บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Denver Summit vs Boston Legacy | May 3 2026

hopefully we can share out some places that'll be showing that. I 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 our friends in Salt Lake and see if there's a spot we can meet up to watch that before the. whatever we're calling this mountain NWSL, it's RV. Matt: That's ⁓ so magnanimous of you. I figured it would be too soon for you to talk about or participate in. So kudos for repping the home squad. Hallie: We won it last year, it's okay. She can have a chance this year. And Oslo's 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. Frontier doesn't go to, I don't think Frontier goes to Norway, so. Matt: Just a little bit. hope you weren't flying spirit. ⁓ 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. those that ⁓ remembered or ⁓ about this before, the summit will be playing for the next two years at a twelve thousand five hundred seat temporary stadium. in Centennial near Dove Valley, where they will also have a women's purpose built training center they're finished with their time there when the Santa Fe Yards Permanent Stadium opens up. That city will be reverted to the Cherry Creek School System in 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 15000 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? Hallie: No, 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, 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 ⁓ college soccer ⁓ sort of ⁓ her interest in a professional soccer career kind of coming America and her interest in returning to the U.S. So that's on his Instagram. Matt: I'll definitely check that out. All right, 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. 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? Hallie: 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 and in the NWSL because parody is the they like to tell 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 are not in my stomach thinking about it. And unfortunately, it did come true. But ⁓ 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 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 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 him and gave up a two goal lead, which, you know. is something we're slightly familiar with here and ultimately tied. But yeah, think Boston has, I think, an underrated front line. They have a lot of international players that are really fast and physical. And I we saw that and I think it contributed to some of the ⁓ choppiness of game. But we did, 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. think that was a big relief to her and nice for Denver to see someone else get on the score sheet for once. Matt: Yeah, that was a hell of a goal to break the dam on. was just like bangers only. Hallie: Yeah, it was sort of the theme of the day. Denver only really found the goal ⁓ when they shot from outside the box. ⁓ the box was a little bit of a challenge. And unfortunately in the 44th minute, Michelle Prince for Boston and ⁓ Denver went the locker room 1-1. I think there's kind of two on this ⁓ half. I'd say the neutral and non-Denver view on this game is Denver was lucky to in it ⁓ at 1-1. 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. Cause 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 the final pass and the final cross just wasn't quite there. What was your vibe at halftime Matt? Matt: So I admittedly didn't get into this game until around the 23rd minute because I fell prey to the, I have Paramount Plus. That obviously means I have CBS Sports Network, but no, that is not true. So rookie mistake on my end. ⁓ 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. ⁓ love that goal from Yasmin, but I feel super confident going into the half about this one. Hallie: Yeah, for sure. Second half, I 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 ⁓ the first time in a while in for Curse and Picket. I was waiting to see what this sub was gonna mean, but essentially ⁓ IO dropped into right back and Janine ended up moving over to ⁓ back, marked against her fellow Canadian in Prince. And then... Olivia Thomas came in for Yasmeen 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 ⁓ like within seconds of that sub, Tosh finds the go-ahead goal. Basically steals the ball off her own teammate. I don't know if Liv Thomas... ⁓ intended for that assist, but it worked out well. 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 ⁓ and thought, you know, she had a window there to hit it. But Tosh's answer was she was so mad about the loss that she didn't remember her goal. So she couldn't really comment on what there. But yeah, I think at this point, you know, you're sitting there with a 2-1. lead. You're like hoping they could hang on after seeing what happened against San Diego. You know at this point like Boston had 14 shots from inside the box, only had five. ⁓ Just really making those connections in the opponent's box. But fortunately 90th minute comes around, Summit starts to 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 know, 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 open on the left side of the field there. It seems like all the summit players got a little dragged over and ⁓ yeah, 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. was your gut reaction there, Matt? Matt: Yeah, I felt like the scene in Lost where Jack's like, have to go back, Kate, we have to go back. Like, I never thought I'd want those zero zero draws, 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 table, you'd like those two points, but from a... Hallie: Yeah. Yeah, a little too vulnerable, yeah. Matt: a casual and from from a fan standpoint, I 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 postgame, I think has brought up last postgame. 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 with San Diego when that occurred, they didn't come out with the same kind of control and fire that they did of 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 is just a backbreaker. One of my positional concerns I want to talk to you about is ⁓ really enjoy ⁓ know, McCormick, I was glad to see her back in the lineup. Then when we make those subs, we bring on Ali Brazier wing, which puts over to the ⁓ left and IO to the right. ⁓ I don't ⁓ 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 try right to come in with a head full of steam and and cause problems and the the entire back line to get caught out like that last goal. Hallie: Yeah, I think like I can rationalize the decisions in a vacuum. know, like I think Janine's very familiar with Prince. It goes against her in ⁓ 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 probably a challenge. Brazier had some good chances. ⁓ could not quite get them on frame this game, which was a bit of a bummer. think she's been eager to get out there and, you know, similar to Yasmeen, I 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. 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. I think there's still something to figure out on the midfield side. You know, ultimately defense is the last one standing, you know, besides Abby and goal. And I do think despite the scoreline, Abby had some saves that ⁓ kept 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, you 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, saw a scoreline of 3-2 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. Matt: totally with you on that one. know the defense is going to get the guff for that, but I 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 either launch it straight up the flanks ⁓ or 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, 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, think it's just going to tuck out the team and then let them be a sieve kind of at the end of games like we saw 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 there's still the best and what was the worst team and WSL in the last two weeks between the Wave and Boston Legacy. Hallie: the NWSL, baby. But yeah, any team can beat anyone. I don't think this is necessarily representative of like the status of each expansion team. And you know, what Nick talked about, we'll get a little bit to the post game, but you know, Boston kind of had nothing to lose. Like they got no points on the board, they have a home game. You know, 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 but 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 Nick's trying to get these relationships to click and and getting players kind of used to each other and and hopefully that eventually pays off but yeah just it like 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. Matt: 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, had taken a, it looked like an ankle knock, in, training the week ahead of this match. And she, suited up, and ⁓ good that. so great performances to see both of them in the starting lineup after those injury concerns. Hallie: Yeah, pretty much a fully healthy squad outside of Jasmine Anki 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 ⁓ 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 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 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. 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 they need to learn from it. Janine said, ⁓ 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 ⁓ got 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 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 was to bring energy and ⁓ bring ⁓ 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 ⁓ 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 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 to flip the momentum of the season. Matt: 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 and she uses some color for language. She's like, ⁓ my, look like, but Janine, you look like and like you 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 scoff. I thought it was really fun to see that that relationship there. Hallie: Yeah, and then they get told it's not recording yet, which was not true. But yeah, that was a funny human moment. ⁓ Matt: Yeah, we'll never tell. I thought that was a really good point what Nick said about the midweek game. Usually you hear coaches take that as an excuse 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. Hallie: Yeah, I'm not on the out train. saw some ⁓ online of some folks that are... There's some people calling for ⁓ Nick be fired already, which I think is a little rash. So guys, hang with it a little bit longer. ⁓ Matt: There's a Nick out train? I was not aware of that. we're seven games in. Okay. That's like some true Euroleague coaching tenure talk right there. Hallie: Yeah, I mean, yeah. He's got to last longer than Armis last in Kansas City, right? That's the... ⁓ Yeah. Next up, summit travel to Houston ⁓ this week, hopefully with some better weather than Houston had last week for ⁓ Seattle. That was a... Matt: soon. Hallie: 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. I 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 and Zaleni, obviously, to Denver a few weeks ago. You 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 gonna come back and bite us. We have a ton of midweeks on the second half of the season. But we'll have Lindsey by then and hopefully they'll be fine. Matt: but to be. To be fair, think most of those midweeks are backloaded home matches too. So it does help a little bit. Hallie: ⁓ for sure. It's just a very weird, especially if you're playing fantasy, though, like, the match weeks are, 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 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, Yeah, yeah. ⁓ The important things. Matt: Always remember in the bottom line. Hallie: But yeah, we have a lot of former Houston players. Abby Smith used to play for Houston. I'm hoping, you know, those former Houston players are out to prove something. I'd say Houston's player to watch, Kalyssa 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, 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. You gotta... Matt: Yeah,

I 100 % agree. Go ahead. Hallie: Now go ahead. Matt: 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 shouts then we got that matchup with, with Yasmin ⁓ and Van Santen and even Mimi brought up that, ⁓ she had heard about Yaz from, from her sister, from, the Houston days. So there's a lot of ⁓ shared and relationships going around these NW Soul matchups. And I'm, really looking forward to this one. Hallie: You have a score production you're ready to give, Matt? Matt: ⁓ we're on the score predictions now? Oof. Hallie: I'll go three, one, ⁓ Denver. almost went three, two, but I'm hoping the defense bucks up a little bit. And I think Houston's ⁓ not as potent as some of the other teams. Hopefully this doesn't come back ⁓ to 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, we get our most goals in one match so far. Matt: I can't believe I'm going go with the more conservative score prediction. I'm going a two zero. think judging from Janine's reaction last game to those defensive leaks ⁓ and ⁓ 90th 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 save of the week. in that match against against Boston Legacy. clearly the shot stopping hasn't gone anywhere. So I think if the defense kind coordinates a little bit more in front of her, they got with a clean sheet. ⁓ I Yasmin and I got to add Tosh to this one again, because she's had a goal a game per contract or ever since she signed that contract. And I think if anyone's going to score on Houston, it's going to be Yas. ⁓ So Did you pick goal scorers? Hallie: I didn't give my goal scorers. 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. Matt: That'd be cool, I do, and I definitely wouldn't be mad at it, but spoiler alert for next week. My storyline there is the, the Ali Brazier revenge game. Yeah. Hallie: The Orlando revenge game. Fair. Matt: So anything that fuels the fire to get these wins before the break. Hallie: You Yeah, and I'll put Van Zetten as the Houston goal scorer just because she is their leading scorer so far this season. But just one, she only gets one. Matt: Any other? Alright, well, any final thoughts? Hallie: No, hopefully on the up. I 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 some points on the board. check us out on socials at SummitUpShow on Instagram and at SummitUp on Blue Sky. till next time, it up. Matt: Sum it up.