Dad?

Oh, man. It took Dad ages to get his sea legs back.

“Seriously, it doesn’t change, no matter what,” Mark Horan, father of the soccer icon, Golden’s own, told me Saturday after watching Denver Summit FC knock off Portland, 2-1, in Heaps’ debut. “You’re always nervous about your little girl out there playing.”

It’s cool, Pops. Really. Natalie Means’ long-distance winner from the right wing in the 86th minute sealed a one-goal victory.

“It’s the full circle for us — we’ve been doing this since she was 5 years old,” Horan chuckled. “And I feel the same way I did when she was 5.”

Like kind of a wreck, basically. But a happy wreck. World Cups. Olympic gold. UEFA championships. Paris. Tokyo. Centennial. Big stages. Same little butterflies that follow him from continent to continent.

“This was awesome,” Horan said. “And the team just played great. The whole group.”

According to Opta, his daughter won all six aerial duels she contested, becoming just the second National Women’s Soccer League player this season to go at least six-for-six in the air. On top of an assist and six shots, a pretty fair day at the office. Especially for your first game action in five weeks.

“She’s got her stuff together,” Dad laughed. “She has a level head. She goes into these things knowing that, ‘I’m going to do everything you can to win.’ That’s how she’s always been.”

The NWSL expansion team christened its temporary home — Summit FC (5-4-5) is slated to move to a new stadium in the Santa Fe Yards district in 2028 — with a victory before a sellout crowd at Centennial Stadium (12,372) that weathered sweltering heat and an early 1-0 deficit.

“We can handle this,” Amy Gallagher of Austin, Texas, told me late Saturday morning before kickoff. “I know this is brutal for you.”

Brutal enough — 85 degrees with 32% humidity at noon. It felt more like 91 degrees. A smattering of empty seats an hour before the start was largely due to fans seeking shade beneath the stands. Some of the rest were stuck in water-bottle refill lines, concurrent queues snaking behind small drinking fountains that created a bottleneck of sweaty humanity around the corners of the new stadium.

Still, as the rockets glared and smoke from pre-match pyrotechnics faded, those seats filled quickly.

“It’s amazing, because you can see from anywhere,” Gallagher said of Centennial Stadium. “There’s no bad seat. It’s amazing. You get these big stadiums, and you can’t see anything.

“And it limits the amount of people that come in — which is not so great for them. But for us, as spectators, being able to see the whole field from every seat is amazing.”

They saw it all Saturday, smiling through thick and thin. Amy’s daughter, Henley, is a massive Heaps fan and a huge supporter of the U.S. Women’s national soccer team that Heaps captains. The pair drove four hours early Saturday to be here from their summer abode in Wyoming.

“We knew Lindsey had moved here and came back — we just didn’t know when her first game was,” Amy recalled. “So when they said the 18th was her first game and she was playing (against Portland forward and Windsor native) Sophia (Wilson), we’re like, ‘We have to go.'”

As the sun beat down, the duo had posted up just outside Section 117, pressed against a metal barrier at the southeast corner of Centennial Stadium, about 90 minutes before the start of the match, hoping to meet Heaps.

“What would you tell her?” I asked Henley.

“I’d tell her she inspires me,” she replied. “And to keep doing what she’s doing. Because she’s great.”

Henley’s got a USWNT wall back home. Posters all over. On Saturday, she sported two small white Heaps signs.

YOU INSPIRE ME!, one read.

“Just by being the captain of the U.S.,” said Henley, who plays striker in her youth league down in Texas. “She puts in so much dedication, and she just inspires me to try and end up like her on the national team. And to just — I really want to be as good as her when I grow up … And she wants to show up, she wants to be a good player. And it just really inspires me like that.”

Henley wasn’t alone. The crowd roared every time Heaps touched the ball.

“I’ve loved every place that she’s gone, but she’s had to build the support,” Horan said. “But here, the support was just here. And I love it. And she loves it. I can’t believe how much support (we) get for coming back here. It’s awesome. It really is.”

In true Tinseltown fashion, the first two goals came via the feet of Colorado natives.

The first NWSL score at Centennial was a penalty by Wilson into the lower right corner in the 25th minute to give Portland a 1-0 lead.

The hosts leveled it in extra time. At the 53rd minute, Heaps flew into the box. Behind her, in the back left corner of the box, teammate Janine Sonis, who prepped at Valor Christian, lofted a cross high into the mountain air and at the low right post. The arc was so pure that it overshot not only Heaps but Thorns goalie Mackenzie Arnold, tickling the back of the twine while the Summit midfielder beamed in jubilation.

“It’s so exciting to see the team play (well),” Dad gushed later, “and for her to be a part of that. I love it. Lindsey’s a great leader.  A really great leader. So she’s really good for this team.”

They beat a good team, too. Portland (8-3-5) went into the weekend third in the NWSL table. It’s also a team Heaps knows well — she played with the Thorns for six seasons before moving back to France, winning NWSL MVP honors in 2018 while helping Portland win a league title in 2017. It’s been a long, beautiful journey since those salad days with the Colorado Rush, Heaps’ old club team.

“She was calm (Saturday morning),” Dad said. “Totally calm. Relaxed. Easy. Nothing different.”

“See you at the game. I’ve got your jersey for you,” Heaps told him.

“Same Lindsey?” I wondered.

“No different. No different. Super level-headed.”

As Summit players had passed through the southeast gate and into warm-ups, the crowd pushed closer to the barriers.

“LINDSEY!” they cried.

Heaps, all business, smiled and nodded to the crowd but never broke stride.

Henley got seven or eight high-fives from other Summit players, though. Win-win.

“That’s the closest I’ve ever been to her,” Henley said, almost reverentially. “And it made me really happy.”

And isn’t that the point?

“We will be back,” Amy said. “We’ll get there. We love it.”

Horan has met tons of moms and daughters over the years who want to say hello. To say thanks. It never fails to tug at the old man’s heart.

“We love all of the support and the fact that she’s a role model,” Horan said of the Gallaghers. “I think (what) makes me most happy is when little girls, she’s signing autographs for little girls or hugging them or whatever.”

“(That) makes me super happy. She’s just done so much for soccer. For women. I love my little girl.”

Join the club, Dad. Join the club.

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“Another one we should win, but we didn’t,” Summit head coach Nick Cushing said.

In a battle between two teams in the bottom half of the 16-team NWSL standings, No. 11 Denver and No. 12 Houston showed glimpses of brilliance but also showed why each is on the outside looking in at the eight-team playoff field.

Sunday’s match was Summit FC’s last at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. Its next match, against the Portland Thorns on Saturday, will be at Centennial Stadium, its temporary new home.

The deadlock was broken early by a thunderbolt of a shot from Denver Summit forward Yazmeen Ryan in the 14th minute. A short corner routine found Ryan outside the penalty box, and from about 25 yards out, she picked out the top corner. It was her third goal of the season, and it seemingly put Summit FC in the driver’s seat.

“Well, I think initially I was supposed to cross it, but I just had to figure it out,” Ryan said. “But yeah, I knew once I turned on my right, I had a little bit of time. Just getting it on target is something huge for me, so I felt it in the moment, and so I’m glad that it paid off.”

The Dash’s response was almost immediate. A long ball down the right flank caught Summit outside back Ayo Oke sleeping. The ensuing cross then bounced off a Dash player and found forward Kat Rader. With acres of space inside the Denver box, Rader kept cool and notched the equalizer at the 15th minute.

It is widely accepted within the soccer community that the minutes after scoring are when a team is at its most vulnerable. This proved to have some truth. It was also a crushing blow for a Denver side that had largely dominated the game to that point.

Moments before the first-half whistle was set to blow, Summit FC was given a golden opportunity to take the lead into halftime. Denver was awarded a penalty after Dash defender Cate Hardin took down Ally Brazier in the box. Summit defender Janine Sonis stepped up and slotted the penalty home to restore the lead right before halftime.

Dash forward Kalyssa van Zanten had two golden opportunities to find the back of the net right before halftime, with both plays looking very similar. Houston players were finding success with crosses into the middle, but couldn’t knock in the equalizer.

It did not take long for Summit’s lead to vanish, however. Two minutes into the second half, some well-worked Dash interplay cut through the Summit defense, and yet again, a cross from wide found an open Dash attacker. This time it was Linda Ullmark, and this time she made no mistake.

Summit standout Natasha Flint made her first appearance since late May, coming on as a second-half substitute. The injury that had kept her out for almost two months could keep her out no longer. Flint was immediately involved in a great chance for the Summit, but although she couldn’t capitalize, the benefit of having Flint back on the pitch was apparent.

It was another game the Summit largely dominated but couldn’t win. It has started to become a real trend for Cushing’s side, which can’t wait for the arrival of hometown star Lindsey Heaps on the pitch. Heaps returned to Denver last week and is slated to make her debut in a Summit FC jersey next weekend. At a press conference on Wednesday, Heaps said her goal is to raise the standard in Denver as the expansion club pushes for the NWSL playoffs.

“That leads you straight to Lindsey,” Johnson said.

That’s when Lindsey Heaps appeared, strolling through the doors of the new CommonSpirit Performance Center on Wednesday,��. She smiled. She sat. And this project in Denver suddenly jumped a phase, from initiation to execution.

“I want to win everything,” Heaps said. “No matter what I’ve done in the past, there is still more to come. And what a challenge for me to come back to the (National Women’s Soccer League) and help us be a winning club, even from the get-go, even as an expansion team.”

Heaps couldn’t be happier to be home

Wednesday marked Summit FC’s long-awaited public unveiling of its cornerstone piece and hometown hero after signing the captain of the United States women’s national soccer team in January. The 32-year-old Heaps has now practiced three times with the club since completing her contract with Women’s Champions League powerhouse OL Lyonnes; she called it “surreal” to now be driving to work in her home state. And this transition is still a daze, Heaps said, after joining a 4-5-3 Summit team midway through its inaugural NWSL season.

Actually monitoring her new club’s fortunes has been rather difficult, of course, given that Lyon, France, is situated in a time zone eight hours ahead of Denver. Heaps won’t make her Summit FC debut until July 18 against the Portland Thorns, given the secondary transfer window opens July 14. Heaps said Wednesday she wished she could don the jersey sooner.

But make no mistake: Cushing and company are expecting life to change immediately in the still-developing acres around Centennial Stadium.

“You want my honest opinion, and probably Lindsey’s? It’s plug-and-play,” Cushing said. “At the highest level, it has to be.”

Heaps, the midfielder who captained the USWNT to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024, knows as much.

“I know I can’t play until the 18th, but I’ll do everything possible to help the team get ready for the game on Sunday,” Heaps said, referring to Summit FC’s match with the Houston Dash on July 12. “And then from then on out, I think you can expect the very best Lindsey.

“I should be raising the standard. That����ap what they brought me here to do.”

Was it an easy process bringing her here? No. Far from it — even as foregone a conclusion as Heaps’ Denver reunion might have seemed, for the Golden native and former Colorado Rush youth star. Johnson said on Wednesday that it “doesn’t take a rocket scientist” to figure out the club had a plan to target Heaps, even as he was still working through conversations with owner Rob Cohen about the general manager job. But earning her actual commitment took months.

Heaps’ very formations on the pitch, of course, are inseparable from the spirit of Colorado. Mother Linda Horan was her first coach and kept a Coaching-For-Dummies book lying around the living room because a young Heaps wouldn’t actually play soccer unless her mom was standing on the sidelines. After a decorated international and NWSL career, though — winning the league’s 2018 Most Valuable Player with Portland — Heaps wasn’t about to sign with any expansion team in Colorado just because it was an expansion team in Colorado.

The topper was the hire of Cushing, whose tactical brain Heaps called “incredible,” and who has been tasked for months with piloting a new club that has played without its star player. Ask Cushing, though, and Heaps has been in the mix despite being 5,000-plus miles away.

“The most pleasing thing for me was, while she was still really committed to Lyon and helping them get to a Champions League final, she was in regular contact with me about how to improve our team and how we’re moving forward and the ideas and the direction we were going in,” Cushing said. “So she’s been close to this from the moment that we started.”

Heaps of hope

She is now closer than ever, freewheeling in the direct center of the pitch at the Summit’s practice on Wednesday, where Johnson and Cushing always envisioned her being. Heaps can play deeper, Cushing said, or play more as an attacker. She’s told her head coach, too, that she wants to play in the box and score goals.

And — despite effusively praising the leadership of current Summit captain and longtime friend Janine Sonis — Heaps is determined, too, to erase the bitter taste of a 3-0 loss to Kansas City in the club’s last match.

“I think everyone can take that on their shoulder and say, ‘That����ap not good enough. That����ap not the standard,'” Heaps said. “Now we raise it and we know, like, ‘OK, was that rock bottom? That will never be the case again. We are not getting to that point again.’”

The future is now, and Heaps’ arrival will only stoke more fervor for women’s soccer in Denver, after the Summit’s foray into Empower Field in March drew over 63,000 fans, setting the national attendance record for a women’s professional sporting event. Heaps, too, put in her two cents for Denver to be named a site for the Women’s World Cup in 2031.

“I mean, I’ve seen the sellout crowds and the support that we get, the noise,” Heaps said. “And even going to the game last weekend, I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ So why would you not have Denver be a host city? I would hope for that.”

For now, though, she’s focused on the waxing and waning fortunes of Summit FC. The club currently sits 10th in the NWSL standings,��with the top eight teams by season points . Getting there, with a midseason star addition, will be a challenge.

But Heaps’ return to Colorado has brought significant hope.

“I think it����ap incredible to add a player like Lindsey in the middle of the season,” Johnson said, as a glint twinkled in his eye.

“Or — after the first third of the season, maybe is a better way to put it.”

Summit FC goalie Abby Smith and defender Janine Sonis both played their rookie year in 2013, when the National Women’s Soccer League was still in its infancy. Smith’s Boston Breakers had their locker room in a trailer at Harvard, where the team rented field space from the university. And Sonis, who played for the Houston Dash, practiced at youth fields next to the facility of the Dynamo, the city’s MLS franchise.

Contrast that to what Summit FC unveiled on Friday: The 20,000-square-foot CommonSpirit Performance Center with all the bells and whistles that a men’s professional team would expect.

“We didn’t have any of our own spaces, no common area, no meeting space, none of our own (training space) with the Dash,” Sonis recalled. “That was my first professional experience, and now to fast-forward 10 years, this facility is just a dream come true.

“… It’s literally like an athlete’s wonderland in there.”

The CommonSpirit Performance Center, budgeted at around $25 million but which came in slightly over due to tariffs and overtime, has three corresponding training fields. The adjacent Centennial Stadium is where Summit FC will start playing next month. The 12,000-seat modular stadium will serve as the team’s temporary venue for a couple of years until the completion of the team’s permanent home, a 14,500-seat stadium at Santa Fe Yards in Denver.

Summit FC’s performance center was completed in about a year, and roughly 18 months after Denver was awarded the NWSL’s 16th expansion franchise. Summit FC controlling owner Rob Cohen said the facility was designed with potential future expansions in mind for the club, which has rapidly grown to a business staff of about 55 and a front office/coaching/training staff of about 30.

“The vision has always been to continue to make sure that we had a facility that not only meets our needs today, but can expand and change over time,” Cohen said. “And so we have designed this performance center intentionally with the idea that if we end up getting a second team at some point in the future — who knows what the league’s going to do (on that), that’s a total what-if right now — we have room.”

For now, the CommonSpirit Performance Center has everything needed to support what Cohen has set out to achieve since he founded the team: world-class amenities for world-class women’s soccer players.

The facility houses offices for coaches and front-office staff, has multiple meeting rooms, a mother’s room, and separate coaches’ locker rooms for males and females. A massive weight room looks out onto three practice fields — two grass and one turf — and there is also a goalie training area as well as an outdoor turf training space. The sod used for the practice fields as well as the stadium is from Platteville company , which also grew sod for several 2026 FIFA World Cup sites.

The hallways are already adorned with photos of key moments from the club’s inaugural season, including shots of the team’s first goal by Melissa Kössler in March in San Jose and of the record crowd that attended Denver’s first home match later that month at Empower Field.

It’s also outfitted with all the latest high-tech recovery technology, including hydratubs, a nap pod, a dry float tank, a cryotherapy room, red light therapy and several massage rooms. Plus, there’s a U-18 locker room for future use and a first-team locker room where each locker bears the name of a Colorado 14er, while the club’s D logo hangs from the ceiling.

All of that puts the CommonSpirit Performance Center at the forefront of the NWSL, which has recently seen an array of clubs including Angel City FC, Bay FC, the Portland Thorns and the Kansas City Current. The CommonSpirit Performance Center was designed by Populous, and prior to its opening to Summit FC players last week, the club was training at Infinity Park in Glendale.

“This is peak (NWSL facility),” Smith said. “(More facilities like this one) are going to only push and drive the league to be better.”

Cohen added that he believes the unveiling of the CommonSpirit Performance Center is “seeing the investment in women that should have been there for a long time.” The team’s ownership group paid for the facility, while Centennial Stadium was financed by the ownership group and the Cherry Creek School District, with contributions from the city of Centennial for land and some infrastructure.

Summit FC, which has been playing its home games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park following the inaugural opener at Empower Field, will debut at Centennial Stadium on July 18

“Facilities like this don’t happen by accident. They happen because people have a vision and they’re willing to invest in it and for that (us players are) incredibly grateful,” Sonis said. “I imagine (July 18) will feel really different to both Empower and Dick’s in an incredible way that this is ours, and it’s green, and it’s made for us… and hopefully we can pay everyone back with three points (from a win that day).”

Sean Keeler: Your humble colleague is a footie fan, full-stop, no apologies. Got bitten by the bug during USA ’94. Partied with Nigerian fans in Athens, Ga., as we watched the Super Eagles upset Argentina to win the men’s soccer gold in ’96. Denver is an amazing, fun, vibrant soccer town. FIFA? FIFA is as crooked as the Serpents Trail, my friend. When Colorado whiffed on its penalty kick with footie bigwigs during the bid process a few years back, I raged. “What does Kansas City have that Denver doesn’t?” I asked. Rooms that FIFA had booked in blocks — only to cancel at the last minute. Oh, and without any cancellation fees on the back end for KC to recoup. Because Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s fawning, making-up-trophies-to-give-world-leaders president? That’s how he rolls, baby.

World Cup 2026: Matches, scores, brackets, results and more

Renck: The running joke is if you want to watch a good shakedown, skip the mob movies and watch documentaries on how the IOC and FIFA choose host cities. The demands are outrageous and, in some cases, criminal. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 14 football executives for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. When Denver submitted its bid, it made a final offer. FIFA wanted assurances the city would cover all cost overruns, and make everything whole. So, I am not going to crush Denver for drawing a line in the sand. The reality is the timing stunk. Everyone knows how much Denver loves soccer (See Denver Summit FC and Lionel Messi appearance). But the city needed a savior in the Broncos owners, and the bid was submitted before the Walton-Penner group took over. Who knows if they would have stepped up to fill in the gaps like soccer AFLAC. History says they would have. In the absence of that help, Denver showed proper restraint, even if watching right now hurts.

Keeler: The Denver chapter might have had a different ending if Carrie Walton-Penner and Greg Penner were in the picture to soak up cost overruns. I don't blame the city for balking, though, given what's come out over the last 8-12 months. be built over Soldier Field -- and that the locals were on the hook to pay for it. The state of Missouri reportedly forked over $78 million and the state of Kansas $28 million for infrastructure, security, etc. No wonder Colorado took a pass.

Renck: It is OK to not get everything you want. We have become spoiled because of Final Fours, high-profile soccer exhibitions and having four major sports teams that we believe Denver should host anything of merit out of default. If it were just on private donations, it would be easier to have a problem with missing out. But at the time of the bid, the city did not have its Clark Hunt or Robert Kraft to push it through. Given the financial issues facing Denver, it would be impossible to rationalize the city increasing taxes to cover the open-ended costs. There is no doubt Denver deserves to host the World Cup. But there is also no shame in showing common sense, if not cents, and waiting to go all out to host the Women's World Cup in 2031.

Keeler: And it will. Or at least, it should. Summit FC got on a roll after May 9, and the powers behind the club want to keep those good vibes going. Did you see the way Can you imagine the juice those kind of travelers would give Coors Field during another sad Rockies summer? Denver deserves to walk on world soccer's biggest catwalks. But not by having to sell its shirt first.

Ally Brazier’s impact on the season hasn’t exactly been immediate, but it was on Friday night against Racing Louisville. She scored the match’s lone goal in the 64th minute at Lynn Family Stadium, just three minutes after subbing on for Olivia Thomas, on the way to a 1-0 Summit FC win.

Japanese international winger Yuzuki Yamamoto provided the assist in her first start in a green shirt: a brilliantly weighted ball that somehow squeezed between Louisville keeper Maddie Prohaska and the last defender back in the 6-yard box. Brazier was on the other side of the gap and slid for a good enough touch to beat Prohaska.

“Ally Brazier, 10 out of 10 season in the sense of attitude, behavior, commitment and investment to the team. Her work is exceptional,” Summit FC coach Nick Cushing said. “The most difficult part of my job is picking the team. … She’s worked incredibly hard, came off the bench and helped us in multiple games. I really felt tonight, especially with (Olivia Thomas) making her (first start), I really felt Ally would play a really important part in the game. Not only the goal, but just the work rate, her hold-up play and link-up play was top.”

Brazier’s path to her first Summit FC goal hasn’t been linear. After being touted by general manager Curt Johnson as a player the club wanted to build around at the time of her signing, she hasn’t started since the franchise’s inaugural match in a loss to Bay FC.

Two weeks later, she subbed into the home opener and came inches from scoring a winner against the Washington Spirit. Appearances with low minutes and even a few DNPs followed.

And finally, nine months after signing, a goal for her hometown team to her name.

“Every minute, every second with this team is worth every minute, and I think it’s just playing a role. My role today was going in and making a difference, and I did,” Brazier said. “My role is to be a good support teammate whenever I can, and that’s what I’ll do. Whatever role I need to be is what I’ll do, and that����ap what everyone knows here on this team. I think we’re just all going to win, no matter what.”

Abby Smith came off her line and came up with two clutch saves in the 85th and 87th minutes to keep Summit FC from dropping more points from winning positions — Denver co-leads the league with eight points dropped after leading this season. The second save stopped what would have been a wonderful goal by U.S. Women’s National Team forward Emma Sears, where, before shooting, she cut back inside and sent both Eva Gaetino and Kaleigh Kurtz sliding the wrong way.

Pending the rest of the weekend’s games, Summit FC stands in eighth place in the NWSL ahead of a 35-day break. Despite playing eight of its first 11 games on the road, Denver has shown sparks of really good soccer and has a clear idea of where to improve — holding leads as it did on Friday is step one.

More home games under the belt after the men’s World Cup break offer a chance to better learn how to do so in a more comfortable environment. The club announced Thursday that it will have to wait for its real (temporary) home for another couple of weeks.

Originally, Summit FC’s Centennial Stadium was set to open at the conclusion of the break for a home match against the Kansas City Current, but that match and a July 11 clash against the Houston Dash will be played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Centennial Stadium’s construction was halted due to a couple of weeks’ worth of rain, the timing of which Summit FC owner Rob Cohen called “less than ideal” for this “specific phase of construction.”

Centennial Stadium is now set to open on July 18 for a home match against the Portland Thorns. That has marquee potential with Coloradan star Sophia Wilson making her first club appearance in Denver. That could also mark Lindsey Heaps’ debut with Summit FC.

Colorado’s National Women’s Soccer League club was scheduled to open at its temporary venue, , on July 3. But due to weather-related construction delays, Summit FC has push back its opener there to July 18.

The club, which played its debut home game in front of a record crowd at Empower Field at Mile High on March 28, played its next two home matches at the Rapids’ stadium, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. That’s where Summit FC will play the Kansas City Current on July 3 and the Houston Dash on July 12, after snow and rain throughout May delayed the timeline for finishing the sidewalks and roads surrounding Centennial Stadium.

“We had to evaluate where we were and all the possible options, but we ultimately determined that a short delay is more responsible, so we can give our fans enough notice and time to deal with the adjustment,” Summit FC owner Rob Cohen said.

“The progress is really going well on the , the adjacent training fields, as well as the temporary stadium. … It’s just really these roads and sidewalks where the authorities would not let us open the stadium with gravel roads or secondary sidewalks because of fan safety, and we agreed. And so at the end of the day, that became the decision factor.”

That means the first game in Centennial Stadium will be against the Portland Thorns, a marquee NWSL franchise that has won an NWSL-best three championships. The game, which kicks off will be nationally televised on CBS and Paramount+.

Cohen added that the July 3 and July 12 games, which were already sold out, will now be able to host more fans at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

“It’s a great opponent to open the stadium with, and it’s going to be a great contest,” Cohen said. “So there’s a lot of positive aspects to (the pushback), although we understand that this change causes frustration and we just want to assure the community that the decision was not made lightly and that we’re committed to opening the stadium at a level our fans deserve.”

The Thorns are currently second in the . Denver sits in 12th place among the league’s 16 teams at 3-4-3 with 12 points. But Cohen is hopeful the club can find a groove following the league’s June break, when Summit FC’s schedule is backloaded with home games and Denver will get UWSNT midfielder Lindsey Heaps into the lineup following the conclusion of her season in Europe.

“It’s an expansion team, and these women have only been together for four months,” Cohen said. “It takes a while to find the chemistry among the players. We’ve been competitive in every single match. I could argue that we could have won every single game that we’ve been in.

“And I do think the back half of the schedule is favorable for us. … We’ve got Lindsey coming in and the team is getting better every time they play.”

Cohen also provided an update on the team’s permanent stadium, being built at Santa Fe Yards at Broadway and I-25. The owner said the project for the 14,500-seat stadium is moving in the stage of construction drawings and permitting, and that he hopes to break ground on construction by the end of the year. The stadium is supposed to be ready for the 2028 season.

Thrust into and entrusted with giving the final words of wisdom before Saturday’s match against Orlando Pride at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, she preached the importance of gaining — and more importantly, maintaining — momentum, early. Not even she could have guessed she’d be the one to answer her own plea.

But in the 11th minute, in front of another sellout crowd of 16,974, Gaetino’s first career goal was the first in a 3-1 win over Orlando. Her name will be etched in Denver sports history as a goal scorer in Summit FC’s first-ever home win.

She was the recipient of a corner kick routine straight off the training grounds. Yazmeen Ryan received a give-and-go on a short corner and sent in a ball to Melissa Kössler at the far post. She headed it to Gaetino at the 6-yard box, who volleyed it in off the post.

The celebration — a dead sprint to the bench to greet her coaching staff and teammates — was a bit unorthodox, but valid given how quickly she went from walking in a boot to scoring for the first time.

She sustained an ankle injury the day before she was supposed to feature in Summit FC’s home opener at Empower Field in front of more than 63,000. Not only did she miss out on an NWSL-record crowd, but she also couldn’t attend a national team camp in which she was slated to participate.

“For me, coming from overseas, coming here, starting for a little bit, getting injured, it hasn’t been easy by any means,” Gaetino said. “It����ap so validating to know that the work I’m putting in is paying off, but I’m not going to sit here and smell the roses quite yet. I think there’s a lot more from me and from the team to come.”

Another item on her pregame checklist: “When we put our foot on their necks, we do not let up.”

Unlike the reverse fixture two months ago, Summit FC was the aggressor for essentially the entire match. That has been the difference in the past two games, both multi-goal wins, as opposed to the two matches prior, both losses after leading.

Janine Sonis provided the other two Summit FC goals, scoring a brace in her second straight match. One was from the penalty spot in the 54th minute after Yazmeen Ryan was taken down on a run toward the byline. Orlando’s Barbra Banda scored on a breakaway in the 76th minute, then Sonis responded just a minute later with a rocket to the right side netting on a rebound.

Banda’s deficit-cutting goal came just 15 minutes after Orlando’s Angelina was sent off for pulling Delanie Sheehan’s hair during a tackle, which is by default a straight red card in the NWSL.

“(It was) a little weird. I thought I forgot how to (score) for a while, but to be honest, I’m just so happy to win. Same feeling as last week,” Sonis said. “We have some really great individual performances right now, and as a team, this is the momentum we wanted to build. I have no doubt that we’re going to continue on and keep having good performances, but we know it gets harder from here.”

For Summit FC coach Nick Cushing, there was no other option than to win on Saturday night. Barring construction delays, Denver’s next home game on July 3 will be at Centennial Stadium and not DSGP, so Cushing felt obligated to send a home crowd happy. Third time was the charm.

It����ap been an up-and-down season for Summit FC so far. In Cushing’s head, two dominant wins may not have been in the cards if not for losing two straight after leading.

“The tough times, the tough moments, the knocks, the best teams work through that,” Cushing said. “…I strangely like the adversity. Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.”

Up 2-1 near the end of regulation, Summit FC allowed an equalizer by Aïssata Traoré in the 90th minute.

Four minutes later in the extra time, Boston’s Bianca St-Georges beat Denver keeper Abbie Smith to find the back of the net and steal the win for Legacy FC.

This was the first win in Boston’s history.

Denver scored twice. The first by Yazmeen Ryan in the 18th minute and another by Natasha Flint in the 77th minute. Summit FC falls to 1-3-3 on the season. They will next host Houston Dash at 6 p.m. Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.