The best soccer story in New England right now is in Vermont

It’s an unprecedented run for Green FC, which was founded in 2021. Though the club has made the USL League Two playoffs in three of its first four seasons, the 2025 run has already topped them all.

“We hadn’t been behind once the whole season until the Western Mass game,” Green FC sporting director (and former Boston College standout) Adam Pfeifer said in a recent interview. “You always worry about how your team’s going to react when you’ve been ahead the whole season. Obviously they reacted incredibly well.”

The game against Lionsbridge, which Green FC upset in its first ever playoff matchup in 2022, will be a huge test for head coach Chris Taylor’s team. The Virginia-based opponent has won three division titles since its own founding in 2017, and made a run to the 2023 USL League Two National Championship.

Yet the Vermonters have already scored major achievements in 2025 beyond the undefeated regular season and current playoff run.

Despite playing in USL League Two, several levels below Major League Soccer, Green FC has become one of the hottest tickets in New England. The club announced that the Conference Final sold out within 30 seconds of tickets going on sale earlier this week.

“There were thousands of people in the queue that got left out, which is unfortunate,” Pfeifer acknowledged. “Certainly not what we want. There’s been obviously some frustration, but our capacity is our capacity, and there’s no real way to move that. I think honestly a conservative estimate would be that we could have sold 10,000 tickets to this game.”

The club encouraged fans who were unable to get tickets to show support by grabbing a spot on the north end hill overlooking the field, noting that “we will continue working this offseason to expand our capacity.”

It’s testament to the popularity of soccer in Vermont at the moment that such a flood of fans exists. Virtue Field has a capacity under 3,000 (the club cited “2,700+ fans” at the win over FC Motown). Normally, the field is the home venue for the University of Vermont. The Catamounts are in a golden age of their own, as the men’s soccer team won its first National Championship in late 2024.

Pfeifer noted that he hopes the local popularity will endure beyond the current period.

“We’re hoping it’s not just a moment, and that it’s something that we can sustain for years to come,” he said. “I know the staff at UVM feel the same way. These last four years, it’s been pretty consistent, but this has certainly been a bit of a crescendo in terms of what they were able to accomplish and what we’re hoping that we can contribute to in terms of the success in this community.”

With a fiercely loyal fan section led by the “Green Mountain Bhoys” supporters group, inimitable play-by-play announcer Tom Proctor, and stylish jerseys created by noted designer (and club co-founder) Matthew Wolf, the club has tried to stay true to its Vermont roots, local sponsors and all. Added to that, Green FC has also championed the cause of social justice as part of its foundation.

“I think that everybody here is super accessible,” Pfeifer explained. “Whether it’s the players or our founders of our club, everybody’s out in the community and interacting and engaging. That was a big part of what the founders of the club had in mind: a community club that was going to be environmentally sustainable and that was going to back social justice issues. That resonates really well with our community.”

Green FC, true to its name, promotes sustainability. It’s “mission” includes becoming environmentally “net zero,” fighting systemic racism, and donating to local nonprofits.

Amid Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Green FC has continued to unabashedly espouse a very different political viewpoint.

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders was a halftime speaker during the recent playoff win, thanking fans for support and noting that “this small state is one of the leading centers of soccer in America.” He backed the team to make a comeback in the game, which they promptly did.

“It’s definitely an interesting time, politically, in this country,” Pfeifer said. “And there are a lot of hard, uncomfortable conversations going on within families and communities. Our club has its values. We don’t demand that every player or every supporter shares that in everything. But I think what we hope is that people’s ears are open and that everyone’s willing to engage in constructive conversation.”

So while other, higher-level New England soccer teams languish lower in the standings, the Vermonters have seized the spotlight by championing an authenticity both on and off the field.

One of the next steps could be the founding of a full-time women’s club. Green FC has already made some initial moves, thanks to Massachusetts native and former U.S. national team World Cup winner Sam Mewis.

Mewis, who retired from her playing career in 2024, is now a Vermont resident. Thanks to his Boston College ties to Charlie Davies, another former U.S. national teamer, Pfeifer said he was able to contact Mewis with an idea: Maybe she could coach a women’s team that could at least play exhibition games.

“I reached out to Charlie just to see if he had a connection, and he did,” Pfeifer explained. “I reached out to her and we had coffee and told her what we wanted to do. She was a little nervous about coaching at first, but once she got past that, she’s been incredibly engaged and we’ve been really fortunate to have her.

“We hope to have a full-time women’s club as soon as possible,” he continued. “We’ll continue to grow things. If there’s not a league for us that makes sense to be in geographically, we’ll continue to get creative with the women’s side. But yes, the idea is to — as soon as possible — have a full-time women’s team.”

Mewis has now coached Green FC’s women’s team to multiple exhibition game wins, adding more luster to the growing club.

Whether or not the men’s team’s near-future includes a run to the national championship remains to be seen, but any current analysis of New England soccer must now account for the Green Mountain State.

Vermont has improbably become the center of the local soccer scene.