Vermont Green Win 2024 Season Opener
Vermont Green Win 2024 Season Opener
Vermont Green FC overcame Boston City FC's intense press and physicality through their exciting attacking players.
Boston City FC frustrated Vermont Green FC’s attacking efforts until Jacob Labovitz opened the scoring in both teams’ USL League 2 season opener. Vermont Green beat Boston City FC 3-0 as Labovitz and Zach Zengue stole the show.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” said Vermont Green head coach Adam Pfeifer. “Some of the management of the game from the referees wasn’t great and it was uncomfortable, but I don’t think it affected our players at all.”
Boston City put the ball into the back of Vermont’s goal in the third minute, but the linesman flagged it for an offside. Boston City FC captain Felipe Cypriano won the ball back in the opposition's third and played a pass towards Logan Erickson. Erickson settled the ball and smashed it between Vermont’s Luto Lillo and the front post.
“I swear when the ball went in the back of the net, I thought their bench had just seen ghosts,” said Boston City FC’s assistant coach Frank Cypriano.
Following the early warning, the Green looked shaky and misplaced a handful of passes when playing out the back. Boston City continued with a high press but could not capitalize on any occasion.
Vermont attempted to get through by finding Labovitz in the air but the Boston City center-backs were all over his back. The Green eventually found their feet as Zach Zengue, Andrey Salmeron, Gabe Threadgold, and Ryan Combe began to link up and dictate the attack.
After a few plays that led to no shots, Threadgold found space and ran forward for 30 yards before playing Combe in behind. Combe found the Boston City defenders on their heels and played a ball across the face of the goal. Labovitz made his way onto the end of the pass and tapped it in to open the scoring.
Following the opener, Salmeron and Zengue found themselves in more space as Boston City FC dropped further back and tried to hold onto possession. As a result, Vermont’s aggressive pressing allowed them to win the ball back higher up the pitch.
“It lets me feel free and know that I have someone next to me who’s going to keep moving and working with me,” said Zengue about Salmeron’s role in taking control of the match.
In the lone minute of stoppage time, Labovitz picked a loose pass from Boston City FC’s goalkeeper Cameron Hall and squared it to Zengue to make it 2-0.
Vermont Green continued to assert the dominance they had taken at the end of the first half and created several chances from corner kicks in the second half. In the 58th minute, Zengue won the ball outside the Boston City box and laid it off to Labovitz, who volleyed it into the back of the goal to make it 3-0.
Following the kick-off, Boston City’s left winger Erickson was found in space and crossed a ball that forced Vermont left-back Gerrardo Céspedes to concede a corner kick. With the game entering the later stages, Boston City’s Thiago Goes received a pass between Vermont’s midfield and defense, nutmegged Daniel Pacella, and struck the ball from outside the box to force a save from Lillo.
Cypriano then took Boston City’s second corner, which bounced in the box before catching a deflection from an attacking player. As the ball headed past Lillo, center-back Sjur Drechsler cleared the ball off the line. In the 77th minute, Drechslerc came off for Reid Fisher. The 19-year-old center-back came on yelling “Clean sheet boys!” and helped Vermont see the game out.
“That was what we said before the game,” said Pfeifer. “We wanted the three points and the clean sheet — that was our goal for the game.”
Vermont Green FC travels to play Black Rock FC this Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Boston City FC continues its season on the same day in an away game against the Seacoast United Phantoms at 7:00 p.m.