After a couple of gutting losses at home (and a perhaps to be expected loss in Louisville), Loudoun United needed to stop the bleeding and turn the ship around in their form when Birmingham came to town, who were fresh off a convincing win midweek in Tampa. And following a start that could be described as suboptimal, Loudoun kept fighting back and eventually thwarted the Legion 4-2. So how big was it? Well, it’s potentially pretty big! Let’s dive in:

On free Flo. When I chatted about this game with the fine DC News Now folks, I mentioned the need to get a confident chance creator up in the attack, and that was Florian Valot. The three games before this, Valot was playing further back in midfield with Tommy McCabe (while Drew Skundrich remains out to injury). Here’s what his action map looked like against Rhode Island, one of the more attack minded games for him in that spot:

So against Birmingham, Ryan Martin moved him further up the field to help with the attack and well…

…he was a menace. Despite 13 fewer passes his pass accuracy in the opposition half was up, and he had six created chances (by comparison he had 1 in the previous three games playing further back and confined), and this goal which I marvel at for the run that he was still able to do in the 90th minute:

I said a little more on DCNN that Flo Valot was the team’s leading chance creator and hadn’t lost that top spot in the three games where he (and by extension the team) was stagnating. Having him remind people of his danger and turn in a Player of the Week contending performance couldn’t have come at a better time.

Izzy, Izzy, Izzy can’t you see… Isaiah Johnston turning in a top notch performance as well helped things. He was able to provide a late run that Zach Ryan saw that led to an early second half tying goal, but clicked, or at the very least turned in his most comfortable performance for Loudoun since being acquired earlier in the year. Johnston and the backline of Yanis Leerman, Keegan Hughes and Jacob Erlandson each turned in at least five duels won each. Johnston made 54 of 58 passes on the day as well and speaking of not coming at a better time, his finding his sea legs was kismet.

Second half clickage. When the Legion got leggy, the backline started to find space in behind with long balls, which will be of note to Loudoun’s opponent tomorrow, who like Birmingham played a six point game midweek which we’ll get to in a moment. Coming into the game, Yanis Leerman had three key passes in his year and a half with Loudoun, and promptly doubled that. Jacob Erlandson had one of his own. Obviously I don’t know what Loudoun has in mind for Sunday, but having the backline turn into a second division Pique, Rudiger and Van Dijk certainly gives their opponents something to think about.

Random Stat of the Day: 3.28, the xG Loudoun turned in over Birmingham, their second highest total of the year behind a 3.29 effort in their 4-1 win over Miami FC. Miami went to 10 and later 9 men over the course of the second half, so this performance seems good!

So, where does this leave us? Two weeks ago Loudoun played the best team (by points) in the USL on their field, and lost to Louisville, 1-0. Sunday, they play the second best team (by points) in the USL on their field when they face New Mexico United. Loudoun is the meat of a weird schedule sandwich where New Mexico beat Sacramento Wednesday 3-0 at home and plays them in California next Sunday. New Mexico clinched a playoff spot in the Western Conference with their midweek win and may be refining things with the expectation of going deep in the postseason, while Loudoun plays at Colorado Springs after this, the latter of whom is tied with Sacramento for second in the West.

Remarkably despite their dry spell, they are in a decent position standings wise, tied with Rhode Island for 7th, a point behind Birmingham, and having a game in hand on both, with Indy Eleven three points ahead of Loudoun in 5th. Loudoun’s last seven games are against teams who are playoff contenders, with a couple of clubs who may play each other in the finals. The good news is Loudoun was aware of the stakes last week and everyone played superbly.

There’s an anecdote I hear every few years where an actor, working on a movie, talks about how they work on a scene and the director says at the end, “Cut! That was perfect! Let’s do it ONE more time!” Loudoun will likely be in this mindframe for the next month, and if they are able to extend their season, they can look on the Legion win as the thing that springboarded them to those heights.