After a crazy eventful couple of weeks for Loudoun United over a couple of competitions, I figured I would try and be titularly clever since the opposite happened from the last time I did this. So, for lack of a better word, let’s dive into things, shall we?

Well let’s do the ugly stuff first? Sure! Having Loudoun United turn around from a game Saturday to fly out to California to play a team who didn’t have to play on the weekend was something they had done before, right? But Orange County SC (more on them in a second), certainly differs from LAFC, 18ish months removed from winning MLS Cup. And while Loudoun played LAFC close and kept them honest at times, they could even hold their heads up that they were down one goal which was kind of bouncing around in the box before Timothy Tillman (who celebrated a United States callup earlier in the day), converted.

Then you get to the second half, and Loudoun kept playing LA close, but there was a moment early in the second half where Denis Bouanga ($5 million transfer fee paid for his services) made a turn and went upfield and fed Cristian Olivera (rumored $4 million transfer fee) for the brace, which you can see at the seven-minute mark here:

Now, you may think that I have a bit of ‘u mad’ here, but honestly Loudoun was playing with house money to a degree; they were on their third cross-country trip in three and a half weeks, and on their seventh game in that span. Ryan Martin was playing Academy players, replacement players, guys just coming back from injury, just to get to this point. When you combine that with the reality of first division players being in the first division for a reason, what did people think was going to happen here?

In sum, don’t cry because it’s over, smile that it got as far as it did given the many hurdles they had to get through.

On the benefits of good health. In between this game saw Loudoun play a couple more California teams, this time as part of USL play. They hosted Monterey Bay the Saturday before and played at Orange County (again!) the Saturday after. But following two months of patchwork defensive lines, with some consistent good health, Martin was able to do things with his players. He was able to let Kwame Awuah start on the bench and give Drew Skundrich the night off altogether against MoBay, and get Cole Turner his first minutes of 2024. Yanis Leerman came on against OCSC and played 20 minutes for the first time since being injured a month ago.

Martin has also been able to do things he wasn’t able to completely do in awhile like play guys where he wanted to deploy them, rather than serve as threadbare cover. When Skundrich played against OCSC, he was centrally with Tommy McCabe for what seemed like the first time in forever. Florian Valot played in a more forward position on the field than I recall seeing save for the first game, and if you want to see what kind of difference it makes, the first image is his chalkboard from last week’s game with MoBay, compared to the first and second halves with OCSC:

Putting aside the central contrast between the two games, you can see that his distribution was out to the wings in the MoBay game, the first half of the OC game found him attacking more (as the goal indicated!), while the second half saw him sit back, getting the ball to Skundrich and McCabe to recenter the team and find a counter if one was available. A really fascinating contrast, and I’d bet Martin is thankful to be able to employ it.

On what the new relationship with DC may be: Back in the salad days of 2019 when Loudoun was D.C. United’s feeder club, the message was these guys get minutes no matter what, no matter how late they were thrown down to Martin to play. With Attain taking over majority ownership and Loudoun having a lot more veterans on the roster than just complementary pieces, the loandowns are different in two ways; first as all the USL Championship sides are owned by independent groups, it can’t just be a question of them stepping in immediately anymore; D.C. has four players loaned to USL sides, two of them (Jeremy Garay and Hayden Sargis) have combined for just under 400 minutes played, while Luis Zamudio has yet to appear for his team.

Then you have the case of Matai Akinmboni, of 101 MLS minutes in 2024. Anecdotally, I watch a lot more of Loudoun these days than I do D.C., and aside from being a really big kid for 17, I noted at the time of the May 14 announcement that, given the depth and health at the time, that he would probably see minutes sooner than later. Loaned to Loudoun on May 14, Akinmboni was on the bench for that game with North Carolina FC, and has since made three straight starts, including Tuesday’s Open Cup game. Now I didn’t think he’d hit the ground running THAT quick, he hasn’t looked out of place compared to past Loudoun stints, partly because the caliber of teammates at Loudoun has improved, but also his positional awareness is good and he’s gotten the chance to show off his passing skills. Doing the latter first,, which were on display against a MoBay side admittedly down a man for 50 minutes:

Next are his defensive actions in both games (tackles won/lost, blocks, interceptions, recoveries, clearances), along with fouls won/lost. They aren’t coded in the best way but you get the idea:

Playing on the left side of a three center back group, with fullbacks on the wings (either a 532 or 352 depending on your preference), he’s looked composed on defense. Now Martin and D.C. coach Troy Lesesne have known each other for years, and I think the thoughts on loandowns are twofold; if they go somewhere else, it’s to find a chance for them to break out and get some minutes, and that may be after Martin’s perhaps been given an unofficial right of first refusal; I think Sargis, Garay or Zamudio might have had trouble cracking the Loudoun lineup as comprised a couple of weeks ago and that’s not improved since then.

Second for D.C. fans is that with this time to get some seasoning and perhaps somewhere in the neighborhood of 750-1000 minutes is only going to benefit Akinmboni, who seems like he’s not far off from returning to D.C. and not coming back.

Random Stat: 183, the number of minutes Loudoun United has not conceded a goal, which coincidentally followed a streak of 340 minutes where Loudoun had not scored a goal.

So, where does this leave us? For the first time in a while, Loudoun can breathe and get back to a regular schedule for one thing. For another, they’re games that are good points accumulators; in April and May, Loudoun was playing the Louisvilles, Sacramentos, Detroits and California teams, all of whom were or are comfortably in the upper half of their conferences. Four of their next five are at home, and four of their next five are against below the line teams.

Loudoun’s got a winning streak now, and there’s nothing that should prevent them from going on a run in the next few weeks. Come the 4th of July, the team could find themselves in a very good spot.