Commerce City, Colo. – Denver Summit have had a decent, acceptable expansion season so far. But there have been games against the top teams in NWSL, they’ve been out of it. On Friday night, they returned to play after being off all July for the FIFA Men’s World Cup. Defending Shield champions KC Current were in town. One team looked new and somehow also rusty. The other team looked like they had a game last week to shake off that rust.
There were no lineups surprises for Denver Summit. Lindsey Heaps was not available, with the international transfer window not open till July 14. She was in the building. Tash Flint was still out with the rib injury. Devin Lynch and Emma Ragen were in the double pivot. Captain Janine Sonis and Carson Pickett were on the left flank.
For Current, defending MVP (or rather TEMVP) Temwa Chawinga started on the left. For the Rapids fans in attendance, it was former manager Chris Armas’ first time returning to Commerce City. He had a nice chat with Nick Cushing pregame. Armas is on the red side of both the Hudson River Derby and Manchester Derby
Summit lived dangerously on the night. It made for an exciting and nervous game. The fullbacks pushed up into the attack, especially Carson Pickett, leaving space in behind.
Eleven minutes in, a back pass caught Abby Smith off guard. She had to clear a ball off the line with a yard to spare. In the 35th minute, Michelle Cooper was played in on goal. She beat Smith to open the scoring.
Things nearly went from bad to worse a minute later when Eva Gaetino pulled Chawinga down in the box and got a yellow card. Number ten Lo’eau LaBonta skied the penalty to take her off the hook.
Chewinga had back-to-back chances in the 28th that were saved by Smith, who came well out her goal. Kaleigh Kurtz blocked the follow up. That wasn’t her only look on goal. Smith made a great save on Croix Bethune at the end of the half.
Summit were more organized in the second half. Delanie Sheehan and Yuzuki Yamamoto subbed in with Sonis moving back to fullback. Current playing with a lead proved difficult to break down. Summit just looked rusty. They had no cohesion in the attack.
Chawinga had another great chance to score on a brief breakaway in the 67th, but Smith came off her line past the penalty spot to make the save.
Cooper put the visitors deservedly ahead in the 81st minute. A through ball saw the winger cut to get around Smith and score. The match ended 0-3 with Chawinga scoring in garbage time.
“I think this is possibly the second worst defeat of my managerial career. I can’t do this very often. This is not good. As a staff, I take responsibility. We’ve got work to do,” Nick Cushing told Burgundy Wave.
The xG was 4.34 to 0.47.
“We knew if we played past their first line of pressure that we’d be able to get at them, be able to create moments. We didn’t create enough, but we just gave away far too many simple chances, and when you do that, you can’t win football games.”
“That performance was well belong our standards. Kansas City will take advantage (of mistakes),” said Sonis. “It’s technical errors. It’s everyone at some point in the game.”
“The worst thing for a soccer team is to not have a game at the end of the week. When you’re just training with no game at the end of the week, there’s no purpose. I’m not a fan of it (the World Cup break),” added Cushing.
“It shouldn’t be an excuse that we make. We’re definitely not making that excuse. We’ve done enough to be prepared,” said Sonis.
It was Summit’s third sellout in three games at DSGP. 16,833 was the announced attendance. Summit are back at DSGP on July 12 against Houston Dash. Kickoff is 5 p.m. MT.
Read More: How Denver Summit FC is Helping Build Supporter Culture
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Katherine Ammon 
Samuel Worsley 