Our guest correspondent, Adam Davis, fills us in on what the 2021 USL season might look like for Loudoun United. You can listen to Adam talk about the team on Two Loud Adams.
Last week, the USL announced the format and divisional-breakdown ahead of the 2021 USL Championship Season. This announcement provided [some] clarity to what teams Loudoun United is going to play this year. Earlier last month, we tried to predict how Loudoun’s group might shake out and I’m proud to say we were pretty darn close in our predictions. The one error is that Atlanta United II will not be in our group and instead last year’s newcomer to the USL Championship, Miami FC, would be included.
Loudoun’s group, titled the Eastern Conference’s “Atlantic Division,” is one of the four different 8-team divisions that the USL Championship broke into for the 2021 Season to further mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Here’s how the group will shake out:
- Hartford Athletic
- New York Red Bulls II
- Pittsburgh Riverhounds
- Loudoun United
- Charlotte Independence
- Charleston Battery
- Tampa Bay Rowdies
- Miami FC
Each team within the group will play the other 7 teams a total of 4 times, twice at home and twice away, meaning that Loudoun’s divisional play will be made up of 28 games. This also means we don’t have to travel to Hartford 312 times this year. Additionally, each team will play 4-games outside of their division to total the regular-season at 32 games. While those 4 games are likely to maintain similar regional considerations, there is a possibility that Loudoun United might get a chance to play its first ever Western Conference opponent this year.
At first glance, one might say that this is a really tough division… and that glance would be correct. Although it was likely to be the case no matter how the groups shook-out, there are a lot of powerhouses that Loudoun are going to have to play this year. Pittsburgh Riverhounds are a proverbial playoff-making team that will likely be the favorites for the group, despite finishing 2nd behind Hartford in Group F last Season. Their manager, Bob Lilly, is a highly regarded tactician in American and Canadian Soccer and they enter each season as potential title-contenders year after year. New York Red Bulls II are a team that have made the playoffs every year with the exception of last year’s COVID-impacted season. This includes a USL Title in 2016. Charleston Battery are a storied franchise dating back to a 1993 founding and have made the playoffs in every season they’ve played in since 2008. Tampa Bay Rowdies finished on top of the group they shared with Charleston and went on to win the Eastern Conference Finals in 2020 (along with being titled co-2021 USL Champions). Before entering the USL in 2020, Miami FC won back-to-back-to-back Championships in NISA and NPSL. Charlotte Independence topped their Group last year before getting knocked out in the playoffs to Charleston. And we all know about Hartford’s dominating sophomore-season last year where they topped Group F favorites, Pittsburgh, to eventually lose in the first round of the playoffs.
Why say all of this? Well, it should be made clear that by no stretch of the imagination are Loudoun going to be the favorites in this group. We are one of 3 teams that did not make the 2020 Playoffs and 1 of 2 teams that has never been there. The path won’t be easy to reach a first playoff-berth but with a massive overhaul of the roster, perhaps Coach Martin can create enough magic to get us to the promised land.