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On the bright side for Real Salt Lake, it still has two regular-season games to try to straighten itself out before the Major League Soccer playoffs.
But boy, it's getting harder to find that bright side.
"You want to be as positive as you can, but when you let in 13, 14 goals in four games, there's nothing positive about that," said goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
Well now, see … there's a bright spot.
It's actually only 12 goals that RSL has allowed during its four-game losing streak. Of course, it feels like about a million to the coaches and players, and nobody seems quite sure what has happened to a team that had won five in a row before the losing streak, or exactly how to fix it.
"We have to figure it out as soon as possible," midfielder Javier Morales said.
Part of the problem — at least during a 3-0 loss at Vancouver on Thursday night — was a pile of player absences coupled with a controversial red card and penalty kick that put RSL "behind the eight ball early" according to assistant coach Jeff Cassar.
But Cassar also said the team "didn't react extremely well" to the adversity and its effort "just wasn't up to par."
And that's happening far too much for a team that hopes to make a playoff run with Morales back in the lineup after recovering from a devastating ankle injury that cost him most of the season.
Both Rimando and defender Nat Borchers said the team continues to commit "silly" fouls, such as the one that led to the free kick on which midfielder Collen Warner was ejected for a handball in the box that denied a scoring opportunity and allow Vancouver's Camilo Sanvezzo to convert the first of two penalty kicks.
"We should be smarter," Rimando said. "We are smarter players. We're just tuning off at the wrong time. Certain players that we need to step up aren't stepping up, and I think this is a little bit of a gut check.
"The last four games or so, we've kind of realized we're not so deep, we're not so good, we're not the best team in this league," Rimando added. "And we're looking at ourselves in the mirror right now. You lose four games in a row, it's definitely not good. It's not positive."
RSL will get most of its missing players back when it plays at rival Colorado in its next game on Friday, but midfielder and team captain Kyle Beckerman will miss the rest of the regular season — the home game against Portland on Oct. 22 is the finale — while serving the final two games of a three-game suspension for head-butting Chicago's Daniel Paladini in a 3-0 loss to the Fire last month.
"It is concerning," Cassar said. "But we feel we have the leadership in the locker room to overcome that, once we get everybody back and healthy, and Javi up to 100 percent. We're going to feel good about ourselves" as long as they work hard in training.
"We have time to get it right," Rimando said.
Tough stretch
RSL has lost four straight games:
Date Opponent Result
Sept. 24 at D.C. United L, 4-1
Sept. 28 Chicago L, 3-0
Oct. 1 at Los Angeles L, 2-1
Oct. 6 at Vancouver L, 3-0 —
MLS standings
EASTERN CONFERENCE
W L T Pts GF GA
Philadelphia 11 7 14 47 43 34
Sporting K.C. 11 9 12 45 47 40
Columbus 12 12 8 44 38 41
New York 9 7 16 43 49 42
Houston 10 9 13 43 40 40
D.C. 9 10 11 38 46 46
Chicago 7 8 16 37 40 40
Toronto FC 6 13 13 31 33 56
New England 5 15 12 27 36 53
WESTERN CONFERENCE
W L T Pts GF GA
x-Los Angeles 18 4 10 64 46 25
x-Seattle 16 7 9 57 51 35
x-Real Salt Lake 15 11 6 51 43 35
FC Dallas 13 11 7 46 36 34
Colorado 11 9 12 45 42 40
Portland 11 13 7 40 38 44
Chivas USA 8 12 12 36 40 39
San Jose 7 11 14 35 35 41
Vancouver 5 16 10 25 32 50
x- clinched playoff berth
Saturday's games
San Jose 2, New England 1
Philadelphia 2, Seattle 0
Wednesday, Oct. 12
FC Dallas at Chicago, 6:30 p.m.
D.C. United at Vancouver, 8 p.m.
RSL's final two games
Friday • RSL at Colorado, 8:30 p.m.
Oct. 22 • Portland at RSL, 7 p.m.