On March 17, the temperature in Burlington, Vt., bottomed out at 19 degrees. No one in the stands at Virtue Field, bundled up and still waving rainbow flags and green smoke canisters and a tifo of a dragon, seemed to care. Neither did the players.
At the final whistle of Vermont Green FC’s 1-0 win over Portland Hearts of Pine, a US Open Cup “cupset,” the players leaped onto the stands. Fourth-year Brendan Lambe, fourth-year Marco Dos Santos and fifth-year Sebastian Pop, Virginia’s three captains, roared in their green jerseys.
Four days later, they were back wearing orange and blue six states south for a spring game at Georgetown. But they were hooked.
“It was cool,” Lambe said, smiling.
As the fall season crested the horizon last spring, the three players were focused on preparing for what they hoped could be a special season at Virginia. And they decided, along with third-year teammate Arnold Matshazi, that the best thing to do was spend the summer with Vermont Green.
“It’s probably the best place to be in the summer,” Pop said.
“Every position, every player there, is just higher quality,” Matshazi said.
The Green, one of the USL2 clubs dotting the country that vacuums in college soccer’s top talent every summer, were the reigning national champions, undefeated in the title run. Their studded roster contained names like North Carolina junior Ryan Zellefrow and Portland senior Diego Rosas, and they provided an environment that was second to none.
“We have the best collection of college soccer players in the country in one place at one time,” Vermont Green Coach Chris Taylor said. “And not only do we have what we believe is the best crowd and atmosphere in USL2, we have sold out every game for two years. There’s waiting lists to get in.”
The United Soccer Coaches preseason poll slotted Virginia at No. 11. Two weeks into the season, though, the Cavaliers were floundering, sitting at 1-0-3 after losing to UCLA, No. 16 High Point and Florida Gulf Coast. The rough start — even after a win over Boston College and a draw with No. 23 Oregon State raised Virginia to 2-1-3 — means the players need to lean on each other more than ever.
Luckily, four of the most important ones spent the summer learning to do just that. There could be no better incubator for the team than putting its three captains and a starting forward together — literally in the same apartment — on the best summer team in the country.
They leveled up their relationships in Vermont. Going into the summer, Dos Santos, for example, was close with Pop — not as much with Lambe or Matshazi.
“Now I feel like we’re best friends,” Dos Santos said, “and I think that’s to do with the summer. We literally spent every single second together.”
The ‘embodiment’ of what a player is
Dos Santos played his USL2 soccer last summer, and the summer before that, at Seacoast United. In 2024, he won a national title with the club in New Hampshire. But he holds another distinction at Seacoast.
Dos Santos scored the goal responsible for Vermont Green FC’s last loss at home — on July 7, 2024.
At Seacoast, he derogatorily dubbed Vermont “Social Media FC.” He was Public Enemy No. 1 in Burlington.
“When I joined [Vermont], I was kind of a cult hero,” Dos Santos said. “Because I used to be the villain.”
For two years, Adam Pfeifer and Chris Taylor, Vermont’s sporting director and head coach, had been chasing Dos Santos. When Dos Santos’s coach at Seacoast took another job, his tether to that club snapped, leaving an opportunity for Vermont. They wanted Dos Santos.
“He is a grinder, and he’s going to do the dirty work. But he’s also going to go past three people and stick it in the top corner,” Taylor said. “He’s literally the embodiment of what we try and tell players they need to be.”
Dos Santos agreed to play in the U.S. Open Cup, America’s version of the division-spanning FA Cup. Then Pfeifer and Taylor looked higher.
“You start to look at, ‘Ok, if we can get Marco, who else can we get?’” Taylor said.
Lambe, Dos Santos and Pop all traveled up for the first Open Cup game in March, the win over Portland. Pop stayed behind for the second game, a loss on penalties, in April. But they returned in May for the start of the USL2 season, this time with Matshazi.
Lambe joined Dos Santos as an instant starter. He was a hound in the midfield, living on the balls of his feet with a problem-solving composure that made him the team’s “glue.”
“He just went and basically demanded the ball at all areas,” Taylor said. “It was like, ‘When we’re under pressure or in trouble, just give it to me.’”
Vermont’s first game of the season was a 2-0 win over Seacoast, and Matshazi scored. He ultimately scored four times in eight games. “He’s not really involved in the game outside the scoring,” Taylor said. “But he just pops up and he scores, and he’s a finisher.”
Pop, though, had to wait his turn — briefly. A challenge of a loaded summer team is how to allocate playing time, and Vermont addressed it by rotating players and limiting minutes. Pop never entered during the Open Cup and sat against Seacoast.
In the second game of the season, he started away against Boston Bolts. Early on, a bad giveaway in the midfield left a Bolts forward, a speedy player from Wake Forest, charging forward in transition.
“He pushed the ball past Pop, and I was like, ah, s—, we’re in trouble,” Taylor said. “And next thing you know, Pop is running stride for stride with him, and makes this defensive play, and I was like, ‘Whoa … This guy’s another level.’”
Vermont did not concede first in a game until midway through the season. When they did, in the final of the Steinbrecher Cup, the deficit lasted only a brief while. Dos Santos nipped in a whipped cross to tie it.
Vermont won 4-1.
Living as a ‘celebrity’
Before games, when the players lined up for pregame introductions, the players would be down on the field, cackling. Lambe was “Lambe the lion.” Pop was a “leader” in the back, Matshazi was “ruthless,” Dos Santos, of course, had “come over from the dark side.”
Were these summer league soccer games, or WWE fights? The public address announcer seemed confused.
But it fit with the community.
Leading up to the season, Pop watched a couple videos of the environment at Virtue Field, so he expected a gushing atmosphere. But nothing could have prepared him for what he got.
Three thousand people packed into the stadium for every home game, and some traveled to away games. Dos Santos said the experience gave him a taste of “professional life.”
“From the beginning … the turnouts to all the home games were actually quite insane,” Matshazi said. “When you’re in front of the fans and they’re announcing your name, that’s when you’re like, ‘Oh wow, there’s a lot of people here.’”
Vermont has amenities, in part because of the fervent support. The coaching staff lists six coaches, and a media team produces content for social media and website and live streams. Lambe said that the supporters take “care of you, as your family would.”
Every morning, Dos Santos would get a free coffee from a local shop, and when he went, he would talk to the owner. He met the whole family in the end. That’s not to mention the Instagram direct messages — from random people — wishing them well and suggesting they check out a local store.
“They’ll joke, oh, not much to do in Vermont, so we’ll go to the games,” Lambe said. “But it’s not just a pastime — they really love it. It’s something I’ve never experienced at USL2 … You’re kind of a little celebrity in Burlington.”
The four players were with the team for the first nine games of the 16-game regular season. Vermont won every game they played.
What did they do otherwise? The World Cup was going on, so they watched the games. But mainly they hung out together.
“A lot of late nights together talking about what we want for this semester,” Lambe said.
The bookend to their time with the team, Taylor said, was when they traveled to see Dos Santos’s family. They stayed for a weekend and met everyone — parents, uncles.
When they left, Dos Santos’s parents gave their son a message for his teammates.
“Any time those guys want to come, they can. It’s an open-door policy.”
A rocky start in Charlottesville
As the USL2 playoffs approached in mid-July, Vermont still stood undefeated. But Lambe, Dos Santos, Matshazi and Pop were back in Charlottesville, re-acclimating before the preseason.
This had been the bargain all along, and all parties were okay with it. The Virginia guys watched the broadcast from Charlottesville as Vermont beat the Flint City Bucks for another national title. Part of them wanted to be there hoisting the trophy. Vermont Green had offered to pay for flights back for the playoff run, at least for Dos Santos.
“I was like, ‘Hey, it just doesn't make sense for me,’” Dos Santos said. “‘I need to focus on the U.Va. team and the group.’”
The season is six games old now. It is not off to a fiery start for Virginia. The Cavaliers, who entered the preseason ranked No. 11, opened with losses to UCLA and No. 16 High Point. They then trounced American 4-0. Then they lost again, this time to Florida Gulf Coast.
“I’m having a hard time describing that game,” Virginia Coach George Gelnovatch said after the loss to FGCU. His refrain after each loss was that “we’ll have to watch the film.”
Virginia settled itself with a 2-0 win Friday over Boston College and then a 1-1 draw Tuesday with Oregon State. But ask Dos Santos, and Vermont Green FC prepared him for the early adversity. Virginia, he said, struggled in the spring, winning only one game. But Dos Santos went to Vermont, and he was heartened.
“I was playing with guys [at Vermont] that are all on the Mac Hermann watch list,” Dos Santos said. “And I’m looking at our team [at Virginia] and I’m like, ‘We’re pretty f—ing good.’”
Virginia continues non-conference play Saturday at home against Liberty. Then comes the meat of conference play, including Virginia’s first two away games. Things are getting real.
Dos Santos, though, will take solace in a lesson he learned during his summer in Vermont.
“Obviously, it was a very good level. We were very good,” Dos Santos said. “But it put a lot of belief that what we do here is the top stuff, and we’re doing everything right. Any guy on our team can go out and beat those guys and compete with those guys on any given day.”
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