There's not a lot of good news in Saturday's 0-1 loss against Real Salt Lake. Our performance against Barcelona was painful enough, but at least it was our B squad against the Best Team in the World.

Were we just paying for a busy summer schedule—3 games in 6 days, 6 games in 3 weeks?

I hope so, cause I'm starting to run out of excuses.

In one game, we've gone from 2nd in the division to 4th.

David Falk over at Seattle Sounder Examiner breaks it down further on how we fare for the playoffs.

We're not out of it, but it'll be a tough haul. Out of 10 games remaining, only the last two are to verified losers, Kansas City and Dallas. And even they've been known for a surprise (oh, like the one San Jose or Real Salt Lake just gave us).

Alas, our weaknesses remain the same , most painfully, on defense. We've had 13 versions of our back four. Uncoincidently, that's also our number of non-wins. This is our jinx: Whenever we're out Marshall, Hurtado, or Riley, we're toast. This Saturday we'll have the 14th version of our back four, as Hurtado sits in the stands, out due to yellow cards (again). We'll be in hot, polluted LA, and Galaxy is on fire . How toasted can we get?