With fans on ladders looking over fences and others sprawled across and around the pitch, Vermont Green FC made sure it would be a legendary night in American soccer history. 

On a picturesque summer evening in Burlington, Vermont, the Green defeated Seattle’s Ballard FC 2–1 to win the USL League Two title, the fourth division of American soccer. Yet, no player wrote his lore more than Maximillian Kissel. 

Last time there was a final at Virtue Field, Kissel scored the game-winner for the University of Vermont Catamounts to win the NCAA national championship as underdogs against Marshall University. 

And on Saturday, he did it again, scoring in second-half stoppage time to give the Green a historic win on the same pitch. 

“We’ve proven that with the Green, coming back numerous times, and at the end of the day it’s just unreal,” Kissel told the Burlington Free Press after the match. “I can’t really describe it...I knew what I had to do—and I’m so thankful that I did it.”

“We did it again.”

A far cry from the bright lights of Major League Soccer, Vermont Green are one of the most unique stories in American soccer. And, it’s all happening on a small college pitch in Burlington, which has a 2,000-person stand that didn’t alter plans for the estimated 3,000 more circled the ground for the final. 

Vermont Green are a community-focused amateur club created in 2022, and encapsulates the outdoorsy nature of the state while also advocating for climate justice and other progressive social causes. 

Those off-pitch ideals and the on-pitch product have led to a special identity unparalleled across the vast landscape of American soccer. It’s even led to significant support from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who had a fan banner in his honor ahead of the final, and pop folk star Noah Kahan. 

Kissel, though, comes from nowhere near Vermont. A native of Wiesbaden, Germany, he joined the Catamounts in 2024 and became one of their top players before Green head coach Chris Taylor pushed him to join the USL squad for the summer. 

“I didn’t think it would come true just like that,” said Taylor. “That’s why you have number nines like that because they win you games.”

The winning goal was far from the only emotional moment on the pitch on Saturday, though. Vermont’s French-born midfielder, Julien Le Bourdoulous, opened the scoring in the 50th minute from the penalty spot and pulled out a folding chair to celebrate in front of the supporters, before Ballard levelled the match.

Yet, it was Kissel’s late strike that will be remembered most, as the moment the Green reached their summit––and got to enjoy another pitch-invading celebration.

“This is the culmination of four years of hard work, from the owners to the players to the fans,” Mike Popovich, a member of the supporters’ group Green Mountain Bhoys told the Vermont Public. “They did this for us. These guys out there did this for us. It'’s just the most amazing thing that Ive ever seen here in Vermont.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘We Did It Again’—Vermont Green Make Burlington the Soccer Capital of America.

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