Vermont Green FC Attack Comes Alive Against AC Connecticut
The Green added another win on Saturday
After struggling to score early on in the season, Vermont Green FC has hit a purple patch in front of goal as they defeated AC Connecticut on Saturday evening 7-0. With the win, Vermont heads to the top of the table, albeit having one more match played than the Western Mass Pioneers.
Adam Pfeifer deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation that saw Jahiem Wickham get another start in net. Gabe Threadgold, Reid Fisher, Moussa Ndiaye, and Lucas Windschauer made up the back line with Daniel Pacella and Rodrigo Vaza serving as defensive midfielders.
Xavi O’Neil and Zachary Zengue played on the wings while Andrey 'Gato' Salmeron played in Zengue’s usual No. 10 position. Up top, Jacob Labovitz was the lone striker.
The match served as a reunion of sorts with former member of The Green Sam McCann making his return to Virtue Field albeit as a member of AC Connecticut. It took a while for the match to begin as due to bus issues, the arrival of the Connecticut club was delayed.
But once the match was underway, Vermont got to work. The Green found their first goal in the 7th minute as O’Neil put home an early goal, as the winger smashed home a rebound off of a Labovitz shot. Then in the 17th minute, Labovitz was able to find a goal of his own. “We knew the floodgates would open a little bit,” the Vermont Green FC head coach said after the win. “And obviously, it's good to get two goals early in the game so that was great. We still you know, missed some pretty clear opportunities that we could have extended the lead in the first half but it was good.”
Unfortunately, Labovitz was forced to come off at half time after going down with an injury prior to the end of the first 45 minutes. The striker was replaced by Yaniv Bazini.
The Vermont Catamount wouldn’t waste any time as after being played in on goal by a pass from O’Neill, Bazini would rocket a shot straight into the goalkeeper but the rebound shot into the air and Bazini was all alone to tap it home in the 54th minute.
In the 58th minute, Vermont made another change as Zengue was replaced by Ernest Bawa. Then in the 66th minute O’Neil and “Gato” were replaced by Ryan Combe and Carlos Zambrano.
A minute later Bazini would bag his second goal as he chipped AC Connecticut’s goalkeeper to make it a 4-0 game. The night was a special one as the striker became The Green’s all-time scoring leader.
Vermont made its final changes of the night in the 74th minute as Threadgold and Vaza were replaced by Sjur Dreschler and Sam Layton.
Similar to Bazini, Zambrano was also able to bag a goal off the bench. A turnover by AC Connecticut gifted the ball to the Syracuse forward in the box and Zambrano curled home his first goal as a member of The Green in the 81st minute. The Florida native even brought out a backflip celly for the occasion.
Bazini would add the cherry on top to his already impressive performance with another chip over the goalkeeper in 88th minute to give the striker a hat trick. Moments later Combe would go bar down from outside the box to make it 7-0 for Vermont.
It was complete and utter domination from The Green and left the fans who braved a delayed start feeling like their patience was rewarded. The Green will play a friendly on June 5 against Juba Star FC before facing off against the Albany Rush in NY on June 8.