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As a professional athlete, your job, generally, is to play to win. When they lose, they're still working, but they aren't fulfilling their job.
With the last nine games played, the Real Salt Lake roster has only pulled away two wins and one of those wins was where they lost their star player. The other seven games were made up of four loses and three draws.
Talk about a rough seven weeks.
Any professional team would agree that going through rough patches, like RSL has had in the past couple months, is very difficult and if the team doesn't stick together, the result can wear on the team and ultimately define their season.
Their rough patch began on April 27 when RSL let the CONCACAF Champions League title slip away to Monterrey.
From there, RSL saw a loss to the Timbers, a win over Chivas USA, but lost Javier Morales, two ties in a row to the Dynamo and FC Dallas, a loss to Seattle where they also lost their home MLS winning streak, a win over Vancouver, and their last two matches - a loss to Columbus and a draw with the Union.
With 22 regular season MLS games left, RSL captain Kyle Beckerman believes the team will come out of their rough patch even stronger than they entered it.
Speaking with mlssoccer.com writer Randy Davis on Wednesday, Beckerman said, "It will make us a stronger team when we get out of this. And I'm glad if we're going to have to go through this, we go through it at this time of the season and then when we come out of it, it will be guns blazing."
RSL welcomes D.C. United to Rio Tinto this weekend as they return to their home turf after two games on the road.
D.C. United comes to Rio Tinto with a record of 4-5-4 on the season and only winning one of their last five matches.
While on the road last week, RSL picked up a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Crew and a 1-1 tie with the Philadelphia Union.
Coming back home, RSL will look to continue to rebuild their home winning spirit when they face off against D.C. United on Saturday night. RSL lost that home winning streak when they lost to the Seattle Sounders on May 28.
Beckerman talked about how important that winning spirit is to RSL after they beat the Vancouver Whitecaps at home June 4.
"We've worked really hard for a couple of years now to get that winning mentality here and it's been a while since we've gone through a rough patch and had all these injuries and Gold Cup so tonight was big just to get back on the winning column and just kind of start over, it's a new chapter," said Beckerman.
RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis also recognizes the rough patch they are facing right now, but looks at it positively and is trying to show his roster that.
"There's a lot of ways to look at it negatively, but there's also a lot of ways to look at it positively. So I'm glad to hear that Kyle is reiterating that. I'm trying to do the same," Kreis told mlssoccer.com.
With the Gold Cup games still taking place, RSL will still remain without a two or their regulars again this weekend, Arturo Alvarez (El Salvador) and Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica), although Will Johnson will be back due to Canada not advancing in the Gold Cup.
Email: onlinesports@ksl.com
