Vermont Green FC Sporting Director Adam Pfeifer has made four additions to the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup roster ahead of Wednesday’s Second Round matchup against USL1 club Westchester SC.
Alex Hall, Mitch Baker, Martin Bakken, and Luca Nikolai have joined the Green for the cup campaign.
Head Coach Chris Taylor will select 18 players for his matchday squad. The reinforcements add versatility to the group ahead of a massive home match against Westchester.
Headlining the introductions is Alex Hall, an integral piece of the Vermont Green Invincibles team that won the 2025 USL2 national championship. Trophy-winning continued for Hall in the fall, when he added a NCAA national championship with the University of Washington to his collection. The graceful attacker has been given the number 7 shirt, after donning number 24 last year.
Mitch Baker joins the Green as a standout from Georgetown University, where he starred alongside Zach Zengue last fall. The towering 6’5” Australian striker was drafted 10th overall in the 2026 MLS SuperDraft by the Colorado Rapids, but is opting to return to Georgetown for his junior year. Baker will wear #9 for Vermont.
Norwegian midfielder Martin Bakken comes to Burlington from Clemson University, one of college soccer’s perennial contenders. His last name may be familiar to Vermonters: Martin’s brother Petter is a member of the UVM skiing team, and their parents both skied for the Catamounts in the 90s. Their father Thorodd is a member of the UVM Athletics Hall of Fame, and was the first male Nordic skier in NCAA history to win four individual national titles.
Finally, the Green have added German right back Luca Nikolai. The Borussia Mönchengladbach product plays his college soccer at the University of North Carolina, where he recorded 3 goals and 7 assists as a junior in 2025. Nikolai was drafted with the 87th pick in the 2026 MLS SuperDraft by New York City FC.
PLAYERS
1 Niklas Herceg
2 Brandon Marshall
3 Nikos Clarke-Tosczak
4 Egor Akulov
5 Sebastian Pop
6 Riley Moloney
7 Alex Hall
8 Brendan Lambe
9 Mitch Baker
12 Tyler Caton
13 David Ismail
14 Luca Nikolai
16 Nash Barlow
17 Philipp Schmidtke
18 Marcell Papp
19 Shakir Nixon
21 Marco Dos Santos
23 Martin Bakken
25 Ryan Carney
26 Andrew Millar
27 Ryan Zellefrow
35 Connor Miller
STAFF
Chris Taylor
Lee Williamson
Jed Sass
Rob Emmett
Alex Elias
Hannah Tremel
Adam Pfeifer