When we were here last week, I mentioned that Loudoun United had a couple of games, including Saturday’s with Hartford, where rotating folks would be low-key paramount to the team’s success. They handled Virginia Dream on Tuesday with a Zach Ryan brace and a 4-2 win in the second round of the Open Cup. They found out on Thursday they would have to go to Louisville for the 3rd round and, as I mentioned last week, winning, or even scoring at Lynn Family Stadium for Loudoun has been a tough ask, and Loudoun goes back to the Loo on April 15, so they get a week to heal and regroup.

Speaking of the Open Cup, Loudoun’s Saturday opposition Hartford went 120 minutes and lost in PKs on the road to Portland Hearts of Pine, and remained a little demoralized heading into the game. So what became of it?

On an evolving midfield. Hartford lost Michee Ngalina and Marlon Hairston in the last 30 minutes of the first half to injury. They challenged Loudoun a little early on, but as the first half wore on, you could sense that they were going to try and settle in and maybe try and steal a road point.

Loudoun wouldn’t have much of that. After last week when Yanis Leerman was sent off, Drew Skundrich was going to play in back, so then the question became who would be Tommy McCabe’s running buddy in center midfield?

Turns out it would be Pedro Santos, he of the 25-day contract. But having him in the middle certainly helped, as the action maps show:

One (or both) of them may get a Team of the Week nod, but the combined results (90.4% accuracy, 152/168 passing, 7 chances created, 3 tackles, 1 blocked shot, 1 interception) may have been the most impressive yet understated performance by Loudoun in awhile.

There was a halftime tweak that didn’t go unnoticed. Santos dropped back a little more, which gave some more space to Abdellatif Aboukoura and Florian Valot, allowing Kwame Awuah to pick some more spots, which got particularly exploited after Adrian Diz Pe’s red card for a nasty tackle on Aboukoura in the 66th minute.

On the benefits of familiarity. In the DC News Now pregame show, I mentioned how Hugo Fauroux has been able to start stronger out of the blocks this year than last for a couple of reasons, and having the same backline playing in front of him this season has helped in that regard. I asked Skundrich about playing next to Jacob Erlandson, Keegan Tingey and Awuah, and received this answer:

“Those guys make it easy, and you left out Hugo! Hugo’s there as well. And he and Jake was talking to me the entire game, guiding me in my positioning, helping me with what to do on the ball and off the ball. Those guys, even Tommy McCabe at times, really helped me, so it was kind of a seamless transition.”

As a tangent, speaking of action maps, Skundrich on the right, and Erlandson on the left:

That’s 94% passing accuracy (157/167), 14/20 duels won and 8 clearances, the latter all from Erlandson. For the kids that Ryan Martin has managed to bring through Loudoun and see play in MLS and Europe, helping nurture guys like Erlandson and Fauroux into reliable talent in the USL is another feather in the cap.

And speaking of Fauroux, early days and all but only two other goalkeepers have more shutouts since the start of 2024 than Fauroux’s 12, and Fauroux looks to top his past expected versus actual goals allowed best in 2024 by the end of May 2025. Hopefully the strong start leads to a stronger finish.

Random Stat of the Day: 3, number of stats categories Loudoun players currently lead the USL in (goals (Aboukoura), assists (Valot) and clearances (Erlandson)).

So, Where Does This Leave Us? Well a week to heal up before Loudoun goes to Tampa, stays on the road at Louisville, then hosts a Pittsburgh side on Easter weekend in what could be an incredibly fascinating matchup. Tampa and Pittsburgh have their own midweek Open Cups in the middle as well (with the Hounds at Columbus Crew 2), so just as things calm down, they get frantic all over again. Ryan Martin gets the last word:

“Honestly, we’ve been looking at one game at a time. We’ve seen all the predictions and where people think we sit, and we obviously think we’re better than that. So for us it’s been trying to maximize each opportunity. You never know when this group has their last moment together, so we’re trying to just enjoy the journey.”