There’s the old parable about a glass which has water in it, not filled to the rim. And how you see the glass, whether it’s half-empty or half-full, is supposed to be some sort of marker on your outlook in life. And Loudoun United’s month has been reflective of it; on one hand, you have a team that is winless in five games in the USL. On the other hand, the team finds itself in newly walked ground in the US Open Cup, with a (pretty) large hurdle coming up. So, what’s been going on?

Well, how about the good stuff? OK! Loudoun took the bus down 95 to play the Richmond Kickers, a game where they had plenty of chances that could not be converted. It took all 120 minutes, but Dane Jacomen saved the proverbial bacon and the team triumphed in penalties. Then last week, following…let’s just call it an unlucky draw, the team went to Orange County, and, using two teenagers (Gavin Turner and Justin Melly), two guys on 25-day contracts (Nelson Martinez and Trevor Zwetsloot), two other guys returning to the XI from injury (Keegan Tingey and Keegan Hughes), Loudoun took the opportunity to show off Wesley Leggett’s talents, his brace allowing for a 2-1 Loudoun win.

It can’t be said enough how resilient a performance it was. Loudoun was in Virginia the prior Saturday night following a scoreless draw with Detroit City, then flew out Sunday, trained Monday, played Tuesday, flew home Wednesday for a home game Friday. It’s bananas turnaround, but a game the boys went for, and they get to go back out on the road to play at LAFC next Tuesday, their third trip to California in 24 days. Like Orange County, Loudoun gets to repeat the short turnaround, like Orange County, LAFC has the weekend off and can prep accordingly. If there was anything interesting about Loudoun’s Saturday game, it’s how Ryan Martin decides to plan and who he uses for the weekend Segra game. But that’s not the only interesting thing.

What about the bad stuff? Loudoun’s run of form in League play has a little to be desired. Currently, they have not scored a goal in League play since Leggett’s goal in Sacramento on April 27, which is 332 minutes and counting. Extending further, Leggett’s goal is the only one Loudoun has scored since Drew Skundrich scored the game-winner against Memphis at home back on April 13, which is 471 minutes. That’s five weeks with Saturday’s game with MoBay, and a lot of minutes!

That’s bad! What do you think is the problem? Well there are a few things; starting with the logistical human part first. Loudoun’s played seven games in those five weeks, but the Saturday-Tuesday-Friday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday can throw your routines off, to say nothing of your clocks. You can’t really train because you do regen, or watch film, or keep miles off the legs, or keep training at a minimum. Then you have the issues with injuries; Loudoun had to sub off defenders in the first half during a three-game stretch that time, including one of their replacement players. It leaves your backline thin, and you’re forced to play guys like Drew Skundrich and Tommy McCabe out of position in back.

Then there’s the opposition itself; in a four week span, Loudoun hosted Louisville City (2nd in East), played at Sacramento (1st in West), hosted Detroit (3rd in East) then played at Orange City (3rd in West) in the Open Cup. That’s four teams that at the time Loudoun played them, lost three games overall. Loudoun’s done decent in those games, with an own goal being the different in the LooVul loss, and kept things tense for Sacramento before the hosts pulled away, had the better of chances with DCFC and walked by OCSC to the Round of 16. For the record, MoBay comes to Segra as 4th place in the West, and Loudoun comes off playing at NCFC, who are last year’s League One Champions, so the continued tough run…continues.

This isn’t to completely excuse things altogether, Loudoun had a stronger lineup last Friday against El Paso and were coming off their best win in franchise history, and turned in their flattest 45 of the season en route to a 2-0 home loss, which gave El Paso their first win of 2024 after eight tries. The run of playing people out of position has led to them almost auditioning a chance creator in the middle, as Florian Valot has had to do perhaps more work in back than expected, so Abdellatif Aboukoura got a lot of looks in the middle in Tuesday’s lackluster loss to NCFC.

Random Stat of the Day: 15,334 (the number of miles from Washington Dulles to Orange County, Sacramento and LAX round-trip, hope I did the math right!)

So, where does this leave us? There are a lot of pieces slowly returning to play; Kalil ElMedkhar has been consistently getting 30-40 minutes as a substitute after an injury absence, Cole Turner was working with the team in Cary before Tuesday’s game and may be close to a bench appearance Saturday or Tuesday, which should help beef up the center of the field. Matai Akinmboni came down from D.C. United and should get some minutes as well. Tingey appears to be good to go following an early injury of his own and his presence on right back firmed some things up for the team, and should provide some long-term help for the team.

Hopefully with another big game on the horizon, all hands can be on deck and all feet will be firing on targets in the coming days.