The 5280 Pitch - Denver Summit FC Podcast
Aug 25, 2026 · 32 min · 13 segments
Denver Summit FC held 62.5% of the ball at Portland, got into the Thorns' box 29 times, and lost 1-0 in an NWSL road match that looked nothing like the scoreline. Abby Smith was out of the starting…
Kate HansenHost
[upbeat music] 62 and a half percent of the ball, 29 touches in their box, 12 shots, zero goals.
That was Saturday night at Providence Park, folks, and I know, I know, we have been here before.
It feels like I say a version of that sentence every single Tuesday, and honestly, I'm tired of it too.
But that's not the thing I want to open with today because Nick Cushing sat down in that press room after the match, got asked about the result, and somewhere in the middle of that answer, he wandered into something I did not see coming at all.
You know, one thing we said about having a change in our goalkeeper was let's not try and protect Kat, let's try and attack the game.
That's our, that's our mentality, that's our character.
And I see the team in training every day, so I was more than content with putting Kat Asman in.
It's actually my biggest decision today was Kat or Jordie because they've both been training incredibly well.
His biggest decision of the day was which goalkeeper to start, not the shape, not the game plan, not anything that happened in those 90 minutes on the field, which goalkeeper.
Now, back in July, Nick told us that this club went into the season carrying two number one goalkeepers on purpose, PPM and Abby Smith.
And then PPM went out on loan to Crystal Palace, and we all just kind of quietly agreed that Abby Smith was that number one, and that was that.
Well, then Abby got hurt, [chuckles] and the guy who said he wanted two number ones just told a room full of reporters that picking between his backups was the hardest thing that he did all day, and that's not a throwaway line.
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[upbeat music] 62 and a half percent of the ball, 29 touches in their box, 12 shots, zero goals.
That was Saturday night at Providence Park, folks, and I know, I know, we have been here before.
It feels like I say a version of that sentence every single Tuesday, and honestly, I'm tired of it too.
But that's not the thing I want to open with today because Nick Cushing sat down in that press room after the match, got asked about the result, and somewhere in the middle of that answer, he wandered into something I did not see coming at all.
You know, one thing we said about having a change in our goalkeeper was let's not try and protect Kat, let's try and attack the game.
That's our, that's our mentality, that's our character.
And I see the team in training every day, so I was more than content with putting Kat Asman in.
It's actually my biggest decision today was Kat or Jordie because they've both been training incredibly well.
His biggest decision of the day was which goalkeeper to start, not the shape, not the game plan, not anything that happened in those 90 minutes on the field, which goalkeeper.
Now, back in July, Nick told us that this club went into the season carrying two number one goalkeepers on purpose, PPM and Abby Smith.
And then PPM went out on loan to Crystal Palace, and we all just kind of quietly agreed that Abby Smith was that number one, and that was that.
Well, then Abby got hurt, [chuckles] and the guy who said he wanted two number ones just told a room full of reporters that picking between his backups was the hardest thing that he did all day, and that's not a throwaway line.