About a week ago and fresh off their second straight loss, one of the things I mentioned is that Loudoun United was in a good position to find their footing with a three-game-in-seven-day stretch, and so far so good, at least. They handled a Memphis 901 FC side Saturday and did enough for a 2-1 win, and Wednesday night saw numerous missed chances on one end, a couple of fortunate bounces on another and Dane(virke) Jacomen blank the opposition over 120 minutes and all five penalty kicks to advance to the Round of 32 in the U.S. Open Cup for the second straight season. So after losing two straight, they’ve won two straight. What’s been gained from them?

The pros and cons of cheetahs: By now, if you haven’t seen the first Loudoun goal:

What you didn’t see a few minutes before that is Loudoun trying (sorta) the same thing in finding Christiano Francois long:

And early into the second half, this sexy step up by Kwame Awuah:

These things are good because it keeps a opposition right flank honest, but also shows the benefit of veteran minds working. Awuah’s effort (29/38 passes, 7 recoveries, 3 interceptions and 5/9 duels won) earned him a Team of the Week nod. When in sync, dangerous. When in components, tantalizing.

Unfortunately, things didn’t necessarily fire on all cylinders Wednesday. If they did, Loudoun would have gotten home before 3am. Francois appears to have the yips at this point; he’s on a -.4 expected versus actual goals in USL play, so that’s excluding the numerous wide open chances he had in Richmond. Kalil ElMedkhar should be coming back to the lineup soon, Francois went almost the duration of last night’s game, hopefully he can take the regen and reclaim his pair of finishing boots.

Random Stat of the Week: 13 (Ryan’s goal was his third on the season and 13th USL goal with Loudoun, tying him with Kyle Murphy with the franchise career goals total for non-Open Cup goals).

So, where does this leave us? Fortunately, Loudoun’s gotten off on the type of start on this component of their season that they hoped for. And after 120 minutes in Richmond, Loudoun’s gift is welcoming Louisville City to Segra Field. More than that, Loudoun has to go to California for their next Open Cup game. Now I know that midweek roadies, even those to California, aren’t uncommon. But after Saturday’s game, here’s Loudoun’s next four weeks:

4/27 at Sacramento, 5/4 home, 5/7-8 (Tues/Wed) at Orange County, 5/10 (Friday) home, 5/14 (Tuesday) at North Carolina, 5/18 home, 5/25 at Orange County.

3 trips to California in 4 weeks? Yikes on bikes.

However, for a coach 18 hours off his team’s Open Cup win and two hours after learning he’d have to travel to Orange County on a midweek Open Cup match, Ryan Martin has the last word on that period, and the match in front of him this week:

“When we put the team together, it was ‘can we find guys who have experience in the USL and can go across the country on a Wednesday and deal with the adversity and are prepared to grind in tough situations. Not only do we feel that, but you could see it last night where, in a tough situation, the guys didn’t back down and instead, they went forward and continuied to push themselves when they probably didn’t have much left in the tank. Our player recruitment was big for but also our depth will be big, if we can get some of these guys back to help us.”

“To be honest, this is one of the easier games to coach and prepare for, because everybody’s excited to always play the best teams in the League. So when Louisville comes to town, it’s one of those ones that guys that have been around the League circle, because they know how good Louisville has been, as it’s a credit to Danny (Cruz) and what he’s built in Louisville.”