D.C. United, its next leader looking on from a luxury suite, found positives in its first outing since head coach Troy Lesesne‘s dismissal last week while emphasizing the “professional” approach everybody’s taken in these “tough” times.

United missed out on points, its late rally falling short in a 2-1 road defeat against the suddenly resurgent L.A. Galaxy, but it offered a new system, some defensive grit and then a good deal of spirited attacking soccer once its lone star appeared.

Something of a step forward, all hope, a path out of this two-and-a-half-month funk that has cost Lesesne his job halfway through a three-year contract and has the club spiraling toward a sixth straight postseason absence.

D.C. United (4-11-7) has won just once in its last dozen games, all competitions, and been shut out in seven of them — and battered, 7-1, by Chicago in another — while falling to 13th in the Eastern Conference, 26th overall, 10 points out of a playoff berth with a dozen games to go and just four points above three-win basement dwellers Galaxy and FC Montreal.

A “reset,” General Manager Ally Mackay said Friday, “was necessary.”

The team processed the news and its impact as a whole after traveling straight to Los Angeles following the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal loss at Nashville SC that triggered the move.

“There’ve been some tough situations for the players to manage over the past week,” interim coach Kevin Flanagan, D.C.’s director of academy and player development, said after Saturday’s defeat. “But they’ve been superb off the pitch, very focused, very professional in their approach to meetings, information. … It’s been good. The theme and the mood around the group has been very positive and they’ve taken it all in stride, to be fair.”

He called that a “testament to the group that we have and the group of players that we have.”

Center back Lucas Bartlett agreed.

“[A coach’s departure can] bring a response, maybe negatively or positively, whatever direction some guys take it,” he said. “But I think tonight showed that guys aren’t going to quit. And I think this club means a lot to a lot of guys and what we want to do and what the past four or five months hasn’t been.

“We want to win games. We want to bring a playoff berth. … We’ve got to fight for points every game.”

United did fight, nearly overcoming a two-goal deficit during a dominant final half-hour as René Weiler, joining United chairmen Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan, got his first in-person taste of the club that was about to hire him, according to Washington Post reports.

Weiler, the Washington Post reported, is on the verge of signing a multiyear deal that could be worth more than $2 million per season in base salary, incentives and bonuses. The newspaper also reported his attendance at Dignity Health Sports Park. United officials have declined to comment on the Swiss coach.

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