Janine Sonis has turned her return to Colorado into the finest campaign of her professional career, powering the expansion Denver Summit toward an unlikely playoff push in the club's first NWSL season.
The 32-year-old, now deployed at left-back, struck her ninth goal of the season in a 6-1 rout of Chicago, sliding into the box and finishing crisply into the far corner. The strike put her level for the team lead and placed her joint-seventh across the entire league in scoring.
For Sonis, a Denver native and Canadian international, playing in front of hometown supporters has reinvigorated her love of the game. "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.
Being back on familiar roads and suiting up as captain of Colorado's first professional women's soccer team has carried special weight. "I didn't think that Denver would get a professional women's team while I was still playing," Sonis said, calling the experience "a dream come true." She pointed to the 63,004 supporters who packed Mile High Stadium for the club's home opener, a new NWSL attendance record, as proof of the demand that existed long before the franchise arrived. "It's the fans that continue to show up for us every week, [it] proves the point that it's way overdue," she added.
Sonis has also witnessed how far the league has evolved since she first broke in, crediting the current collective bargaining agreement and rising standards for making expansion smoother for teams like Denver. "The expectation in every environment around the NWSL is so high, especially with the CBA and what the CBA requires," she said, noting the contrast between the modern facilities greeting new franchises and the conditions she encountered earlier in her career.
Denver's season has been defined by narrow margins — seven wins, six draws and eight losses, with only two defeats by more than a single goal. The Summit currently sit in ninth place, just outside the playoff picture, with nine matches remaining. Sonis also passed a personal landmark this weekend, reaching 10,000 regular-season minutes in the league.
Asked to define success in a debut season, Sonis offered a dual perspective. "As a competitor, success to me is nothing less than making playoffs," she said, while also acknowledging the progress already made. "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." She added that the club has "built a really clear identity and clear playing style" along with a strong locker-room culture.
Looking ahead, Sonis emphasized sharpening the team's attacking combinations, including the contribution of the full-backs, as key to climbing the standings. "I know as a full-back, a big part of our game is getting our full-backs into the attack," she said, framing the remaining fixtures as a compact "five-game season" requiring full focus.
The arrival of Champions League winner and fellow Colorado native Lindsey Heaps, back from a stint in Europe, has provided a further lift. Sonis praised Heaps' professionalism and the influence she has had both on younger players and on herself.
Among her personal highlights this season, Sonis singled out a 94th-minute free-kick that secured a 2-1 win over the Utah Royals on 9 August, a set piece she had rehearsed extensively. She also spoke of the satisfaction in her defensive development, particularly facing elite attacking talent such as Sophia Wilson, and reflected fondly on playing at Colorado Rapids Stadium, the site of her high school state championship matches.
Reflecting on the record crowd at Mile High Stadium, Sonis summed up the surreal nature of the moment: "I think there's parts of it that felt like a fever dream."
Based on reporting from The Guardian.