The Crew spent the first seven games of the season losing leads, players, games and ground in the standings.

About the only thing the defending Major League Soccer champion seemed capable of maintaining during a 0-2-5 start was its composure.

That sense of calm has served the Crew well in a slow, steady climb up the Eastern Conference standings. A win tonight in Crew Stadium over D.C. United would vault the team into first place, a position many people outside the locker room would not have thought possible two months ago.

"Nothing needed to be said," midfielder Eddie Gaven recalled. "I don't remember any big meetings or anything, and no one was pushing the panic button."

There are many benefits to winning a championship, such as drinking champagne, hanging banners and getting shiny rings. But the knowledge and confidence gained from a title run might be the most valuable acquisitions.

The veteran team drew on those intangibles during its early struggles as injuries and blown leads mounted.

"We just knew it would come, and we kept playing through it," said captain Frankie Hejduk, who has played just four games because of injury and national team duty. "That attitude comes from guys who have been there and been around.

"You can't dwell on the past. This team has never hung its head or questioned ourselves."

Although the Crew was the league's only winless team after seven games, the team trusted its instincts.

"We were playing good soccer and we knew at some point we would start getting our points," coach Robert Warzycha said. "We were giving up some unusual goals late in games, some goal-of-the-year type goals, but we really weren't playing that bad."

Defender Danny O'Rourke said Warzycha, a longtime assistant who replaced Sigi Schmid this season, deserves credit for exercising patience and resisting radical change even as he came under attack.

"Robert has been very good about it," O'Rourke said. "He understands we're disappointed when we don't win. We just regrouped and moved on."

O'Rourke also said the team understands that each season plays out differently and rarely does a champion follow the same path.

After the Crew's dominant 2008 season, opponents altered their approach. The Crew might as well have swapped its Glidden jersey logo for one from Target.

"We caught people off guard last season," Hejduk said. "This year, people knew what to expect and they came out with a little more attitude. That comes with being champions -- everyone wants to beat you."

The Crew is 5-1-2 since May 9, but plenty of challenges remain.

The club will be without midfielder Robbie Rogers and defender Chad Marshall tonight as they represent the United States in Gold Cup competition.

Just as they preached calm in April, the players realize that drawing within one point of first place at this point of the season is not the desired destination.

"We're nowhere where we want to be," Hejduk said. "We want to be champions again."

treed@dispatch.com