Even just a couple of weeks ago, Loudoun playing Miami Saturday night had a couple of different narratives to it. The first was whether Ryan Martin could turn the tide of poor and at times unlucky play Loudoun had been experiencing, the second was the potential of seeing Bill Hamid play in the DMV in a non-D.C. United jersey (Virginia Dream notwithstanding). Unfortunately, last week saw Martin’s fate appear to be decided, days after Hamid moved from Miami to Tampa Bay. Loudoun still had some bad mojo to work out, which they were able to do with a win, but is it enough? More after the highlight jump:

Not completely peaches and cream. Everyone is happy, and Loudoun has won two of their last three regular season games, and sure, the xG battle was fairly one-sided, but game states could have taken it a whole other way as (hopefully) gameflow illustrates:

As the highlights show at 4:15 and 5:30 respectively, Hugo Fauroux logged a(nother) Save of the Week on Matias Romero, moments before Quimi Ordonez’ goal (sidenote: Quimi scored minutes after word of his call-up to the Guatemala National Team for World Cup qualifiers came out), and Tobias Zarate put a volley just over the crossbar that would have tied things up late, and moments before Zach Ryan put the game on ice. Loudoun is happy to get the points, particularly in light of who played Saturday, and can count their lucky stars it doesn’t have to feel otherwise.

On, well, a familiar topic. I’m not inclined to go through the times I’ve talked about it, though I’m fairly sure it’s been a few, on how thin Loudoun’s roster has been at points through the season. Cole Turner and Robby Dambrot were hurt, so Jacob Erlandson and Yanis Leerman helped nail the fort down. Now, Erlandson has been out an extended period, and Turner appears to have gone down again, so Leerman and Dambrot are the backpair with Drew Skundrich or Tommy McCabe dropping back so that Keegan Tingey can bounce forward in attack. And the thing I said then I’ll say now; this is not sustainable, particularly with fewer and fewer games and higher and higher stakes. Sign someone, get someone back, and paradoxically, while Wes Leggett returned to the lineup Saturday as did D.C. loanee Bibi Karamoko Abdellatif Aboukoura was out Saturday. With Ordonez being out to National Team duty, Loudoun United’s potentially at their thinnest at not the best time.

Infrastructure week is every week! A couple of weeks ago I moaned about Segra’s swamp turf, particularly as it stalled a Loudoun attack. This week? Kwame Awuah with a pitch perfect gem:

I don’t doubt Virginia Revolution wants to make Segra a more feared place to play, and I don’t doubt their awareness of stadia issues, and I don’t think this was magically fixed in two weeks. To belabor a point I tried to make earlier in the week, if they’re aware of how bad Segra issues are, why compound them by suddenly having to figure out their coach in the process? Fix the problems and, if you still have a floundering club, sack the coach.

Random Stat of the Day: 10, number of wins Loudoun has this season, one away from their single season record of 11, set in 2019 and met 2024.

So, where do we go from here? Well in two weeks Loudoun has played four games, and the only one they lost in 90 minutes was a game on short turnaround in Charleston, following a hard fought yet unsuccessful loss in the Jagermeister Cup quarterfinals to the Sacramento Republic. If the Charleston loss was in fact Martin’s ultimatum, it is not only a wholly unfair one on a high level, but Loudoun had all hands on deck for their Miami game. Miami wasn’t necessarily a easy out, but they are the type of team and game Loudoun should, and did see out.

Loudoun go on the road to play El Paso before returning to Segra to host San Antonio, a pair of three straight games with Western Conference sides (a road game at Phoenix follows those). Loudoun’s going to have to figure out how to get one or three points without Ordonez which is not the only dilemma facing the team given their defense. With North Carolina shipping two goals in their last seven minutes at home and Pittsburgh losing at Tampa, Loudoun has a five point lead over fifth place Hartford.

While Loudoun appears to have turned a corner and hopefully when they go out West, they’ll hopefully not lose their composure in the high speed chase for a playoff spot.