D.C. United welcomed Columbus Crew SC to RFK Stadium on Saturday night badly needing a result. They didn’t get it.

Columbus rode goals from Ethan Finlay and Kei Kamara to a 2-1 victory over United, a late Chris Rolfe penalty kick goal the only consolation for a club that finds itself teetering on the edge of a free-fall.

Though United are virtually assured a playoff spot, the loss at Columbus certainly wasn’t what they’d hoped for. Just a couple of months after racking up a double-digit lead atop MLS’ Eastern Conference, United have dropped four of five and now sit tied for third; The Crew, on the other hand, leapfrogged a pair of teams and are just a point off league-leading New York.

After the match, United head coach Ben Olsen was “encouraged, but disappointed.” He said it twice.

“I’m not pleased with the result, that’s for sure,” Olsen continued. “But I’m pleased with our effort. We looked like ourselves for large stretches of that game, so that’s a positive. It was a better performance than the Colorado game [a 1-1 draw last week]—in a lot of ways it’s the best performance we’ve had in over two months.”

Columbus were the aggressors from the get-go and very nearly opened the scoring in the second minute when midfielder Tony Tchani’s close-range attempt found the crossbar. Tchani took another swing at it just three minutes later, firing a 25-yard blast that United goalkeeper Bill Hamid parried away at full stretch. Kamara—the league’s leading scorer—stormed in in the 13th minute, rounding several United defenders before bending in an eight-yard shot towards the far post that Hamid did well to push away.

In the 14th minute, D.C. got their first opportunity on a turnover; Alvaro Saborio—perhaps among United’s more active offensive pieces on Saturday—pounced on a poor pass 25 yards out and found himself in on a breakaway. His right-footed shot, however, badly lacked in creativity and was easily saved by Crew ‘keeper Steve Clark. Saborio’s 20th-minute effort was better, but yielded similar results, his attempt at a cheeky left-footed redirect pushed over the bar by Clark. A minute later, United defensive midfielder Perry Kitchen sent in a 20-footer that Clark smothered with little trouble.

Back and forth they went until Crew SC found the opener in the 27th minute. Michael Parkhurst played in a ball from 40 yards out toward the arc; Kamara nodded it on to Crew SC midfielder Tyson Wahl at the near edge of the area. Wahl slipped a pass across to Finlay in the six-yard box, and the speedy midfielder made no mistake, swiveling before knocking it home for his ninth goal of the year.

Kamara doubled Columbus’ lead shortly after the halftime whistle. Played through by Tchani, the former Sporting KC forward simply accelerated past United defender Steve Birnbaum and used a deft, right-footed shot to round Hamid for the goal.

D.C. were handed a late lifeline when Crew midfielder Justin Meram handled the ball in his area in the 67th minute. Rolfe stepped up to take the ensuing penalty, confidently sending it into the upper ninety for United’s first and last goal of the evening. They very well may have had another, but an 85th minute tally from Saborio was waved off on a razor-thin offside call; replays showed him essentially even with the last defender.

The mood in United’s post-game locker room wasn’t particularly dour. There certainly weren’t any smiles, but many of Olsen’s men saw some of the same positives he did.

“I thought we were good,” Rolfe told DCist. “We were as good as we’ve been, soccer-wise, in the past two months, right? Maybe even three months; I’m not disappointed in the way that we played. It’s unfortunate to lose the game, but there’s more to it.

“It’s one of those losses that sometimes feels a little bit better than the games you win. It was more of a complete game, it was more of a game to build off of than some of our wins that we’ve had that we just were terrible and we come in here laughing because we ended up pulling three points out of nothing. So I don’t think tonight was a terrible result.”

Rolfe is probably right; a 2-1 loss where D.C. looked competitive stretches isn’t exactly a terrible result. If United maintain their current form, however, they’ll soon enough find themselves missing out on a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference, costing them a bye in the playoffs. For now, United’s fans will sit and wait for their side to recapture their early-season form.