Denver, Colo.- Saturday was history making. It was 991 days in the making. It was a vibe. Denver Summit FC hosted their first ever home game at Mile High Stadium against Washington Spirit. 63,004 fans finally got to see their team play in person, and against one of the top teams in the NWSL.
Nick Cushing kept the same lineup that won at Gotham midweek. Eva Gaetino was questionable with a leg injury and not in the squad. Captain Janine Sonis started at right back.
For the visiting Spirit, they rotated in midfield. Star striker Trinity Rodman was up top.
The first half was a tight affair with big but spread out attacking moments. It was a chippy battle in midfield for possession. The center backs minimized space in behind for the forwards, especially Rodman and Melissa Kössler. Both teams pressed well, with Tash Flint leading the way for Summit.
With Spirit doing well and being compact, chances for the home side fell to Yazmeen Ryan. Her best opportunity came in the 23rd. She played a one two with Flint and shot wide of the far post. The best half of the chance was created by Rodman in the 14th, but goalkeeper Abby Smith made the save.
The half ended 0-0.
The second half was begging for a goal to open things up. Megan Reid had a volley at the back post on a set piece that went wide. Kössler had a glancing header on a corner.
In the 57th, Flint had some nice work to curl the ball near post. The ball went wide, off the ad board, off goalkeeper Sandy MacIver, then the post. For Spirit, Rodman had a bunch of near chances. The most threatening one was in the 70th when she went 1-v-1 on Kaleigh Kurtz. Kurtz blocked the shot.
Both teams seemed gassed in the final 15. Summit aren’t yet attuned to altitude. Cushing didn’t make a sub till the 75th, Natalie Means on for Yuna McCormack.
It could have been a storybook ending for Colorado Springs native Ally Brazier. Olivia Thomas won the ball and midfield, playing the fellow substitute in behind. Brazier took the ball wide and shot, but it was right at the keeper. The crowd in the south stand tried to will the ball into the net.
Hal Hershfelt could have won it for Spirit in the final minute, but her shot was high and wide.
The match ended scoreless. The crowd gave a standing ovation at full-time.
Players from both teams showed gratitude for the day, the support and the experience. Summit captain Janine Sonis thought the team did well to manage the emotions and stay locked in:
“I truly didn’t believe that this was something that was going to happen in my career. I’m just so grateful to be here. It was a tough balance to manage the emotions. I will never forget walking out of that tunnel today and hearing the crowd screaming for us.”
“At one point during the game, when everybody was stomping their feet, it was like a giant rumble. It’s intoxicating. Our supporters group behind us, cheering the whole time. It felt like we had 15 people on the field,” added goalkeeper Smith.
The single-game NWSL attendance record: 63,0004!
On some level, even before kickoff, this game was already a win for Denver, Colorado, soccer, and the club. They knew weeks ago they were going to break the NWSL single-game attendance record of 40,091. It was just a matter of by how much. Breaking the record by nearly 23,000 was huge.
NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said this was a watershed moment for the league:
“It has spurred a whole bunch of fun and productive conversations among other clubs to say, ‘maybe we should look at playing a game or two in a bigger building in our city and maybe we could break their (Summit’s) record.’ We welcome that kind of banter and competition amongst our owners.”
Opening up the 500s level starting at $20 was a great gesture to the community. Hopefully this day, despite a chippy scoreless draw, will bring the fanbase together. Fans who don’t have tickets for another game will surely be back.
There absolutely was a little girl in the crowd today that will play in NWSL one day. Summit President Jenn Millet joked in the press box that there’s a bunch of boys there too who now want their first women’s team jersey.
Surviving a tough four games:
Yeah, it was a draw. Yeah, the crowd had fun doing the wave when there was a lull in play. We’ll never get to hear how loud 63,004 people react to a goal that didn’t come.
Still, this was a tough start to an expansion season. Three road games against good teams. Rodman and the Spirit in your first home game. Given Summit had a red card in their debut match at Bay FC, 5 points from these 4 games is a good start. Even more so, they’ve played fun soccer and dominated at times.
“We want to be a team that creates really exciting chances in the final third. Three games in a week is tough. For large spells of the game, we had some good passages in play,” said Sonis.
This is a good omen for the start of the year.
Avoiding NWSL tradition:
Funny enough, it’s really common for home teams to lose games like these in NWSL. A draw was a fair result on the eye test. FotMob had the expected goals at 1.23 for Denver and 0.36 for Spirit. Shots on goal were 1-1. The best chance was that Ryan shot in the first half that went wide.
“I’m really proud of the performance. I’m really proud to be part of this. But I can’t believe we played out 0-0. At least score one! It’s (still) really positive,” said Cushing. “We didn’t score but we had the best four chances of the game. We limited Washington.”
At 0-0, it very well could have been a Rodman goal in stoppage time for 0-1 loss. Summit did well to limit her. The game was very transitional. Summit did well to get a result. The schedule gets easier now, albeit with more road matches.
Their next match is at Seattle Reign on April 4 at 6:45 p.m. MT.
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John Babiak 
Katherine Ammon 
Nick Cushing not substituting liberally and waiting so long to finally make subs was malpractice. The women were hot, dragging, and no subs.