Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
Vermont Green FC’s men’s team will return to the national championship Saturday after high-scoring wins last weekend over Asheville City SC and Laredo Heat in Texas.
The Burlington-based team, on the brink of a second consecutive championship and undefeated season, will face four-time title winners Flint City Bucks in Michigan.
“It feels surreal,” said club co-founder Patrick Infurna of the team’s back-to-back appearances in the final. “I hope this can be a regular thing.”
The game comes just two weeks after the club’s women’s side reached the national championship, falling just short against Salmon Bay FC on penalty kicks.
Green supporters will also remember the scenes at the University of Vermont’s Virtue Field one year ago, when the club secured its first national championship. Following the win, a euphoric crowd overflowed from sold-out bleachers to encircle the field completely — with UVM’s own first national men’s soccer title months earlier fresh in the minds of many.
This time, head coach Chris Taylor’s players will not have the home support behind them. But the team’s record this season in the United Soccer League’s second men’s tier has been convincing both home and away, scoring a whopping 87 goals and conceding just 14.
The Green netted 11 of those last weekend, first in a 4-0 win over North Carolina’s Asheville City SC on July 24 that saw them crowned Eastern Conference champions. On July 26, the team pushed on once again, securing a berth in the final with a decisive 7-1 victory against hosts Laredo Heat.
This postseason has painted a thoroughly different picture than the previous one, Infurna said, when his team consistently felt like underdogs and often had to grind out tough wins after conceding early. This year, the Green have almost invariably been dominant.
“We were kind of the team to beat going into this,” Infurna said of this year’s playoffs. But now, the Vermont club faces what he called “probably the most successful amateur soccer team in this country” at Flint’s Atwood Stadium.
Saturday’s game between the last two teams standing in the Green’s 158-team summer league will be streamed live at 7:30 p.m. EST on SportsEngine and WCAX. Fans and venues have also begun to organize watch parties in Vermont, including events at The Mad Rose in Rutland, the Zero Gravity Beer Hall in Burlington and Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier.
In addition to the tens of thousands of viewers expected to tune in online, Infurna said, hundreds of Green fans and family members have told the club they’ll be attending the game in person. The support is “tangible fuel” for what happens on the field, he added.
“This group has shown they’ll go anywhere and any place and play a soccer game and try and win it,” said Taylor in his statement earlier this week. “We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
