San Diego FC’s thrills of last year have receded at warp speed.

Defeats are piling up. The crowd-pleasing displays of beautiful soccer have dwindled to a meager level.

If coach Mikey Varas and his players are to end a seven-game win drought Saturday at home against rival LAFC, they’d better have a fruitful week of practice.

Here’s why: SDFC’s fix-it list last year was never this long.

Start with the opponents. Major League Soccer clubs have improved in how they attack San Diego’s buildup game and defend the myriad passing-and-scoring options of Anders Dreyer.

SDFC, meantime, has fallen off…everywhere.

Large improvements must come among the defenders, midfielders and forwards if San Diego (3-5-2) is to meet its high standards of 2025.

SDFC is gifting opponents with more errant passes in dangerous spots than it did over monthslong stretches last year.

For a variety of reasons, SDFC finds itself in more foot races this year. It has lost too many of them.

Now, let’s talk once again about the critical stalemate that has reduced some of SDFC’s firepower up top.

Cue the Grateful Dead music. This has been one long, strange trip.

Star left wing Hirving “Chucky” Lozano hasn’t played since Nov. 29, yet is healthy, under contract and working out by himself at the team’s training site every week.

The fit between Lozano and SDFC last year? Like industrial-strength sandpaper.

SDFC suspended Lozano last October after a run-in with Varas, limited him to a bench role in the playoffs after he earned his reinstatement and announced in January it was moving on from him.

But this is also true: Lozano had nine goals and eight assists in 27 regular-season matches with SDFC last year and scored twice in his four playoff games, all as a substitute.

He clicked with Dreyer, forming what former Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay called the top set of wings in the 30-team MLS.

No soccer expert would dispute this assertion:

A fit Lozano, 30, has more technical skill than most MLS wings now playing, any of his SDFC replacements and anyone else on the team save Dreyer.

Citing the ill fit with Lozano, SDFC general manager Tyler Heaps said in January he would attempt to trade the highly paid wing to boost his chances of earning a World Cup spot with Mexico.

The league’s first transfer window of the season has closed. The next one opens July 12.

The considerable salary, in theory, could have been used to upgrade the roster if a trade were made.

Saturday, Portland beat SDFC in Mission Valley for its first road victory this year.

On the Lozano front, the optics weren’t good. SDFC’s offense once again lacked final-third excellence, scoring only when a fortunate hand-ball foul set up Dreyer’s penalty kick.

By then, Portland had received a brilliant goal authored by a talented, highly paid forward in Kevin Kelsy, whose habits on and off the field, said coach Phil Neville, have required much-needed attention.

“On the days off,” Neville said of the 21-year-old Venezuelan, who played in Ukraine and with MLS’ FC Cincinnati before Portland pledged him $6 million, “he’s come in and done some work to be better as a person, as a player.

“We saw a top center-forward tonight,” the coach added. “Really top. Like, real top.”

Last fall, SDFC manufactured enough offense to secure homefield advantage and reach the Western Conference final with Lozano on suspension or on the bench.

This year, his absence is more noticeable.

And after Saturday’s loss, the “Choooky” chant was heard among a smattering of fans at Snapdragon Stadium.

“Everybody has a right to cheer however they want or support however they want,” Varas said when asked about his general message to fans and the low-level chant.

“That’s up to every individual, as long as it’s not discriminatory or against our values. I’m a big boy. That’s fine.”

Varas said he’s appreciative of the fan support, adding that “we can really feel” it.

“This team is working really hard,” he said. “This is not a team that has an attitude problem or an intensity problem. These guys are leaving it on the field — just like they did last year when they got 63 points and everybody was behind them.”

The two-fold solution here: Gather several points from the five games in May. Improve the roster during the next window.