Following a gutsy 2-2 road draw with veteran independent side San Antonio FC, Loudoun United christened 2024’s Segra portion of the campaign Saturday with a local-ish rival, hosting North Carolina FC, who started 2023 hot and stayed that way en route to a League One Championship. So what was learned from Loudoun staying unbeaten atop the Eastern Conference after two games?

It was closer than the score said. Cliche as it may sound, it’s kind of true! Despite the 3-1 line, Loudoun lost the xG battle to NCFC (1.19 vs. Loudoun’s .86), and, tied and early in the second half, this almost became a thing:

And this is before Oalex Anderson came on and was dangerous on a couple of attempts. Not saying it’s part of a larger problem, but Ryan Martin probably is aware that this will need tightening up. With that out of the way:

Kwame tagged back. One of the things I mentioned on DC News Now’s pregame show was the ability of either side’s fullbacks to be effective for a result to happen. While he didn’t get much of a chance to show this off last week, here’s Kwame Awuah’s MD2:

Here’s the always good John Morrissey:

There’s a scene in Tropic Thunder when Robert Downey Junior is told by Brandon Jackson that he would tag him back with a slap. And for Kwame, who lost 99% of his 2023 season due to injury in a North Carolina preseason friendly, he got and took the chance to tag them back. Performances like that will find a lot more teams rubbing their chins.

Bouchy Bouchy Bouchy can’t you see… I talked about how much I like Abdellatif Aboukoura in this space last week, and can’t help but say it again after he scored five minutes after coming on the field as a second half sub to clinch the result for Loudoun. If he stays healthy and continues to settle in, Loudoun’s offensive production could be the pleasant surprise of 2024.

Random stat: 0.69 (Aboukoura’s goals per 90 during his last healthy campaign in 2022. By comparison, Milan Iloski and Phillip Goodrum respectively logged 22 and 21 goals to lead the league that season).

So where does this leave us? Still feeling OK, though the team can now add Keegan Tingey to the injured list with Cole Turner, which resulted in Loudoun announcing the signing of a couple of players to short-term contracts just before the game. Keegan Hughes and Jacob Erlandson continue to be solid contributors in defense, and Yanis Leerman continues to work his way back from an injury of his own. Injuries down the center of the field derailed Loudoun’s 2023 season early after a decent start.

They go on the road next week at Detroit and Birmingham April 7 before a decent stretch of home games, so there will be lots more to learn about Loudoun in the interim.