I think I'm OK with my 3 periods of negativity in 10 seasons. I was even Mr. Brightside defending Ronny against those calling for his head in 2021 during the 7 points in 10 games slump.
I entered this season optimistic, and told myself the lackluster preseason games were meaningless preseason games. I presumed the players for whom we spent $20 million would contribute instead of playing a combined 94 minutes through 7 games. It's one thing to miss on a player who isn't as good as you thought he was. Not getting players who could conceivably contribute right away was a choice. A depressing choice given what happened last year.
MLS does not require slow year to year rebuilds. Eleven teams missed the playoffs last year. Seven are above the playoff line right now. We're not. It doesn't have to be this way. Hell, if we just earned points at the rate we did after the break last year we'd have roughly twice as many points.
And not scoring takes a toll. A loss or draw is worth 0 or 1 point regardless, but consistently scoring 0 or 1 goals makes for very boring soccer. We're on 13 shutouts against just 9 multi-goal games over 2 seasons. I wasn't joking when I said I was hoping for either team to score in the final 10 minutes Saturday night. All these 1-1 and 0-1 games wear you down.
