Nick Cushing’s No. 303 brought Denver Summit FC point No. 1.
Two significant club firsts for Summit FC on Friday night: first time playing with a lead, and first time taking a point back to Colorado. A week after an early red card spoiled Denver’s inaugural match at Bay FC, Summit FC held on against a top NWSL squad in Orlando Pride on the road, 1-all. Fittingly, it was Denver coach Nick Cushing’s 303rd match as a head coach in professional soccer.
When Barbra Banda equalized in the 61st minute on a towering header over Ayo Oke, it turned into a mammoth-sized test just to keep the score level. The key, Cushing said, was sticking together like a team that had existed for more than just two games. Defender Carson Pickett agreed.
“Obviously, goals will happen, and the other team’s going to have chances every now and then, but I thought we were really, really solid defensively,” Pickett said. “And thatap not just as a back line and a keeper, but I think through the midfield, defending from the front, I didn’t think we gave them tons of chances. (Cushing) talked about it being a process.”
At this stage, it still feels like anything Denver does is history, but Friday’s goal came from a familiar face. Melissa Kossler, who scored Summit FC’s first-ever goal, struck again at Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando.
It came only a few minutes later than her franchise-opener a week ago. In the 24th minute, Ayo Oke lofted a ball to Natasha Flint, who held off a Pride defender just long enough to poke a ball in behind for Kossler. With a single touch and a couple of seconds to think, she passed the ball to the far corner past goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse’s outstretched foot.
The strike was a culmination of a dominant first 30 minutes from Summit FC, which held long, commanding spells of possession to set the tone.
“We knew a little tactical shift would give us the ability to have the ball, but you have to have it, you have to play forward, and you have to get the team moving toward the Orlando goal and attack,” Cushing said. “I loved our goal — great play, really dominant. You can see the way we’re getting Ayo Oke in offensive positions. I think the evolution of that is to create some bigger chances and get in and around the box to create more chances.”
The other 60 minutes belonged to Orlando. Denver responded to scoring well for about five minutes before Pride took control. With an unrelenting press, Orlando halted Summit FC from building out of the back, which made life difficult. In the 42nd minute, Pride forward Jacquie Ovalle picked Emma Regan’s pocket and rifled a shot from distance, which forced keeper Abby Smith to make one of many important saves on the night.
Smith’s best of eight saves, which brought her career total up above 250, came in the 60th minute. After Summit FC spent the first quarter hour of the second half on fire drill duty, Pride defender Hannah Anderson sliced a close-quarters shot down to Smith’s left, and she got a strong paw to the ball and held onto it as goal-poacher Banda followed.
“To have a keeper behind you that you fully trust is everything in this league,” Pickett said. “I think there’s so many good strikers and forwards in this league that even the best defenders in our league, in the country, and in the world are going to give up chances. … She’s a huge presence back there. We know she’s going to come up big when we absolutely need her to, and thatap exactly what she’s done so far.”
Banda, who Denver frustrated in the first half, finally got Orlando on the board just a minute later. Ovalle sent in a nice cross from the right side and picked out Banda at the far post. She rose over the smaller Oke and sent a header just inside the post to equalize.
Summit FC will turn around immediately to play a third top-class opponent in as many games when they travel to New Jersey to play Gotham FC on Wednesday. Cushing said with the short turnaround and an even bigger game to think about next Saturday, the squad should be rotated to some extent against Gotham. He and Pickett both noted the club’s confidence in its depth for scenarios just like this one.
