping those former Houston players are out to prove something. I'd say Houston's player to watch, Kalissa Van Senten. She's got four goals, typically plays on the left wing. So I assume she'll be matching up with Janine Sonis. Used to play at Notre Dame with Ava Gaetano. So maybe Ava can watch her over on that side as well and try to neutralize some of her threats. ⁓ But you know, I think these are two teams in the

middle of the table. I'd like to see Summit go for it and obviously get a win and kind of break this little slide that they've been on. speaker-1: Yeah, I 100 % agree. Go ahead. speaker-0: Now go ahead. speaker-1: I was gonna say, I think you've got to make a statement here. Like even having had five of our matches on the road so far and two at home, we need to get in a way one in the bag and then come back for this home game against the pride. I definitely buy into the revenge game theory. So I'm expecting big games from, from Yaz, from Delaney. I love that Abby Smith shout. ⁓ and we, we got that match up with, with Yasmin and Mimi Van Santen and even Mimi brought up that, ⁓ she had heard about Yas from, from her sister, from, from the Houston days. So there's a lot of shared knowledge and relationships going around these NW Soul matchups. And I'm, I'm really looking forward to this one. speaker-0: You have a score prediction you're ready to give, Matt? speaker-1: We're on the score predictions now? Oof. speaker-0: I'll go 3-1 Denver. I almost went 3-2, but I'm hoping the defense bucks up a little bit. And I think Houston's not been as potent as some of other teams. Hopefully this doesn't come back to haunt me, but I'll give them one goal. But I'm going to hope that our offense is clicking and we get three goals again like we did. Or no, we haven't been able to put three. So three goals. get our most goals in one match so far. speaker-1: I can't believe I'm going go with the more conservative score prediction. I'm going a two zero. I think judging from Janine's reaction last game to those defensive leaks and the 90th and 95th minute, I think that's going to be a huge point of focus this week in training. And I think they're going to want to get for themselves and also for Abby Smith, the clean sheet back. I think we didn't point this out with the last game, but Abby had the second best save of the week in that match against. against Boston legacy. So clearly the shot stopping hasn't gone anywhere. So I think if the defense kind of coordinates a little bit more in front of her, they got with a clean sheet. I think Yasmin and I got to add Tosh to this one again, cause she's had a goal, a game per, per contract or ever since she signed that contract. And then I think if anyone's going to score on Houston, it's going to be as a two zero. Did you pick goal scores? speaker-0: I didn't get 3, 1. I'll give Yaz a revenge goal. I'll give Costler a goal. And then I'm going to say Brazier comes on and finally puts one in the back of the net there to open her summit scoring campaign. speaker-1: That'd be cool, I just, and I definitely wouldn't be mad at it, but spoiler alert for next week. My storyline there is the, Alie Brazier Revenge Game. So anything that fuels the fire to get these wins before the break. speaker-0: Yeah, and I'll put Namsan as the Houston goal scorer just because she is their leading scorer so far this season. But just one. She only gets one. speaker-1: Alright, well, any final thoughts? speaker-0: No, hopefully on the up. think I said I wanted nine more points before the world's cup break and we're running out of games. So help me out here, Nick, and get some points on the Check us out on socials at summit up show on Instagram and at summit up on blue sky. Till next time, summit up. up. Summit up is part of the banger ring soccer community telling soccer stories a mile in the sky and straight on till morning. Check out our Colorado rapids sibling show, PID cast. and our soccer conversation series in Tarot Bang. Most importantly, we aim to be a collective human soccer show for community-minded soccer humans. So do your best corner flag side right into our DMs.