It probably wouldn't be fulfilling many of them.

Two months into the season, reconstructed RSL is starting to look suspiciously like all of its previous incarnations - maddeningly inconsistent, catastrophically unable to win on the road, and statistically among the worst teams in Major League Soccer. That's a label the team hoped to have shed by now, but instead, it will wear it unaccompanied if it loses to the last-place expansion San Jose Earthquakes at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday.

"Now, for me, this is probably the most critical stretch of the season," coach Jason Kreis said.

Not just Saturday's game, but the next eight, of which six are at home.

The span presents RSL the crucial opportunity to climb back into a playoff hunt that has hardly sped on without them - one simple victory would vault them back into the thick of it, in the unspectacular MLS Western Conference - especially considering they remain unbeaten at home. Just a couple of weeks ago, in fact, RSL was playing for first place in the conference.

"In that sense, we know that we're still right there and it's still relatively early," defender Chris Wingert said. "But at the same time, the pressure starts to mount and you realize that you can't take your time and kind of ease into it. You need to get wins as soon as possible. The only way to do that is focus on the next game and not worry about what's going to happen five games from now, or what's happened so far."

Indeed, while the consensus within the organization is that RSL is more talented and more competitive now than at any point in its history, its overall results continue to lag behind its aspirations.

Already, it has given away five points with late-game collapses - you remember those, right? - that ruined seemingly sure victories, and several of its heralded new acquisitions have not performed quite as well as it had hoped.

Defender Ian Joy, for example, has criticized himself for not playing to his potential despite battling an ankle injury, and will miss tonight's game after being ejected with a red card last weekend. Midfielder Nathan Sturgis, a potential Olympian expected to help anchor the starting lineup, will miss his sixth straight league game with a hamstring injury that hasn't healed nearly as quickly as coaches had hoped and forced some lineup juggling.

"That's really, really hurting us right now," Kreis said.

Others have battled nagging injuries or not yet dazzled on the field, too, and even the coach has shown hints of his coaching inexperience, acknowledging tactical mistakes in several instances and most recently refusing to speak with reporters after a crushing meltdown in the heat at FC Dallas last weekend.

Yet there hasn't been a singular, glaring problem that has kept the team from winning.

Kreis said he almost wishes there was, in the same way he sometimes wishes that he could resolve arguments with his wife with one simple, definitive adjustment. Instead, like many marital disputes, it's not that easy. Slight deficiencies in a wide variety of areas have woven a complex tapestry of trouble.

"We need to do just a little bit better in all the areas," Kreis said recently, "but continue to do what we have been doing, because overall, I'd say our play has been pretty good."

Certainly, the team is not nearly as hopeless as last season.

At this time last year, it was still seeking its first victory after firing coach John Ellinger, and had been shut out five times in nine games. If anything, the first third or so of this season has most closely resembled the one RSL played two years ago, when it came within one game of making the playoffs.

That said, seasons generally don't get easier as they go along. Players get tired and hurt, some leave for international duty, and pressure mounts for bad teams to find ways out of their slumps.

That makes it all the more important for RSL to climb back into the playoff hunt now, while it has the chance at home, starting tonight against a team that has scored only six goals all season - though the Earthquakes are coming off a 2-1 home victory over two-time defending champion Houston. The Quakes will be without starting striker Kei Kamara and midfielder Ivan Guerrero due to international duty, though that probably means former RSL striker Ryan Johnson will get a chance to haunt his former team.

"My father keeps telling me, it's a very long season and it's too early to look at points," RSL's Tony Beltran said. "But we can't keep saying that forever. . . . If we can get on a roll here and get some momentum, we're right back in it."