Denver’s new NWSL franchise continues to hang around in the playoff conversation, led by the stellar play of goalie Abby Smith. It was San Diego’s first draw at home this season after Summit FC (6-7-6, 24 pts) fell, 3-2, in the two sides’ first meeting in April.

San Diego broke the scoreless tie in the 35th minute. Wave Midfielder Melanie Barcenas took the ball on the right side and dribbled toward the net without much pressure before launching a shot from 20 yards out that found the bottom corner. Smith had been great in the half but was left out to dry by her defense.

Smith spoiled a Barcenas scoring chance in the 10th minute to become the 12th keeper in league history to reach 300 regular-season saves.

After a relatively even first half between the two sides, Summit FC pulled even in the second half. In the 58th minute, Summit FC winger Yazmeen Ryan found defender Janine Sonis on the opposite side. Sonis then crossed the ball to Ryan, who had an easy header for a goal. The play looked nearly identical to the way the duo scored against Utah in Summit FC’s thrilling win off a stoppage-time goal from Sonis.

“I know that when she has the ball, she has the ability to put it anywhere, and so it’s just up to me to make that movement and be open,” Ryan said. “We obviously trust each other, and so I just wanted to be there for her cross.”

It was Ryan’s fifth goal of the season, tying her single-season record with Gotham in 2024 and giving her eight goal contributions total this season.

Denver head coach Nick Cushing did not make too many changes to the lineup after the Utah match. Colorado native Lindsey Heaps was not in the lineup Friday night. Yuna McCormack saw her seventh start this season while Kaleigh Kurtz, Devin Lynch and Smith continued their season-long starting streaks. Ally Brazier, making her second consecutive start, played a full 90 for the first time this season.

Denver has now scored over half of its goals (13 of 25) and exactly half of its points (12 of 24) on the road this season.

Summit FC defender Eva Gaetino left the game with an injury in the 16th minute. Defender Megan Reid replaced the 23-year-old, who has been dealing with a hamstring issue. Cushing said Gaetino was pulled as a precaution.

“I think it was the right thing to do to take her off and not gamble it,” Cushing said. “I think the signs are really, really positive in the sense that it’s just a small issue that we can take care of.”

Smith came up huge for Denver in the 24th minute after San Diego forward Ludmila da Silva caught up to a through ball for a scoring chance. The striker got enough space to fire a shot off a difficult angle, but couldn’t find the net.

Summit FC survived some scary moments, one of which came moments after its equalizing goal. Barcenas again found space against the Denver defense, but her ensuing shot came off the crossbar.

San Diego did put the ball in the back of the net in the 70th minute, but forward Adriana Leon’s goal was called off for Leon being offside — which was confirmed by VAR.

Denver almost got the go-ahead goal in the 84th minute. High pressure forced Wave goalkeeper Sandra Paños to give the ball away in a good spot for the Summit. Midfielder Natasha Flint was the recipient, but she could not capitalize as her shot into an empty net was high and wide.

The match ended 1-1, with both teams splitting the point — a positive result for a Summit FC side still in the playoff hunt.

“We got a real chance of making the playoffs because we thought we had the best chances,” Cushing said after the match. “Although we didn’t play so well in the game in the first half, of course, second half great reaction showed fight, showed commitment, showed our real character, but we had the biggest chances in the game, so I think this is one that, as we evolve as a team, we have to have the sort of ruthlessness to execute and get three points on the road.”

Smith finished with four saves,, giving her 302 total and putting her just two saves away from the 11th place spot in the NWSL record book.

Denver Summit will travel to Portland to face the Portland Thorns on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 6:45 pm Mountain Time.

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.”

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.

Polis announced the proclamation from the state Capitol rotunda, after the four players and other members of the Summit organization were celebrated in the state Senate. Summit is six games into its initial season in the National Women’s Soccer League, and its home debut last month was greeted by an NWSL-record 63,004 fans.

The team gave special jerseys to Polis, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera and Sen. Marc Catlin, who officially welcomed the team in the Senate.

“I feel so honored and humbled to be standing in front of you, representing our player group,” team captain Janine Sonis, who grew up in Highlands Ranch, said during the news conference unveiling the proclamation. “All of us are so incredibly proud to wear this crest and represent this state. … I can’t wait to bring that first championship to this city and see all of you parade down 16th Street mall with us.”

The team is home to several Colorado natives. Sonis was joined at the Capitol by midfielder Meg Boade, forward Ally Brazier and goalkeeper Jordan Nytes, all fellow Coloradans.

Another Coloradan, U.S. national team captain Lindsey Heaps, will join the club in June.

“Colorado is the best place to train and compete, and we’re inspired by Summit FC,” Polis said. “It’s especially meaningful to see Colorado’s youngest soccer players look up to and cheer on some of the best athletes in the world, right here at home, for Colorado’s newest professional sports team.”

After a 3-2 loss to league-leading San Diego on Saturday, Summit’s record stands at 1-3-2 and the team sits in the middle of the NWSL table. After the news conference ended Monday, Sonis told Polis that the team was finding its footing.

“There’s a lot of time left,” she said. “We’re going to add a win this weekend.”

In January, she signed a pre-contract to join Denver Summit FC at the conclusion of her deal with OL Lyonnes of the French Division 1 Féminine. A few days later, Summit FC staged a heartwarming reveal to her parents, Linda and Mark Horan, that she’d be joining her hometown club in its inaugural year.

On Friday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, she got a preview of how her new life back home will treat her come June.

The U.S. Women’s National Team closed out a three-game friendly series against Japan, a top-five team in the world, with a 3-0 win. The USWNT went 2-1 in the series, with Heaps playing all three games. Last week, she scored in the first game of the series for her 40th international goal.

She’s played a handful of games wearing the stars and stripes in Denver now, but none of them have come with the same anticipation and excitement as this one did. She received by far the loudest ovation when the lineups were announced before the game. When she exited as a substitute in the 63rd minute, the crowd roared again. Walking off slowly to take the moment in, she thanked the nearly 18,000 in attendance — and almost 50 friends and family members, she said — with a round of applause and a heart signal with her hands.

“I’m a very sensitive person, so I get a little emotional with those things, but to see my home-state fans, my family in the crowd, friends, Denver Summit fans — seeing those jerseys, it feels actually real,” Heaps said after the match. “You don’t get that feeling until you’re here, but also walking out and getting a win the way we did as well, I’m really, really proud.”

On the field, for the last time in Colorado before she’s a full-time Summit FC member, Heaps showed why she’ll be an excellent addition to an already-solid team, beyond the name and status.

Since joining Lyonnes on loan and eventually permanently from the NWSL’s Portland Thorns in 2022, the Golden native has scored 27 goals in all competitions, helping lead the French powerhouse to four league titles, a UEFA Women’s Champions League title and a Coupe de France Féminine.

This June, she’ll leave that success for a new project and an old sense of home. But for now, essentially existing with two clubs in two countries has been a challenge. Summit FC games start anywhere between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. in France, making it nearly impossible to follow along live. She said she speaks with Denver coach Nick Cushing and defender Janine Sonis often, but that can’t replicate live, in-person reps with the team.

Heaps relished what she missed last month, when Summit FC drew an NWSL-record 63,004 fans for its inaugural home match against the Washington Spirit. Through it, she can’t lose focus on what����ap at hand in France.

“It����ap been a little bit difficult to balance because you’re kind of two places in one. But my main focus is Lyon and finishing out the season well, which Denver has been very respectful of and I really appreciate that,” Heaps said. “But it����ap also me always following along and wanting the team to do well, and it����ap been cool to see what they’ve been able to accomplish as an expansion team and coming into the league. The hometown crowd here at Empower was absolutely incredible, and I was a little bit jealous of that.”

Listed as a midfielder, Heaps stretches the pitch like no other. She was all over the field Friday night, serving as a connective tissue in a ball-dominant setup. On a night where Japan defended open-play crosses expertly, Heaps operated in the channels and bridged the gaps between wingers and center forwards.

Before she subbed off, Heaps found the pass before the pass to set up the USWNT’s second goal of the night. Right at midfield, she could have dinked a risky ball over the top to set up a ready-to-run Rose Lavelle, but instead found winger Trinity Rodman for an easier look at the same pass. Rodman slotted it perfectly — a more controlled throughball on the ground — for Lavelle, and she did the rest.

Sonis and Natasha Flint — who ended her loan by signing a permanent contract with Summit FC on Friday — have come closest to playing that part for Denver, but there’s still much to be desired. Come June, Heaps should instantly aid the midfield in finding Melissa Kössler — whose total of three goals in five games could easily be higher — for more opportunities on goal.

But, USWNT coach Emma Hayes said, perhaps most important to Summit FC is the personality Heaps adds to any team.

“Lindsey is no passenger, ever. She’s so ultra-competitive. She will want to drive that team as a leader in the way that she does every day. She lives and breathes those behaviors,” Hayes told media members on Thursday. “We’ve sat down this week in her own 360 meetings to discuss how to get ready for (the move) and what support she needs for that. I think it will bring another level out of her and that����ap what I think we’re all excited about, is that this is another challenge in her career.”

Currently, Lyonnes is more than comfortably in first place in the French league and on the way to Heaps’ fifth title in as many tries. In European competition, Lyonnes most recently beat Wolfsburg Women, 4-1 on aggregate, in the Champions League quarterfinals.

It����ap not certain when exactly she’ll arrive in Denver, but the last confirmed match on Lyonnes’s schedule is May 10, when it plays Paris Saint-Germain in the Women’s French Cup final. If the team makes it to the Champions League final, that match is scheduled for May 23.

In all likelihood, Heaps’ first match with Summit FC in her home state will be a July 3 matchup with KC Current, which happens to be the inaugural match at Centennial Stadium, the Summit FC-specific home venue still under construction.

When that time comes, one place will be enough.

U.S. Women’s National Team star striker returns to her home state on Friday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for the USWNT’s final friendly of a three-match series against Japan. Wilson, a Windsor native, made her comeback to the USWNT lineup in the opening two friendlies for the first time since October 2024.

In the 18 months between appearances, Wilson (nee Smith) got The couple then had their first child, a daughter named Gigi, last September. The ensuing maternity leave kept Wilson off the pitch for the USWNT for all of 2025 and she didn’t play for the NWSL’s Portland Thorns, either.

Wilson called her return to Colorado for the stars and stripes “a full-circle moment” as she plays in front of her family with Gigi in the stands.

“Anytime I get to go back and play in Denver, I have all the feels because that’s a place where I really grew into who I am as a soccer player and as a person, too,” Wilson said. “So getting to go back and play with the national team at this point in my career now with my little girl, it’s like a dream come true.”

The 25-year-old is the 18th mom to play for the USWNT, and when she finds the net again, she’ll be the ninth mom to score for the team.

She started in the Americans’ last Saturday in San Jose and came off the bench in the team’s 1-0 defeat in Seattle on Tuesday in a match where head coach Emma Hayes experimented with It marked the first time the USWNT has been shut out in a defeat in 42 games.

Wilson says that becoming a mom has shifted her perspective on life and has her relishing moments out on the pitch more than before.

“We (as a professional athletes) put too much pressure on things that we can’t control,” Wilson said. “I feel like (with Gigi) I’ve learned to just focus on what I can control and enjoy every moment as it comes, because life goes fast.

“I’ve realized that my career is going by and while I’m still in my prime years, I want to enjoy it all. You can’t play soccer forever, unfortunately. So more than anything, being present in every moment is what I’m trying to do and take from being a mom now.”

Setting an example for the next generation

Wilson, a former Real Colorado star, has won at every level she’s played at.

While starring at Stanford, she led the Cardinal to the 2019 Division I national title. The Thorns drafted her No. 1 overall in 2020, and she became the in ’22, when she led Portland to the title and was named MVP of that game as well. Wilson also won the NWSL Golden Boot in ’23 as the league’s top scorer.

She was also part of the along with Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson that propelled the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Swanson, a fellow Colorado native who in the gold-medal match, missed the 2025 NWSL season on maternity leave but is expected back to the league and the USWNT

While soccer fans wait on the return of Swanson, Wilson has been patient with herself in her ramp-up to get her game back to best-in-the-world level in the lead-up to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

“Obviously, I know that getting back to playing at a high level is not just a straight path, and it’s not going to happen with the snap of my fingers,” Wilson said. “… I hope that I carry myself in the same way that (former USWNT star) Alex (Morgan) did (after her maternity leave), where it showed young girls and athletes that it is very possible to do both — have a family and play the game at a high level.

“It’s so important that women feel supported and feel confident in whatever it is that they choose to do. But knowing you can do both (is paramount).”

Friday’s match will also give Colorado soccer fans their first glimpse at USWNT captain Lindsay Heaps since the midfielder signed with Denver Summit FC in January. Heaps, who scored the game-winning goal in the first friendly against Japan — her 40th goal for the USWNT — is finishing her season with OL Lyonnes before joining Summit FC sometime this summer, likely in June.

When 63,000 fans turned out for the home debut of Denver Summit FC at Empower Field a couple of weekends ago, Colorado soccer fans got to celebrate the arrival of the National Women’s Soccer League with an epic experience far beyond what we could have imagined a generation ago.

Like so many, I got to savor a historic day for women’s sports with a daughter who inherited my deep love for the game. But for me, it was also a day to reminisce on 50 years of observing the slow but irrepressible U.S. growth of the world’s most popular sport.

My introduction to soccer came while covering the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the old North American Soccer League as a young sportswriter in the 1970s when the Brazilian star Pelé — still the only player to win three World Cups — played for the New York Cosmos.

He and boxer Muhammad Ali were the world’s most popular athletes at the time, and his signing in 1975 at the end of his career made many Americans pay attention to soccer for the first time. Other international soccer stars would soon sign with NASL teams as the league fought to elbow its way into the American sports consciousness.

I covered multiple Cosmos games in Giants Stadium that attracted more than 75,000 when, for an all-too-brief heyday, soccer was big in New York, Tampa Bay and a handful of other NASL cities. I ran into Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones in the Cosmos locker room after a game. I covered Pelé’s last game, a retirement celebration, when the sellout crowd included Muhammad Ali, Henry Kissinger and many other Big Apple A-list celebrities.

Pelé scored an unforgettable goal that day on a free kick from 35 yards out, struck with so much power that the follow-through lifted him up into the air. I watched a video of that goal last week, and it’s exactly as I remember it.

I actually had brunch the day after Pelé’s retirement game with him and his immediate family. How that came about is a long story, too long to explain here, but I swear it’s true.

We who fell in love with what Pelé famously called “the beautiful game” thought it was just a matter of time before soccer would be acknowledged as a major sport in the U.S. Instead, it took decades.

The NASL folded in 1985, and the U.S. would go eight years without another national soccer league. My love for soccer only grew over the ensuing decades, though. It even became a family affair.

Soccer at the youth level boomed, especially among girls, and I watched one of my daughters fall in love with the game and the stars of the women’s national team. She was jubilant when she got Brandi Chastain to autograph her USA jersey at a national team game in Denver. Chastain had scored the penalty kick shootout goal to clinch the 1999 World Cup title. My daughter still has the jersey.

I had tears in my eyes covering the championship game of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, which was the final national team appearance for Chastain, Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy, because of the inspiration those women gave my daughter and millions like her. The U.S. beat Brazil that night for the second of its five Olympic gold medals in soccer.

The girls Chastain, Hamm and Foudy inspired now are in their 30s, raising more girls who love soccer, and in Denver, they finally have a women’s home team to call their own.

My daughter has season tickets, and she’s spent a small fortune on Summit FC merch.

If you’re a soccer fan, you know the game requires strength, speed, technique, endurance, toughness, agility, creativity and sound tactical decisions made on the fly. All were on display at Empower Field. If you’re not already a soccer fan, maybe this team will make you one.

You probably heard we were part of the largest crowd ever to see a women’s professional sports event in the U.S. I’m excited to watch Denver Summit evolve through its inaugural season in the NWSL. I’m eager to see Lindsey Heaps, the Golden High School product who is captain of the current women’s national team, when she arrives in June after finishing her contract with a team in France.

My daughter already has her jersey, of course.

The U.S. Women’s National Team announced its roster for its April friendlies against Japan, and the Windsor native Wilson will make her first USWNT appearance in 15 months following maternity leave for the birth of her daughter last fall.

Wilson, part of the “Triple Espresso” front line that helped propel the USWNT to a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has 58 caps for the senior team with 24 goals. She returned to the NWSL for the Portland Thorns on March 13 after over a year away from the league.

Summit FC midfielder and USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps, the national team’s most experienced player with 173 caps, is also on the roster. The Americans begin their three-match series of friendlies against Japan on April 11 at PayPal Park in San Jose, then play the “Nadeshiko” on April 14 at Lumen Field in Seattle before concluding the series on April 17 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

The full USWNT roster for the series, with each player’s current club and number of caps:

Goalies: Jane Campbell (Houston Dash, 10), Claudia Dickey (Seattle Reign FC, 8), Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United, 6).

Defenders: Tierna Davidson (Gotham FC, 67), Emily Fox (Arsenal, 74), Naomi Girma (Chelsea FC, 52), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash, 10), Lilly Reale (Gotham FC, 7), Emily Sams (Angel City FC, 9), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC, 115), Gisele Thompson (Angel City FC, 7), Kennedy Wesley (San Diego Wave FC; 4).

Midfielders: Sam Coffey (Manchester City, 44), Lindsey Heaps (OL Lyonnes, 173), Claire Hutton (Bay FC, 15), Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC, 118), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC, 15), Jaedyn Shaw (Gotham FC, 34), Lily Yohannes (OL Lyonnes, 16).

Forwards: Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current, 10), Jameese Joseph (Chicago Stars FC, 4), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit, 52), Emma Sears (Racing Louisville FC, 17), Ally Sentnor (Kansas City Current, 18), Alyssa Thompson (Chelsea FC, 29), Sophia Wilson (Portland Thorns FC, 58).