Then-D.C. United coach Curt Onalfo went 1-0-6 in 2010 to open the MLS season, a record disconcertingly similar to the 2-0-5 run the Galaxy managed through the first seven games this year.

Onalfo hung on until midseason with United seven years ago before he was fired with a 3-12-3 record.

But United’s season was toast.

The year was United’s worst since MLS began in 1996 with a record 20 losses, 17 of them shutouts (another record), while scoring a then all-time MLS low of just 21 goals.

All this suggests the Galaxy had better act decisively, and soon, to turn this season around while there’s still time. It already has the makings of a lost cause and we haven’t yet seen the back of April.

The Galaxy’s record is worse than it was in 2008 for coach Ruud Gullit and general manager Alexi Lalas when the club staggered to an embarrassing 8-13-9 mark after leading MLS very early in the season.

Onalfo and his struggling squad face similarly bad 0-3-4 Philadelphia Saturday at StubHub Center (7:30 p.m. Spectrum Sportsnet); the Union are rooted to the basement of the Eastern Conference.

If the second-to-last place team in the Western Conference fails to beat the lowly Union, surely the front office must act quickly to stop the rot.

To be sure, the Galaxy have seemed largely unimpressive the last couple of seasons.

But the gradual decline has quickly turned into a plummeting free fall, quickly alienating angry fans.

There are already signs Onalfo is losing his squad, too, with a clearly fed up Emmanuel Boateng finding a way not to shake his hand after being hauled off in the first half of what was an appalling and decisive 3-0 home loss to Seattle that was over by halftime.

The Sounders came into the game struggling much like the Galaxy, sitting one place below them in the standings.

But by the time the game ended Seattle’s statistical and creative superiority stood in sharp contrast to the Galaxy.

The Sounders only needed to play the first 45 minutes to win the game. This wasn’t a Galaxy defeat: it was a capitulation on virtually every level.

When it was over Onalfo essentially acknowledged he hadn’t prepared the team properly for the game, especially in the first half when the gulf in class between the two sides yawned especially large.

“We were just getting overrun and overloaded in the midfield,” Onalfo said. “They just outnumbered us, so we were basically defending the entire time. We expended a lot of energy, which makes it difficult. And when we won the ball, our initial pass wasn’t good enough. We too often threw it away and the times we did connect, we didn’t hold the ball up, so we ended up defending more. We really shot ourselves in the foot big time.”

Players, too, need to take responsibility.

Giovanni dos Santos, for instance, has hardly looked worth $5.50, let alone the $5.5 million the MLS Players’ Union said he will make this year in the annual MLS wage survey the group released this week.

But this team is a blend of experienced pros and up-and-coming youngsters who didn’t unilaterally lose focus as soon as Bruce Arena left to rejoin the national team.

It’s up to Onalfo to reinstill those qualities in his players, or the Galaxy needs to find someone who will.

Is the eighth game of an MLS season too soon for a must-win game?

Well, Real Salt Lake fired coach Jeff Cassar just three games into this MLS season, so by that standard, Onalfo has already had plenty of chances.

Onalfo was fired from his first two MLS jobs after brief tenures with United and Kansas City, a fact that left many Galaxy fans unconvinced from the outset whether he was the right choice to succeed Arena.

Will a decisive Galaxy make that three depending on the result of the game against the Union this weekend?

Or will a misguided sense of loyalty see L.A. fritter away the season much as United did back in 2010?

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