BURLINGTON — Some seven months ago, Maxi Kissel, clad in the green and gold of the University of Vermont men’s soccer team, slotted home the goal that won Vermont its first national collegiate championship — in any major sport — in school history.
Winning one national title would be impressive enough. But on Saturday, Kissel, along with three other players who lifted the NCAA Division I trophy for UVM last fall, will be on the university’s home field in Burlington to compete for a second one.
This time, they’ll be playing for Vermont Green Football Club, a semi-professional team also based in the Queen City. The Green compete in United Soccer League 2, which has about 150 teams across the country. The clubs field mostly college players who often hope the summertime showcase will attract the eyes of professional scouts.
“It’s a bit surreal,” Kissel said Wednesday afternoon, taking a break during a team training session at UVM’s Virtue Field. In just a few days, the stadium’s bleachers and surrounding fences are set to be lined with thousands of fans for the 7 p.m. game against Ballard FC, a team that’s based just north of downtown Seattle.
“It’s like, wow — we haven’t lost a game in ages,” said Kissel, who’s a forward from Germany, speaking about himself and his peers on both UVM and Vermont Green. (Vermont Green has gone undefeated so far this season.) “We just do our best every day — and, thankfully, good things happen.”
Kissel has played a key role on Vermont Green’s offense in recent weeks. He scored one of the three goals the team needed to overcome FC Motown of New Jersey in an early round of the United Soccer League 2 playoffs this month. Then, in last Sunday’s semifinals, he notched a goal in Vermont’s dramatic, penalty-kick shootout win over Alabama’s Dothan United.
Vermont would not have won that semifinal without another UVM stalwart — goalkeeper Niklas Herceg, also from Germany, who blocked two of Dothan United’s penalty kicks during the shootout. UVM defender Nathan Siméon, of Quebec, and midfielder Ryan Zellefrow, of Pennsylvania, have also been go-to starters for the Green’s playoff run.
“With the UVM team, we kind of went into the games — especially in the college (tournament) — knowing like, no matter what happens, we were going to win,” said Zellefrow, also during Wednesday’s training. “And this team feels so similar.”
That two Vermont-based soccer teams have found so much success, one so soon after the other, feels unlikely in a state with no professional sports franchises of its own. But players and coaches said the pair of national tournament runs is hardly a coincidence.
UVM’s championship win — a product, in part, of a roster bolstered by top players recruited from around the country and the world (the case for many college teams) — “captured the imagination of so many people around the state,” said Chris Taylor, Vermont Green’s head coach, in an interview after Wednesday’s training wrapped up.
Having more Vermonters interested in soccer, in turn, helped Vermont Green build on what was already some of the highest average home game attendance of any team in United Soccer League 2 in the country, Taylor said. Vermont Green’s semifinal drew about 4,000 spectators out to the UVM stadium, and Saturday’s match could see more.
“They paved the way, I think, for this season. We’ve obviously got some of their best players as well,” Talyor added, speaking about the UVM men’s soccer team. “I don’t think we have the season we’re having without UVM’s season.”
Zellefrow noted that Vermont Green’s robust fanbase has also spurred talented collegiate players who hail from other countries, which have had strong soccer fan cultures for far longer than the U.S., to want to spend the summer playing in Burlington.
More than half of the players on Vermont Green’s current roster were born outside the U.S, according to the club’s website.
“I think those guys, when they come to Vermont and see the fans, and the community and so forth, they feel like they’re at home,” said Rob Dow, the UVM men’s soccer coach. “They’re talking about, ‘Oh, I grew up in this power club in Germany, or in Belgium or France — but I never felt this type of energy before.’”
Like UVM last year, Vermont Green has made several late-game comebacks this year to keep its season going. Some fans have loaned the team versions of the “Cardiac Cats” nickname UVM’s team earned in 2024 after a similar series of late-stage heroics.
Taylor, the Vermont Green coach, said his team has been successful at the tail end of games in part because of its deep bench of talented players who can be brought in as substitutes with fresher legs, essentially helping Vermont “just outlast” other teams.
It’s a strength that will likely be put to the test in Saturday’s final against Ballard FC, Taylor said, which has consistently been among the best United Soccer League 2 teams in the country in recent years. Ballad won the national championship game in 2023.
“They make games really fast,” Taylor said. “Their pressure is really good. They’re a pretty relentless team.”
Kissel, the UVM and Vermont Green forward, said he, too, was confident in the team’s ability to come back late if needed. He credited the fans’ unabated support — but agreed the parallels with his college team’s run are hard to ignore.
“Maybe it’s a Vermont thing,” he said, smiling.
