Anyone who ventured to Virtue Field at the University of Vermont on Wednesday night to see Vermont Green FC host Carolina Core FC in the Second Round of the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup they got their money’s worth. Despite seeing Vermont taste defeat in the US Open Cup for the first time, 2-1 to the visitors, fans were treated to penalties, plenty of cards, snow and most importantly- free ice cream from local favorite Ben and Jerry’s.
Vermont scored a first half penalty kick, only to see Carolina Core FC battle back in the second half. The independent MLS NEXT Pro side, led by their head coach, former MLS star Roy Lassiter, equalized in the 60th minute with a PK of their own and Josuha Rodriguez scored the go-ahead goal in the 70th minute to send the capacity crowd of more than 2,500 disappointed.
The scoring started in the 28th minute, shortly after a break in play to allow for Papa Ndoye of Carolina and Moussa Ndiaye of Vermont, both from Senegal, to break their fast at sundown in accordance with Ramadan. It would be the hosts who got on the board first courtesy of Yaniv Bazini after he was taken down in the box and calmly slotted his penalty home. This goal broke a deadlock between the two teams which saw chances for both sides.
The vast majority of Carolina Core’s productive play in the first half came down the right flank, trying to take advantage of the fact that Vermont’s left back, Nick Lockermann, pushed very high up the field trying to extend his hot form from the First Round game against Lexington SC where he recorded an assist in the victory. Despite these chances, Vermont goalkeeper Nathan Schnur stood his ground and made multiple quality saves- something he would also do in the second half, keeping his side ahead at the end of the first 45, 1-0.
This result at halftime emboldened fans even more who sold out the stadium, something Vermont head coach Adam Pfeifer was clearly happy about.
“We’re incredibly fortunate and grateful for everybody that devotes their time and money to coming out and supporting the guys and the community,” Pfiefer said. “It’s obviously incredibly special.”
The visitors eventually found their equalizer with their own penalty in the 60th minute after Papa Ndoye placed the ball past Schnur and finally broke the wall that was the Vermont goalkeeper.
The side from North Carolina eventually took the lead in the 70th minute thanks to halftime substitute Josuha Rodriguez who put his team up after an initial CCFC shot was saved but placed directly in the path of the Houndaran. It was his second game-winning goal in as many games in the competition. Rodriguez scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute to the team’s 3-2 comeback win at home over Northern Virginia FC (USL-2) in Round 1.
Despite the potential advantage with the sudden influx of snow late on in the game, Vermont could not find the equalizer it so desperately fought for.
Eventually, the Green ended the match with 10 men after striker Jacob Labovitz was handed a straight red card from referee Brendan Fanning in the 90th minute after an incident which preceded a corner for Vermont in the dying embers of the game. Video shows that Carolina’s Ibrahim Covi fouled Labovitz which led to the retaliation. As is common in the game of soccer, it was the retaliation that was spotted by the official and Labovitz was sent off and Covi received a yellow card.
“The opposition was very good tonight,” said Carolina head coach Roy Lassiter, who despite being one of the all-time great goalscorers in MLS history during his career, scored just one Open Cup goal in 11 career matches. “Their fans were engaged and supported them very well. However, I thought our discipline was better and our fight was good. We showed a lot of intelligence in the match, and we knew it was our moment. We outshot them, had more corner kicks, and had a better share of possession. I knew it was just a matter of time before we would score.”