The players I named – Olsen, Pontius, Moreno, Quaranta, Emilio – all but one are still on the team.

Well let’s clarify for a second. All but one of them have missed multiple games this season already, and the one who hasn’t is lucky if he sees more than 60 minutes a game.

But two of the last 3 games (Houston, FCD) have at least shown that they want to fight and come back, but there’s nothing in the tank to do it. Part of that’s on the absences of the guys you mention, but a good deal of that lies at (what I think is) Chest’s assertion that there isn’t a proverbial rug tying the room together.

I’m saying ability is the biggest factor. All of those guys are still around, but Pontius has been hurt and showed poor form as a forward. Moreno seems to have aged faster in this offseason than he ever has before. Teams also know that, more than ever, we lack players with vision and creativity, so they collapse on Moreno and eliminate our smartest attacking player. Quaranta’s been hurt and was in miserable form anyway. Emilio looks like he can’t even muster 5 minutes of solid effort, much less the 30-45 minutes he’s being asked to provide. On paper it’s a decent group, but when they’re all in bad form or unfit and we’re weak in the back, things fall apart.

Maybe when Pontius and Tino round into form, we can start moving forward, but right now Pontius looks average and Quaranta’s still healing from his infection. That lack of other dangerous players means that the mob around Moreno will continue to render him ineffective.

Ability and mental strength are killing us, and we don’t have any kind of galvanizing veteran leader. Yes, we have veterans, but none that inspire those around them to be more than they are. Note that when players talk about Moreno, they talk about learning from him. They don’t talk about being inspired to find that little bit extra that turns into the crucial tackles or 50 yard sprints that are the foundation of the big play that doesn’t end up on the scoresheet.

I disagree that we even played a full 90 against Kansas City. That game was the worst MLS game I’ve seen this year. We were poor, KC was worse, and we somehow stumbled into a 2-1 win. Honestly, if KC had even been mediocre, they would have buried us due to the number of absurd giveaways in our own end and the gaps we left all over the place.

The play that sums that game up was in the first half, when Graye made a totally aimless pass straight at a Wizards player (I believe it was Arnaud). As the ball arrived at Arnaud’s feet, Graye was about 20 yards out of position and KC had all of their forwards in decent spots. Arnaud, for no good reason, got overexcited and rushed a pass to no one, despite having the ball in a great spot against a defense that was all over the place.

I was glad we found a way to win, but we sucked that night.