It’s one thing when you play some of the dregs of your league to rack up points, and as Loudoun slowly emerge from their pre-Attain Sports form, they’re aware that playing say, a Tampa Bay Rowdies team that came into Saturday winning five of their last six (including road wins against Louisville and Sacramento) is a little different then playing a Miami FC or Las Vegas, both of whom Loudoun had to rally to earn draws on. So Loudoun needed to start a crucial stretch of games off on the right foot, snapping an eight-game winless streak dating back to October 2019 with a 2-0 win over the Rowdies, and increasing their own current club-record unbeaten streak to six. Let’s look under the hood on the win.

Hitting Tampa Bay’s starboard side. On the DC News Now pregame show, I mentioned if there was a spot where Tampa was vulnerable, it would be on the right side of their field, so guys like Kwame Awuah are going to move up in attack. And wouldn’t you know it:

A vote for anti-old: Speaking of Aboukoura, he scored his second goal in as many games, doubling his season total to four (over 36 games, Bouchy has eight, not bad for a player who doesn’t turn 20 until October!). More than that, his performance over those last two games has been impressive. Here’s his action map from last week against Miami (where he earned a Team of the Week nod) and Saturday’s:

He’s had a knack for goal, but he’s been more confident in his distribution as a whole recently, is getting into good positions on-field (witness his goal), and works at both ends of the field. When you watch a bunch of Academy kids play, and some work long enough and you see them grown into their abilities. Ted Ku-DiPietro did that, and Aboukoura is doing this now.

Random Stat of the Day: 4, the number of games out that Loudoun has won (out of 5) when leading at halftime.

So, where does this leave us? Loudoun’s on 22 points, four ahead of North Carolina and Rhode Island, above the line and seventh in the East. Hyperbole aside, Loudoun’s July stands to be the most important stretch of games the club has played to date, and there may be some psychological hurdles to climb. Going into Saturday they were 1-7-1 against Tampa; against their July opponents (vs. Hartford, at Indy, vs. Charleston, and at Pittsburgh), Loudoun has taken five wins from just under 50 games in their history.

Simply put, playing those past demons in July is going to set themselves up well for any games they have in October.