In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: Good grief.

Good grief, indeed. Six league games without a win. How is this the same team we’ve been watching in Leagues Cup?

I could talk about what went wrong. A lot clealry did. But honestly, talking about how Philip Quinton, Juan Jose Arias and Lukas Engel, all together, played with the quality of 1.5 good center backs? It just isn’t exciting. Talking about how Diego Luna can look like the best player on the pitch, then immediately play selfishly and lose possession? The same.

Of course, we should probably mention that Arias committed the cardinal sin of trying a backheel in his own box, and it led directly to a Dallas goal. And we should probably also mention that Quinton and Arias had basically no coordination between the two of them.

And here’s the really frustrating part: It looked like RSL was going to at least draw the match, and while that’s not great, it’s still better than a loss. But no, here we are, sitting with a loss. In the final moment, RSL failed. They gave up a set piece in the middle of the field, packed the box with players — six of them! — and couldn’t defend a player cutting inside. Real Salt Lake in 2026 in tactically and defensively naive. The goals come, but more goals go.

So I guess I’d like to talk about something else. Still something frustrating, because I think it’s worth talking about how we neded up here — how we ended up in a position where we’ve gone six consecutive matches without a victory. Only once in the last five years have we gone longer without a win — and that’s seven games last year.

Only one team in MLS currently has fewer points in their last five games, and that’s the absolutely calamitous Seattle Sounders, who have managed exactly zero points in their last eight games.

So, how did we get here? I’ve got some (scattered) thoughts.

• There’s a problem in defense that Justen Glad solved — is it a coincidence that he’s now gone seven MLS games without playing? I don’t think it’s just a talent issue, though he certainly is more talented than our center back corps. Without him, there’s very little pace on the back line, and more alarmingly, there’s very little organization. Just watch the goals back that FC Dallas scored and you’ll get a very clear picture.

• The insistence on playing a 3-4-3 (or whatever the team wants to call it) is causing problems. DeAndre Yedlin is neither a true center back nor a right wing back, and while I don’t think the formation is universally a disaster, he’s being put in a difficult position here. Especially with Zavier Gozo gone, does it make sense to continue down this tired path?

• There’s clearly some sort of rotational something going on, because Morgan Guilavogui and Sergi Solans both coming off killed a lot of our attack. From that point forward, RSL managed three shots, and each of them was from a very deep position. More concerningly, they also managed just three passes originating from inside the box. There was just no danger.

• The substitutes, bar one or two, are just not anywhere close to good enough. Victor Olatunji hasn’t scored in 14 games. He has eight shots on target in 16 games played. Our newly signed ‘depth’ piece, Lineker Rodrigues, doesn’t look close to MLS-ready. On the other hand, Saba Lobjanidze looks very much the part, and I’m eager to see him in a starting position, and Pablo Ruiz looks better than I’d have expected, given his lack of minutes over the last five years. (He hasn’t had a 2,000-minute season since 2022.) And for some reason, Aiden Hezarkhani isn’t getting off the bench, despite a strong start to the season. (Remember that? It was so long ago.) RSL’s U-22 right wing back, Dominik Marczuk, didn’t even make the bench.

I wish this was all simple. I think a couple signings could help, but they’ll just paper over the cracks. A great team is more than the sum of its parts. A good team has good parts, and it’s equal to the sum of its parts. And what we’re seeing now? I don’t know. It’s either a good team that’s less than the sum of its parts, it’s not a good team, or it’s both in some degree.

It’s bleak out there. Maybe the $15 million Zavier Gozo transfer will lead to great things for this team, but until that happens, I’m not going to get excited about a transfer fee. I want to get excited about good players.