Photo credit: Denver Summit FC
Highlands Ranch native scored 10th goal of season in draw at Angel City
Note: this piece originally appeared in inboxes on Sunday, Sept. 13. Sign up for Nourse’s Notes here to get first access to newsletter stories.
While Lindsey Heaps has some more time to plead her case, Janine Sonis has been far and away the greatest signing in Denver Summit FC’s short history.
The 32-year-old Highlands Ranch native came from Racing Louisville having scored 18 goals in her 10-year career prior to coming home. Nine months later, she’s more than half way to matching that total… as a left back.
She scored her 10th goal for her hometown club on Friday night, becoming the first-ever Summit FC player to do so and just the eighth in the NWSL to eclipse double digits this season. She’s tied with three other players for fifth place on the league’s goal-scoring chart. She’s also got four assists on the year.
Her milestone goal was arguably her best. In Friday’s 3-all draw with Angel City FC, she took a light touch to set up a 24-yard strike from the left side of the box. It floated with pace to the right side-netting past ACFC keeper Angelina Anderson.
She recently received her third straight monthly NWSL Best XI honor, marking consistency rarely seen in any league. It’s hard to argue her offensive output at her position, which has resulted in whispers of Sonis entering the NWSL MVP conversation.
That may or may not be realistic in a league that has Ashley Sanchez scoring 19 goals in 24 appearances for the fifth-place North Carolina Courage. Barbra Banda’s 16 goals in 20 games deserves a shout, too, though the Orlando Pride has plummeted the standings and out of the playoff picture for now.
But you can make a stronger case for something else. Is there a better left back in the world right now than Janine Sonis?
“No. No. You look at the offensive volume she’s bringing: she’s really improving,” Summit FC coach Nick Cushing told me after Denver walloped Gotham FC at home, 3-0. “Go back and watch the San Diego game at home — the 2-0 up, 3-2 down. She had a difficult time against Dudinha. Since then, she works every day. 1v1 defending, positioning, and everybody sees the goals, and everybody sees the assists, and everybody sees the offensive volume.”
In that game, Dudinha bypassed Sonis with ease on a few occasions, not the least of which in the 65th minute, when the Brazilian danced down the byline past Sonis to set up Wave’s winner, sealing a massive comeback by the visitors.
“What I see is somebody, at her period of her career, working like a rookie, investing in her career, wants to be a better fullback to be ready for the World Cup next year and wants to be a better fullback for Denver Summit to get above the (playoff) line,” Cushing continued. “She wants to be a better captain, even though she’s now vice captain, wants to support Lindsey (Heaps) more. One thing I’ll tell you: As a head coach, it makes your job incredibly easy when you have human beings like Janine Sonis.”
Defensively, there’s still room to improve, for sure. According to NWSL Labs, she’s only in the fifth percentile among fullbacks in terms of ball-winning. But that’s largely due to volume. The quality of her defensive actions has improved — and in particular, the timeliness. Against Gotham, she put herself in great positions to stop attacks before they started.
