The thing with a new squad and 80% turnover is that things take time to take hold, no matter what. And at least following Loudoun United’s 2-2 draw with Oakland in the Ryan Martin derby, there were some positives to take from Loudoun’s performance. And despite a game that could be seen as a tad bit of a rockfight, Loudoun came away with a 1-0 win, the first under new coach Anthony Limbrick. So let’s self-congratulate and take a peek and what was under the hood:

On the benefits of improving health. I’ve been beating the drum on the fact that when Loudoun got a little healthier, the chance to see the team at its full, or at least better, complement of players, could get borne out. The Oakland game saw the return of Jack Panyotou, but more importantly saw defender Sal Mazzaferro come back. Brooklyn saw Mazzaferro get his first start since Week 1, but from a lineup perspective did a couple of things:

• It moved Bolu Akinyode up the field next to James Murphy centrally, and allowed him to be a kind of destroyer in the middle, as 8 of 12 duels won and 7 of 9 aerial ones would suggest. He also played on the left side, which helped fortify the Kwame Awuah/Richie Aman tandem and allowed them to get forward more often and be that much more dangerous in attack (Aman hit all of his passes on the day). Having Bolu in a position for Loudoun that he hadn’t been able to be in since the first weeks since his arrival last summer was a good thing.
  
• Mazzaferro was a steadying hand for Axel Essengue in back, they played simple and were able to contain Markus Anderson and J.C. Obregon with little trouble, limiting Brooklyn to a shot on target in each half, and nothing in the last 10 minutes.

With the defense returning to give others the chance to be utilized in their best positions, this was the tease of promise, even if it didn’t happen until now.

On a sneaky good, award-winning signing? When Alen Marcina decided on signing Thor Ulfarsson to a contract (on the same day as Mazzaferro mind you), it did make for a little bit of intrigue; Ulfarsson has some scoring prowess but hadn’t had the chance to show it off in awhile due to injuries limiting his time in Iceland and Hungary. So far, so good in Loudoun, where Saturday saw him get his fifth goal in 7 games (he never scored more than 4 in any pro season), and his .75 goals/90 is double any of his past pro seasons, and he’s 4th in the League in goals and 7th in shots, despite missing a game for the team.

Early days to be fair, but if Ulfarsson keeps the pace and health up, is putting up a convincing case for Comeback Player of the Year.

On never forgetting your first. Look, not many people can get a first win with a Coney Island roller coaster in the background, but Loudoun did, they had lots of fun about it, and when talking to James Murphy the prior week before Oakland, he said:

“We know (this) is a team that will win games. It really is just sticking to it, trusting ourselves, and really believing that win is gonna come. And when it does, I really feel like we know that we’ll continue to go on that route, it’s just seeing that first three points up on the board that kind of lifts the whole group up and change the mentality to really kick on for the rest of the season.”

Random Stat of the Day: 3.30, the actual (5) versus expected (1.70) goal differential for Ulfarsson.

So, where do we go from here? Loudoun has a bye week before Detroit City come to town, the third game in seven days for DCFC beginning with a USL Cup game Saturday with Forward Madison and a midweek affair with Miami. Loudoun’s first win strangely extended their unbeaten streak to five, for better or worse.

With Jacob Erlandson and Abdellatif Aboukoura close to their onfield returns, was last week the time when things turned?