It's not just the injuries and the tight schedule that are killing D.C. United. It's also the lackluster play, the poor discipline, the missing confidence and the inability to score. As Steven Goff observes following Sunday's 3-0 defeat at FC Dallas, the regular season, like the team's Concacaf Champions Cup campaign, looks like it has become a "lost cause."

"Sometimes we forget how to play soccer," captain Jaime Moreno told Goff. Moreno knows this more than anyone, given that he was red-carded for elbowing Dallas goalscorer Andre Rocha. Coach Tom Soehn, meanwhile, voiced the despair of a man who has run out of ways to motivate his team. "Obviously everybody knows the importance of this game," Soehn said. "We talked all week and said the right things, but that doesn't mean much when you don't execute. We came out flat. I don't think anyone worked."

As United faces Cruz Azul of Mexico in the Champions League this week, midfielder Santino Quaranta, who was removed from the game before halftime, admitted that "it's hard to stay positive when you keep losing like this. It's not fun. We're trying to figure it out, but we don't know what it is. We are not far out of it, I guess, but what do you do? You just keep going. It's been such a crazy year."

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