The last time we were here, Loudoun United was celebrating their second straight win at a place they had never won at before, and between then and now, they played at Louisville City, another place they had never won at before. When Ryan Martin brought up the next game at the time, I think I kind of rolled my eyes and wondered ‘jeez, give these guys a break!’

Simply put, Louisville is no slouch at home; since 2022, they have a 33-9-5 regular season record at Lynn Family Stadium. When you take out their 2023 season where six of those losses happened, it’s even more impressive. Heck, Loudoun hasn’t scored a goal there since 2022, and they still hadn’t after losing 2-0 last week, extending their scoreless streak at Lynn to 298 minutes. That Loudoun had a midweek Open Cup game that challenged them a little heartier than they’d expect, but ultimately defeated League Two side Westchester United 3-2, put a little more stress on the legs heading into that game. So, the lads brushed themselves off, and focused on this week’s home opener against Rhode Island. While neither team scored on the other in both games last year, Loudoun had not lost a home opener since 2021, and after their 2-0 win over RIFC Saturday, extends that streak a little more. So what’s good, bad or otherwise from the game?

On Abdellatif Aboukoura’s absolute adroitness.

I was trying to find a way to end that alliteration, but following the first half hour which was a little bit of a rock fight, Aboukoura showed off a bit with a pair of impressive goals, starting with:

and ending with:

The goals found him taking on RIFC’s center backs (each a couple of years older than him) and making them look foolish. Now admittedly it’s hard to tell how much of it was due to Loudoun or to Rhode Island; they looked slow to challenges in their area a lot of the game, Loudoun could easily have had a penalty shout or two, but Aboukoura’s got range, he’s burying his chances, and as of this writing, leads the League in goals, and his 4 in 4 March games should warrant a Player of the Month honor.

My my, Mr. Mines.

Offseason acquisition Ben Mines started in place of Wesley Leggett (presumably ahead of the next week, which we’ll get to in a second), and helped get the Rhode Island team on the back foot more often than not, with a look at one of those penalties, and continued hard work on both ends of the field:

He throws a different wrinkle into the lineup, allowing Keegan Tingey to come forward and provide some distribution, and Mines provides some cover on defense, a portion of the above is his defensive actions, and the below is the group’s:

On a team that can throw several different looks at you, this is one to watch.

On the limitations of cross-training.

Yanis Leerman was sent off with his second yellow card, so Loudoun got a chance to see what is their apparent short term future is like. Meaning Drew Skundrich dropped back while Pedro Santos, who signed a short-term deal yesterday, dropped back in the middle a little more to help the team maintain a clean sheet. Robby Dambrot and Cole Turner, both defenders, were out to injury, so the only other available defender was Academy player Ethan Pendleton.

So, with two games coming up this week, Leerman will most certainly start the Open Cup game, but the question becomes Saturday. Does Skundrich drop back? Tommy McCabe leads the team in created chances, you certainly would want to keep him a little more forward. In which case, Moses Nyeman would start for Loudoun. But he wasn’t on the bench Saturday; in fact, of Loudoun’s eight subs:

• Two are Academy players
• One is a rookie, and
• Two, including Santos and Christian Sorto, are on 25 day contracts, and Sorto’s expires before next Saturday.

I like Alex Nagy, Riley Bidois and Leggett and they get their own solid minutes in this group, but this could be a portent if we’re thinking about Loudoun’s gameday squad makeup on Matchday 5. Folks need to get, and stay healthy, or at least these short-term deals should translate into full season ones. What is working in March may not work in June.

Random Stat of the Day: 2.99, the discrepancy between the actual (4) and Expected (1.01) goals of Aboukoura, tops in the USL.

So, where does this leave us? Well, Loudoun’s had good months before; they’ve had sort of good starts before too; if you use goal differential, Loudoun’s the third best team in the USL right now, which is good! This week sees the Open Cup game, followed by hosting a Hartford side that’s scored once in their first three games. Player management is going to be another biggie, and keeping guys healthy, and bringing dinged guys back.

The following two weeks see Loudoun play at Tampa Bay and host Pittsburgh, two perennially tough clubs, in the hopes that they can continue the good vibes and positive results.