And if there is a group of Canadian fans who want to see Real Salt Lake return to the form it showed in the early part of the season — when it looked two steps better than anyone else in the league, including the Los Angeles Galaxy — they would have been overjoyed by Saturday night’s performance.

But, in examining RSL’s 3-0 loss to the Whitecaps Thursday, you have to shake your head and try to think back to the spring, when the Royals were everybody’s shoo-in pick for the MLS Cup. Think back to when Real Salt Lake was one lousy goal away from winning the CONCACAF Champions League and making plans to head to Japan for the Club World Cup.

It’s become obligatory for every sports journalist to provide season previews for the league he or she covers. It’s automatic, and a great space killer! In that vein, The 11 presents its “waited until the last possible second before the regular season” season preview! Why the wait? Because it’s hard to figure out the East. The West? Wow, a lot of power and depth there. As for the East? Last season, New York and Columbus and six other mediocre to bad to awful clubs were in the conference. New York and Columbus left them all in the dust.