Vermont Green FC (USL League 2) @ Virtue Field (Burlington, VT)

A look back at the first soccer game I attended (without playing in it)

*This is something I’ve had in my notes app for YEARS, but never did anything with (this trip occurred on June 24, 2023). With the NCAA soccer season starting today (according to Google), the Green having just won the USL2 national championship, and in honor of the old Internet tradition of "Throwback Thursday", I figured this’d be something fun to read/post. A lot of it is LARGELY unedited from when I left it in 2023, but I did feel a few updates were needed (plus I added a merch section).

There are many collegiate summer leagues for college baseball across America, but I tend to follow three in particular as they’re exclusively based in the six New England States: the Cape Cod Baseball League, the New England Collegiate Baseball League, and the Futures League.

In 2021, I visited all ten teams of the Cape League plus one other team in Worcester, MA over a two week vacation¹. The following year - now living in Massachusetts - I visited more teams from the other two leagues, but not all of them. After that summer, I decided that the next year (2023), I’d visit all the teams in the three leagues (mainly for merch, as many of these teams do not sell merch online).

I eagerly awaited the three leagues to release their schedules, and when they did, two things happened:

1. I found out one team from the NECBL folded (RIP Winnipesaukee Muskrats - fun fact: I was at their final game)
2. I began planning out travel schedules for the summer - trying to line up teams that were geographically close to each other so I could visit both on the same day

As part of that second point, I knew that planning out certain visits would definitely be interesting (case in point: booking a ferry ticket in JANUARY to get to Martha's Vineyard with my car in JULY), but one state would be the most daunting for me: Vermont.

Three teams call the state of Vermont home: one in White River Junction (the Upper Valley Nighthawks²), and the other two in Montpelier (the Vermont Mountaineers) and Burlington (the Vermont Lake Monsters). The capital and largest city of Vermont (respectively) are about 30-40ish minutes from each other…but north of 3 hours from where I lived at the time³. Plus, with games starting around 6 PM and the prospect of driving home on unlit, winding mountain roads while dead tired, a single day trip to and from is pretty much impossible to do; you really have to spend the night somewhere close.

Here’s the thing: hotels in Vermont ain’t cheap. I tried to look at hotels for the trip and found that most hotels were at least $200 a night. I brought up that I wanted to go to Vermont with my parents, and they mentioned that they wanted to go there too (they had planned a vacation with my mom’s cousin), but the weekends wouldn’t really line up plus, again, hotel prices. We ended up lucking out however: my dad found an inexpensive interval unit somewhere between the two cities for a week. Originally, I planned on only being there for a few days; however, I decided that the time in Vermont was too good to pass up (save for leaving on Friday so I could do other things on Saturday), so I arranged to spend the entire week at the hotel/unit⁴.

As the trip approached, I noticed that a potential issue came up: the weather. I’m a bit of a weather geek, so I would check the forecasts to see what weather to expect…and the theme of the week was going to be rain literally the whole week (the summer of 2023 featured MANY rainy weekends). Baseball games cannot be played in the rain, so my goals of visiting the teams I wanted to see were in jeopardy.

The day I left for Vermont, guess what happened?

It rained!

I found out early in the morning that the Mountaineers had cancelled their game, so I figured I’d just go to Burlington to see the Lake Monsters - after all, they seemed like they wanted to soldier on with their game. I made my way to Burlington, trying to check for updates from the Lake Monsters regarding their game whilst driving (DON'T DO IT KIDS). Eventually, I found out that the game had been postponed…when I was almost to Burlington and well past where I was staying.

You might be expecting me to simply turn around, go check in at the unit, figure out a place to get dinner, and then discuss the next day when “better” weather plus a Lake Monsters doubleheader on Sunday allowed me to visit both the Lake Monsters and Mountaineers on the same day. Here’s the thing, though: this story is not about baseball.

It’s about association football (commonly referred to in the United States as soccer), because as it turns out, there’s a soccer team in Burlington: Vermont Green FC. They’re in what’s considered the fourth level of soccer in the US (USL League 2), and many of their players are collegiate athletes looking to keep their legs fresh for the upcoming fall NCAA season; in fact, the Green play at the same stadium as the University of Vermont (UVM) soccer teams. However, the team is probably more notable for the culture they’ve created: their main motto is “Climate Justice is Social Justice”, and they do what they can to truly involve themselves in the community. This is also reflected in their supporters group, who call themselves the "Green Mountain Bhoys" (a nod to a Revolutionary War-era milita and a famous soccer team from Scotland) and are known for their social outreach (and political banners at games for better or worse).

When I first heard about Vermont Green from an email from the Men in Blazers, I immediately checked if they’d be home when I was in Vermont, and lo and behold, they were! I had to rearrange the schedule I had made a bit, but committing to being in Vermont the whole week made it much easier. However, nervousness about the super rainy forecast made me question whether I still wanted to check out the Green, since I really wanted to prioritize the baseball teams. When both teams cancelled their games, however, I figured that since soccer games rarely get cancelled by rain, watching the Green would be a “safe bet”. However, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to spend two hours in the elements, so I remained indecisive before eventually deciding to see what a soccer game was like - after all, the last time I had attended a soccer game, I was seven years old and playing in it!

It was still pouring when I arrived and made the genius decision to park on the roof of the nearby parking garage (I was able to move my car, however, as I arrived well over an hour before game time). A game between (more) amateur teams from Vermont and New Hampshire was going on when I arrived, and I watched the end of that from a nearby sidewalk with a giant overhang protecting spectators from the rain. When the time for the “big game” came up, I ended up spending most of the hour between the gates opening and the match starting under the bleachers to get some cover from the rain before opening the umbrella I had brought and moving up to the stands to see the match.

I spent most of the first half standing very close to the “hardcore” supporters’ section (thankfully, I bought a jersey and scarf before the game to “blend in”). They were what you’d expect from soccer fans: loud, rowdy, and having a great time (they were constantly trying to chat up one of the opposing players and even tricked him into “claiming” his teammate was bad). During the game, the PA announcer did more than just announce who scored goals and who was being subbed on/off: he occasionally did some play-by-play of the game action, and to be fair to just about everything else involved with the club…he’s the best part of the game BY FAR.

By about halftime, it stopped raining. I thought about putting my umbrella and jacket away but didn’t want to miss too much (though in retrospect I totally should have). The Green ended up winning the game in an absolute goal fest, and afterwards, fans were allowed onto the field to mingle with the team and get autographs (something which is really awesome IMO).

While Vermont Green was definitely a fun experience, I learned after my vacation that it’s probably the best experience in their division by many, MANY miles. I tried going to another game in the same division about a week later (the Boston Bolts, who were playing in Newton, MA at the time⁵), and it was basically the complete opposite of what the experience was in Vermont. The best part about it was that I got in for free…because nothing was being sold: no tickets, no food, and no merchandise. Also, there were probably less than 50 spectators at the game, and I use the term “spectators” because I’m pretty sure most of them were there to support individual players as opposed to the team as a whole.

As an after script to my trip, I ended up seeing the Green again the following year - this time as visitors to a "smaller" team just north of Boston: Boston City FC. I legitimately cannot tell you much about them, as information about them on the internet is HARD to find. What I do know is that they seem to have two teams: the USL2 side in the States, plus some team in Brazil; somehow, the Brazilian team seems to get more attention online than the American team. The game itself was rather unremarkable: the Green won 3-0, and it really seemed like there were more Vermont Green fans there than home fans in the intensely sparse crowd. What was neat, however, was getting up close and personal with the Green's players once again; I was kinda nervous about trying to talk to any of them, but they seemed like a cool bunch.

In the first three years of the club’s existence, Vermont Green finished third each year. Two of those years saw the team make the playoffs, but both playoff runs ended in the round of 16. However, in 2025, they put it all together - winning the USL2 National Championship without losing a game in the process (something that hadn’t happened since 2010). The championship game was played at Virtue Field (less than three weeks ago as of this being posted), and is estimated to have drawn close to 5,000 fans - nearly double the number of official seats available. In addition, the success of the Green has spilled into the UVM men's soccer team - who won the NCAA championship nine months prior to the Green's triumph - as I saw a report that their ticket sales had picked up.

It's crazy to think that in three short years, Burlington, Vermont has become one of the de facto soccer capitals of the United States. What Vermont Green (and to a certain extent UVM) has done is incredible: by focusing on ingraining themselves into the community, they've built a fanbase that doesn't just support the club, but draws people in as well. Now that the "secret" is out with them winning a championship, it's going to be VERY interesting to see where they go from here (as debate about whether or not USL2 is "right" for them continues to rage on among other things).

MERCH

One of the founders of Vermont Green is a well known graphic designer for his work with sport teams (his most notable work being the current look of the Minnesota Twins). Each year, he designs a new jersey for the team to wear for most of their matches (as few of their opponents wear green), and it's usually VERY good.

When I first thought about making this trip, I looked into buying a jersey online and was slightly saddened to find out that their 2023 jersey - widely regarded as one of the most unique jersey EVER in soccer - was sold out. I ended up getting a cream colored jersey with green sleeves and a collar (which I'm fairly sure the team no longer sells) plus a scarf (a common accessory worn at soccer matches). However...these weren't the jersey and scarf I mentioned wearing during the match.

At the match, I lucked out: the team had just restocked their primary jersey, and I ended up getting it plus one of their training shirts (as they feature Ben and Jerry's on the front), as well as a hat and a different scarf (which has become my go-to for the Green).

If you're ever in Burlington and are looking to snag some Vermont Green merch, there's a store in the area run by someone who has played for the team in recent seasons (I visited once and got another scarf and training shirt, as the jerseys/shirts change each year). Just be forewarned, however: with the team SOARING in popularity (even BEFORE winning it all), he's had trouble keeping things on the shelves⁶...

ON DECK:

Remember how I mentioned the summer baseball leagues WAY back at the beginning of this post? Well, tomorrow's post features a team that recently "left" one of those leages to return to its independent "roots" (it's also a return to 2025 trips).