Only midfielder Andy Williams and coach Jason Kreis have been around to witness all five poor starts. Without much of a link through the years, it's unlikely there's connection between the year to year underachievement.

Perhaps it's just dumb, bad luck.

"I have some occasions on the other side of that in Dallas. When we started out very, very strong, and it was easy to keep things moving along. But I do believe that every team in this league has difficult patches. Some happen in the middle," said Kreis. "When we were in Dallas, always, always, always late July and August we struggled, straight down the hill. For me, maybe we get this out of our way and then we move forward and don't have to deal with it again."

That's how things played out last year, as RSL dug out of a similar hole to eke out a spot in the playoffs. But it's not really a consistent formula for success.

This year's poor early showing is much more disconcerting for general manager Garth Lagerwey than last year. With so many new faces donning RSL uniforms in 2008, everyone figured the club would take some early lumps. However, once it added a few extra pieces during the summer transfer window though, RSL developed into a pretty respectable side.

The natural progression of that led many to believe RSL would come out flying in 2009, which obviously hasn't been the case.

For one year at least, perhaps ego can best explain this year's poor first few months.

"At the end of the day, we have the talent. If we can have the commitment and fight, this group can be successful. They have to understand that they are not special, and if they think they are and by showing up they're going to win games, that's not good enough," said Lagerwey.

"For me, this is not a group that should be in and around the bottom of the table hoping for a playoff spot; this is a group that should be competing at the top of the table for the top seed. We need to raise our expectations collectively and be more consistently successful."

Real Salt Lake may or may not turn things around this year.

Either way, the organization must figure out a way to better handle the first few months in future seasons. Otherwise, at this point in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the club will once again be hovering around the dreaded 3-6-2 mark 11 games into the season.

Eleven games in

Real Salt Lake's record 11 games into a season.

2009 – 3-6-2

2008 – 3-5-3

2007 – 0-5-6

2006 – 3-6-2

2005 – 3-6-2

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com