Sandy » During most of its four-game winless streak, Real Salt Lake had been straining for answers to explain its stunning reversal of fortune.
Now it has a theory.
Coach Jason Kreis and several of his players said Wednesday that after its impressive start, the team had started to think too highly of itself and now must "stop patting ourselves on the back about history" if it wants to stop its worst slide in nearly two years. The team plays at D.C. United on Saturday, trying to snap its four-game road losing streak against one of the top two teams in the MLS Eastern Conference.
"We just bought into all of the hype," midfielder Will Johnson said, "all of the things about being one of the best teams in the league and thinking that things were going to come easy. But we're going to have to earn things. Nothing's given to you in this league."
Certainly the team has learned that the hard way.
After a 3-2-0 start, it has scored only two goals in its last four games, and still has scored neither a goal nor a point in the standings away from home.
Kreis said he already feared that the team's unexpected run to the MLS Western Conference final last season had created a sense of overconfidence that was only fueled by its strong start and a 6-0 wipeout of a depleted New England side at home last month -- the team's last victory.
"We maybe thought we were further along than we are, and we maybe thought we were a better team than we are," he said. "What's been good about this difficult, difficult stretch for us is that has forced us to take a real long look in the mirror, and now our opinion of ourselves is different and I think probably more factual.
"We're not the best team in the league," he added. "We're not among the best teams in the league. But we can still get there."
Johnson agreed.
"We've been getting away from what we're all about, and trying to do too many different things," he said. "We let everyone get to our head a little bit. We started believing maybe some things that aren't true. So we have to get back to just being a hard-working team."
