Vermont Green FC Dominate In 2023 Home Opener
Vermont secured the club's second win of the 2023 season in front of a sell-out crowd.
Vermont Green FC continued their great start to the 2023 USL League Two season with a 3-0 win over Albany Rush.
Adam Pfeifer made some slight changes to the lineup with CF Montreal’s 2023 SuperDraft selection Nick Christoffersen starting in net. Denis Krioutchenkov replaced Nacho Lerech as the lone striker up top and Nathan Messer played left back.
But a lot of familiar faces made an impact against Albany. Just 7 minutes into the game, Zachary Zengue scored his second goal of the USL League Two season. The midfielder blasted a shot from 25 yards out and the Rush goalkeeper could simply do nothing to keep the ball out of the net.
“Yeah I mean that helps a lot for sure,” Zengue told The Blazing Musket when asked about building confidence early on in the season with his goal-scoring output. “I want to stay consistent throughout the season and to get a goal every game, maybe even an assist every game. So yeah, stay consistent for me is what I want to do.”
As the half progressed, Albany would find itself in the final third but was unable to piece together any scoring chances. It was a relatively quiet night for Christoffersen who wasn’t called upon to make some outrageous saves.
Vermont has found itself dominating possession in the first two games of the season. Pfeifer’s side isn’t afraid to be patient and wait for plays to develop. When you have the ball for the majority of the game, it is hard for your opponent to score.
With two clean sheets in two games, Pfeifer is happy with the performance of his defensive unit.
“Really, really well,” the head coach said when talking about the back line. “I think it’s a little bit difficult sometimes for defenders to stay tuned in when we have so much of the ball and it was somewhat similar against the (Boston) Bolts. But you know, they were able to keep themselves tuned into the game. We knew that for them to get opportunities it was going to come from potential mistakes in the middle of the field or at the back and every time that we give the ball away in the midfield, obviously we’re wide open because we have so many guys in advanced areas so it’s difficult for our defenders. But they did a good job and I think maybe limited them to one or two shots.”
At half, Lerech would replace Krioutchenkov at striker while Charlie Adams replaced Federico Tellez. Soon after came the second goal of the game courtesy of starboy Gevork Diarbian.
Some pressing from Zengue caused an Albany turnover and The Green would make their opponents pay. Adams sent a ball across the box and a beautiful dummy from Lerech saw the ball land on Diarbian’s boots and he blasted it into the net to give Vermont a 2-0 lead in the 53rd minute.
A trademark of Diarbian’s game is being able to take on defenders on the wing. He relentlessly attacks opponents and has been impressive in both speed and skill on the ball.
That is a skill that the Providence Friar has been working on ever since he was a kid and it has also earned him a nickname of an icon in the animated racing world.
“Ever since I was a little kid I was always fast,” Diarbian said. “I was always good at one on ones and every day I would practice one on ones with my brothers, with my friends. As I got older, that was just kind of who I was. Everybody knew me as Lightning McQueen. I just got to keep going and hopefully I can get more.”
Six minutes later Lerech would find the back of the net for his second goal of the season and his first at Virtue Stadium as a member of Vermont Green FC.
The atmosphere was electric with a sold-out crowd cheering on The Green from the start of the match. Diarbian said it was something he has yet to experience as a soccer player so far in his career.
“Oh my God, it was the best atmosphere I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve never played around all these fans before. It’s great. They were energetic the whole game so they kept me going every time I got the ball. I just kept wanting to go and keep going so they were amazing. Best fans for sure.”
Vermont has a busy week ahead as they take on Canadian side CS Mont-Royal Outremont in a mid-week friendly before taking on Seacoast United in USL League Two play on June 3 back under the lights of Virtue Field.