French Connection Catapults Vermont Green Past Boston Bolts
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It was a chilly day in Waltham, Massachusetts but Vermont Green was cooking on the pitch, securing a 2-0 win over the Boston Bolts.
Judewellin Michel got the start in net while Amoni Thomas, Moussa Ndiaye, Rui Aoki, and Daniel Lang made up the back line. Eskil Gjerde and Julien Le Bourdoulous served as defensive midfielders while Zach Zengue played in his familiar No. 10 role. Envo Dovlo and Mohammed Ibrahim were on the wings while Arnaud Tattevin was the lone striker.
From the jump, Vermont had Boston on the back foot. Chris Taylor has his squad ramping up pressure by pressing opponents when they have the ball and it paid dividends. The Green dominated possession and were consistently in the final third searching for the opening goal.
“It's honestly been the best thing, because I haven't had to convince them that it's the right thing to do,” head coach Chris Taylor told The Blazing Musket after the match. “They want to do it, and I really love what they are like without the ball, because I think that's something that we can certainly always improve upon. I'm really happy with the willingness and the commitments of the players to be gritty without the ball, because we know we've got class with it, but we got to have that other side as well.”
Another key component of Vermont’s style of play is the freedom that players have when pressing. Midfielders can push forward and outside backs can push laterally and vertically if the press demands it. The style is reminiscent of the Total Football tactical system implemented by Ajax in the 1970s.
“These players are really intelligent, and I told them, they've got the best view of the pitch,” Taylor said. “They've got a better view than me, so we trust them to adjust if they feel necessary. We'll try and guide them. We'll try and help them, but they've got a really good eye for the game. We've got some really high-level players so we've got to let them be them. We can't control them the whole time. They're good enough to make decisions on their own and sniff things out in the game. So they do a good job of that.”
The scales of the match would flip further in the favor of Vermont in the 27th minute when Tattevin had a tidy finish. It was the UNC Greensboro forward’s first goal of the 2025 USL League Two season.
Things only got worse for the Bolts in the 34th minute as after a poor pass to a teammate, goalkeeper Mateo Buyu was issued a red card for clattering into Tattevin. Boston would have to play the rest of the match down a main and without its starting goalkeeper.
Vermont would pile on the pressure but entered halftime with just one goal to its name. Taylor would bring on Stephane Njike to replace Ibrahim, a change that was once again impactful. Tattevin played the ball centrally to Njike who slotted home his second goal in as many games to put the Green up 2-0 in the 50th minute.
From there on, The Green would push for a third goal but came up unsuccessful. Boston tried to strike back on the counter but some quality saves from Michel kept the clean sheet.
Still, Taylor expected more from his squad with the man advantage.
“Thought it was all really good, until we scored the second goal,” he said. “Playing against 10 men, mentally, I think we, we dropped our standards a little bit. First half, I thought we were really, really good, really dangerous, moved the ball really well. Both goals were real classy goals, but I'd like to see us put our foot on the gas a little bit more after getting the second goal, to be honest.”
Now the Green will take a break from league play as they play FC Laval in the Maple Cup on Saturday and then have a friendly against Providence City on Tuesday. Vermont is currently second in the Northeast Division only trailing the Western Mass Pioneers.