In the 13th minute of a 6-1 win against Chicago, Janine Sonis ran into the penalty area and stealthily positioned herself behind a line of defenders, before striking a crisp shot into the right corner. It was her ninth goal of the season, the most of any Denver Summit player, and joint-seventh in the NWSL.
Now playing for her hometown club in their debut season, the NWSL and Canada veteran feels that her happiness is translating on to the field. "I think it's been a season that I've enjoyed myself more than any other season in my career, and I think that that's showing in the way that I'm playing," she said.
With family nearby, driving the same roads as when being driven to practice as a child, and captaining Colorado's first women's professional soccer team, Sonis said "it's been, to be a little bit cliched, a dream come true to play here", adding: "I didn't think that Denver would get a professional women's team while I was still playing. But it's the 63,000 [fans at the team's home opener at Empower Field at Mile High], the fans that continue to show up for us every week, [it] proves the point that it's way overdue."
The versatile 32-year-old, who is playing at left-back, has had a profound influence on their smooth transition into the league, adding a positivity to her play and a decisive impact on and off the ball in a season when many of the scorelines have been narrow. Having experienced some of the league's growing pains, she acknowledges the progress made since its inception, leading to a moment where debutante teams such as Denver have smoother introductions.
"I think we've hit a point where the expectation in every environment around the NWSL is so high, especially with the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] and what the CBA requires. And so I think it's been just really cool for me to see the evolution of the league, and then to join an expansion team and see where the floor is. I mean, with a brand new facility, building a stadium, like where teams are coming into now is just so significantly different than when I first started out."
Denver have spent the season looking up at the playoff positions, slowly moving up the table with a consistency of effort leading to seven wins, six draws and eight defeats, with only two losses by more than one goal. After this weekend (when Sonis also marked her 10,000th regular-season minute in the competition), the Summit are sitting just below the playoffs in ninth, with nine regular-season matches remaining.
On how to measure success for a league debutante, Sonis mentions the target of the playoffs, while noting myriad successes already achieved on and off the pitch: "It's interesting because I think there's two different answers. As a competitor, success to me is nothing less than making playoffs … We're putting ourselves in incredible positions in games, we're creating tons of opportunities, and we're either drawing games or losing games by really small margins. I think that we have already found success in a lot of ways, and we've built a really clear identity and clear playing style, and have built a a solid culture in the locker room with people that are very clear about the fact that they want to be here and compete for this club."
On what it will take to break into the playoff positions, and stay there, in an infamously chaotic and tightly packed table, Sonis said: "Our attacking relationships and the way that we create opportunities, continuing to build those partnerships in the front line. I know as a full-back, a big part of our game is getting our full-backs into the attack, so putting in quality service and helping create for those attacking players. And I think we need to be very clear that it's one game at a time. Right now, we're looking at it as a kind of a five-game season, and doing the most that we can in those five games to put ourselves in the best position."
Having the Champions League winner and fellow Coloradan Lindsey Heaps on hand after she returned from playing in Europe this summer is also a boost: "I don't think that anyone can deny when someone with that résumé and presence comes into an environment that they wouldn't have an immediate impact on the field, but even just the culture in the locker room, her professionalism, the way that she takes care of herself, the way that she speaks, is just so influential to not just our younger players but for myself as well."
What is Sonis's favourite contribution of her own this season? A 94th-minute set-piece goal against the Utah Royals to secure a 2-1 win on 9 August. Of the well-rehearsed strike around the defensive wall, she said: "The free-kick was definitely special for me, just because I spend a lot of time working on them."
Defensively, she emphasized the difficulty of defending some of the league's elite attackers, such as Sophia Wilson : "I think my favourite thing has just been learning and getting better, and and similarly seeing the fruit of my labor and studying how to be a better defender and the art of it … I've been really proud of the evolution of our backline across the season, and we've put in so much intentional work, and it's been really nice to see that come to life."
Other favourite moments include games at the Colorado Rapids Stadium, where she played her state championships in high school, and, of course, setting the NWSL attendance record with 63,004 fans at Mile High Stadium. Sonis said: "I think there's parts of it that felt like a fever dream."
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