The last time we were here, we looked back at Loudoun’s regular season loss to Louisville City. Since then, Loudoun played Charlotte in Jagermeister Cup play and won on penalty kicks to hold onto the lead in Group 5, and played on Independence Day eve in a scoreless draw to Orange County. In my defense I was at the beach, so I watched both on wifi while smarting from sunburn. So what does one make of such things? Let’s dive in!

On holding, but losing some of the lead in the Jager Group. In chatting about the Charlotte game before and after it occurred for DC News Now, I noted that Charlotte was going to be a tough one; they weren’t 2nd in the group for their good looks, are a well-coached side that was going to be tough. Following a phenomenal free kick goal by Abdellatif Aboukoura at 4:10 of the below, Souaibou Marou followed up with one of his own:

Things went to PKs after 90 (competition rules), where Hugo Fauroux got into the groove and Yanis Leerman, who played 90 in this game because of a red card in the previous game, got the extra point with his PK conversion. Loudoun sits atop the group with 8 points, while Louisville City and Charlotte are tied with 6 (Louisville holds the differential tiebreaker, 3 to 1).

Those three teams play the bottom three teams in the group, with Loudoun played the already-eliminated North Carolina FC on July 26. More than that, NCFC has won five of their last six, and are three points back with two games in hand on Loudoun for third (NC plays at 2nd place Charleston Sunday afternoon). Does NC rotate to kids ahead of a game at Louisville? Do they put a seed of doubt into Loudoun’s mind?

The overarching point of this is going back to my Charlotte pregame thoughts; starting fast and putting it away was the optimal result, as Loudoun could have been the first team to win their group. Now, they will likely need to win at NCFC, as a draw or loss will throw them into the wild card chaos, where at 4 goals scored, would put them out of that race altogether.

So in sum, Loudoun needs to take care of their business and avoid watching the scoreboard. After the last couple of weeks, that’s a little more doubtful than before.

On keeping your head up, and together. Sometimes during these things, I’m balancing watching and providing #takes and #analysis with parental stuff, and having seen the clip of Zach Ryan’s foul on former Loudoun teammate Chris Hegardt at the time (in 1:33 of the highlights), I thought ‘ugh, stupid thing’ in essence. Having watched the replay a little later, I’m more of the thought that the Ryan elbow/shoulder was high, but certainly in the chest, and having Hegardt put his hands to his face put a little bit of doubt into things. Benjamin Meyer initially issued a yellow card, then there appeared to be some consultation and the upgrade to a red card made. Loudoun made appeals to said linesman who was on the same side of the field but at a further angle but to no avail. So my take on the card in a vacuum is now ‘stupid, but sold well,’ so now the team captain misses the next game.

However, it doesn’t change the fact that Loudoun incurred their third red card over 77 minutes and two games. Along with Leerman, Ryan Martin was missing for a red of his own, and Victor Lonchuk not present on the bench meant Jack Stefanowski got the honors. Four games in a 13 day span is less than ideal for any team, but Loudoun’s got a lot of big brains in that locker room, and they didn’t necessarily get exhibited during stretches of that span.

On the “S” word and underlying pros and cons. You can look at Loudoun’s current form a couple of different ways; they lost their first game at Segra after nine unbeaten a couple of weeks ago, and Loudoun’s performance in the Louisville/Charleston/Detroit home stand remains admirable. Inclusive of that stand, Loudoun has won two of their last seven games across both USLC and Jager Cup play and are winless in their last four, scoring two goals in that span. Summer swoon, indeed.

However, they got (and hopefully are able to keep) Jacob Erlandson back for a spell 10 days ago, Robby Dambrot had his first start of 2025 in the OCSC game and played well, Pedro Santos made his return for the last 20 minutes of the game, Wes Leggett doubled his minutes workload from the Charlotte game (17) to OCSC (32), without Leerman or Erlandson, Cole Turner played nicely next to Dambrot and behind Tommy McCabe. Presumably Loudoun may be able to field their strongest lineups by the end of the month, which would be welcomed.

Random Stat of the Day: 14, number of goals Abdellatif Aboukoura has scored this season across the Regular Season, Jagermeister Cup and Open Cup, the most single season goals in Loudoun history.

So, where does this leave us? Loudoun has the two-headed task of both righting the ship in their current play and going to a place where they have yet to win at when they go to Pittsburgh to play the Riverhounds. Speaking of form, the Hounds have won four of their last five, with those wins all coming at Highmark Stadium. Loudoun fortunately has been able to open franchise accounts with wins at Birmingham and NCFC this year, and will want to channel some of that karma to keep some room around them in the Eastern Conference, the Hounds are six points back and tied with Detroit for fifth.

Loudoun will want to regroup and regain the early season magic to keep the rest of the season looking good.