Following a convincing road win to start the season, Loudoun United stayed on the road, albeit a little closer to Leesburg, as they went to Cary to take on North Carolina FC, whose run at the end of 2024 helped indirectly push Loudoun out of the playoffs. And Loudoun got their second straight road win of 2025, and their second straight game where they won for the first time as an organization. So let’s take a look at the things we learned:

On the Ambling Aboukoura.

The alliterative attempt at titles aside, Abdellatif Aboukoura continued his Team of the Week Matchday 1 nomination with an equally impressive Week 2, scoring Loudoun’s first, nearly helping with another and making full use of the space that he was given, as the goal illustrates:

This is presumably going to change at some point, and kind of did over the course of the game; more attention was paid to Aboukoura, so Wesley Leggett and Keegan Tingey found the ball forward a little more for chances into the NCFC box. But for now, Aboukoura and the team will enjoy the ride.

On stages 1 and 2.

Loudoun’s second goal was fun!

The USL doesn’t give credit for secondary assists, otherwise Florian Valot would have been credited on both, and so far, having him up front more so Drew Skundrich and Tommy McCabe can help absorb the opposition attack with Jacob Erlandson continues to be a net positive. Early days of course, but Valot at or almost at the top of the assists and created chances charts is nice.

Along the same theme, Ben Mines’ was quietly scoring during Loudoun’s preseason and continued the contributions here with the assist on Riley Bidois’ goal and almost getting one of his own 15 minutes later when he hit one off the crossbar. Bidois and Mines provided a seamless energy level when they came on for Zach Ryan and Leggett, respectively, and like everything in Week 2 of a 30-something game schedule, if they all stay healthy, that could do wonders for Loudoun’s chances.

On the Ted Lasso theorem.

The last few minutes I watched Loudoun from behind the bench, which was where I watched them last year when they lost to NCFC last May 2-0. I’ll fully cop to different points in the season and game for both clubs. But Saturday I watched a team all talking to one another, making sure of what needed to be done to secure the win. They had done a tremendous job limiting scoring chances for the hosts after the Bidois goal, and when referee JC Briggs blew the whistle (after an…interesting performance by him!), with a few folks from staff who made the trip they celebrated as a group before and after saying hi to travelers. Belief is a heckuva thing, and they seem to at the moment.

Random Stat of the Day: 5/27 (number of goals and shots taken by Loudoun, which (as of this writing) leads the USL.

So, where does this leave us? Well, Loudoun has now won two games in places they haven’t won at before over two weeks, and they get to repeat that effort again over the next week; Tuesday they enter the US Open Cup to play at West Chester United in Pennsylvania, and Saturday they go to Kentucky to play an always dangerous Louisville City FC bunch. Looking at Loudoun next Sunday could prove to be interesting!

There’s a lot of soccer left to play but it seems like Loudoun United want to eliminate any doubt, with a lot of belief.