Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
Mike Popovitch, a dyed-in-the-wool Vermont Green FC fan, spent a rainy Saturday evening in Flint, Michigan, leading over 150 traveling fans in song through a megaphone.
The Green won 2-1 against the Flint City Bucks that night in the national final of the United Soccer League’s second men’s tier. The win earned the club its second consecutive championship, making Vermont Green the first team to achieve that feat in over two decades. Head coach Chris Taylor’s team has not lost in the nationwide summer league, which is composed mainly of college players, since July 2024 — a 42-match unbeaten streak.
“It was an amazing experience,” Popovitch said of his journey to Michigan over the weekend. Having followed the Green “since day one,” he serves as a capo — a sort of informal chant conductor — for the club’s most dedicated supporters.
“It just really shows what this team has done for this community,” he said of the final’s atmosphere.
Saturday’s win comes in a triumphant period for soccer in Burlington. The University of Vermont men’s soccer team’s improbable championship win in 2024 was followed by the Green’s first national title last year. And after the club’s women’s side reached the national final in its inaugural year last month, the men’s team swept to yet another undefeated championship season.
Despite controlling large swaths of a cagey match Saturday, the Green were kept unusually quiet until breaking the deadlock by way of a second-half own goal. After conceding almost immediately, Vermont pulled ahead again in the 75th minute through a penalty kick from standout midfielder Ryan Zellefrow.
“I’m feeling a ton of pride,” said club co-founder Patrick Infurna in an interview Monday. “They always find a way to win.”
“It’s probably the most emotional I’ve been at the final whistle,” agreed Taylor in a club statement after the game. “To do it a second year in a row … last year was magical, this is incredible.”
For Infurna, it was painful to play the final away from the Green’s home support, which has seen Virtue Field’s 2,500-seat bleachers sold out nearly every match this season for both the men and women. Based on the team’s record, he feels this year’s playoff run should rightfully have been set in Burlington.
But nonetheless, he said, the traveling Green fans rivaled the much larger home crowd in rowdiness, creating an atmosphere “worthy of a final.” Watch parties across the state also tuned in from afar, from the Mad Rose in Rutland to the Zero Gravity Beer Hall in Burlington.
Over the last few years, Popovitch said, he’s been “growing to love the team — growing to love the sport — in a way that I didn’t know that I could.” In addition to his membership in the Green Mountain Bhoys, the club’s primary supporters’ group, he also co-hosts and produces the podcast “United in Green.”
“You’re able to experience something that’s just joyful and positive,” he said of the team. “It’s kind of an escape for people from their hectic normal lives.”
The UVM Medical Center X-ray technician has seen his kids grow up around the club too, with both now holding season passes. He credits Vermont Green with creating a welcoming culture for its youngest fans, and “giving them the ability to dream, you know, that maybe they can play for this team someday,” he said.
Infurna said he has outlined the long-term aspirations of his club with this next generation of fans in mind. In the background of on-the-field successes, he said, the club is hoping to build lasting cultural infrastructure and find even more ways to connect with the growing community of fans.
“We want this to sit in people’s lives,” he said. By the time the kids watching today are adults, he added, “They get to remember it as it was, and they get to build on it themselves.”
Both the Green men’s and women’s teams will be back in regular season action next May.
In the meantime, Infurna hopes to celebrate Saturday’s win at a UVM sporting event soon, though many players have already dispersed across the country for their fall seasons. In any event, he said, “We’ll find ways to make sure that trophy gets around, and the people who really deserve to be a part of those celebrations get to be a part of it.”
