Oakland Roots announced they signed former Loudoun United midfielder Tommy McCabe to a contract.
“Tommy is the type of player every coach wants,” head coach Ryan Martin said. “He’s intelligent, disciplined, and his vision and decision-making will be instrumental in helping our group find solutions to win games. His presence in the midfield will be a central part of our identity this season, and we’re excited to have him in Oakland.”
McCabe left no doubt that he was bound to join Martin with Roots, recently changing his personal Instagram profile photo to himself practicing at Roots’ facility. He’s also posted that he was taking the ferry to San Francisco.
It already wasn’t much of a secret that McCabe is coming to The Town. USLC Rumors reported that McCabe and former Loudoun United forward Florian Valot will be signing contracts with Roots.
This likely marks a string of signings from Loudoun United, like Keegan Tingey and Valot.
So what are Roots getting in McCabe?
McCabe is listed as a central midfielder, while FotMob lists his secondary role as a CDM. He was the third most active player on Martin’s roster at Loudoun in USL Championship play, accounting for 2,555 minutes in 29 total appearances.
He may not be a prolific scorer with just four goals and five assists across all competitions in his seven-year career, but he brings an ability to move the ball up the field–which is critical in Martin’s system.
McCabe completed 90.2 percent of his passes last season, ranking in the top 7.1 percent of players at his position. His efficiency provides a considerable boost over Tyler Gibson and Bobosi Byaruhanga, who respectively ranked in the 83.7 percent and 78.7 percent of passes.
He was also great with the long ball, averaging 3.64 successful long passes per match and ranked in the top 20 percent of players, which is more than double of Gibson and Ali Elmasnaouy’s 2025 averages. Gibson completed just 1.7 long passes per match, Bobosi averaged 2.8 with a success rate of just 48.4 percent, while Elmasnaouy completed just 1.4 long passes per match.
Although he has a background as a CDM, it’s difficult to say if McCabe mightily improves the defense of the position group. He only won 44.1 percent of duels last season at 2.28 per match, which is in the bottom four percent of players. Gibson averaged 2.69 duels won per match, Bobosi had 3.37, while Elmasnaouy leads the group with 5.69 per match–ranking in the top 26.5 percent of midfielders.
Elmasnaouy still leads the midfielders with 2.39 tackles per match, which was among the best players in the league in the top 3.5 percent of players. McCabe won just 0.92 tackles per match, Gibson won 0.99, and Bobosi was a bit better with 1.65.
McCabe, 27, competed collegiately at Notre Dame from 2016 to 2018. He was the 29th overall pick in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft by FC Cincinnati, eventually making his USL Championship debut with subsequent loans with North Carolina FC in 2019 and Memphis 901 in 2020.
From there, McCabe joined Orange County SC for the following two years, making 59 appearances for the SoCal side. He joined Detroit City in 2023 and was transferred to FC Tulsa later in the year.
He signed on with Loudoun United in 2024, becoming one of Martin’s most active players with 67 total appearances, starting each time.
For his USL Championship career, McCabe has 160 appearances and 130 starts for 11,845 minutes, four goals, and four assists.
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