FC Kansas City Hands Boston Breakers Decisive 3-0 Loss

What else is really left to say about the Breakers season?

Most Boston fans probably don't have much of a comment about last night's 0-3 loss to FC Kansas City due to streaming issues that interrupted most of the game.

Amy Rodriguez and Lauren Holiday, former Breakers the both of them, combined for two of FCKC's goals. Holiday and Rodriguez have become a potent attacking combination under the guidance of coach Vlatko Andonovski and it was apparent last night that the World Cup break and ensuing victory tour had nothing to diminish the connection.

A-Rod opened the scoring in the 29', gave Holiday a helping hand for her goal in the 50', and then sealed the victory with a brace in the 52'.

Meanwhile the Breakers struggled in the attack. Coming off over a week's rest, fitness should not have been an issue regardless of travel. There were searching balls forward, trying to find Stephanie McCaffrey or Kyah Simon, but nothing particularly threatening. Boston had zero shots on goal, and just four shots total.

What's to be done about this? With tools like Kristie Mewis, McCaffrey, and Simon available, it seems as though Boston should at least be able to offer a threat of scoring. And to be fair, they sometimes do. Every once in a while the Breakers offense manages to pull out a great passing combination or find a player in the right place at the right time. But not consistently, and not in a way that leads to a playoff spot or even a non-last-place finish in the league.

Tom Durkin said he had a three-year plan to rebuild the Breakers. He pointed to the Breakers losing in tighter matches as evidence of progress in year two of this plan, as compared to year one. But is that necessarily true?

In 2014, Boston lost eight games by two goals or more. So far in 2015, the Breakers have lost seven games by two goals or more, with two left to play.

Last year the Breakers went 5-16-3 with a -21 goal differential. This season so far they're 4-11-3 with a -18 goal differential. Looking at average goals given up per game, the Breakers are actually doing comparatively as bad this season, with 2.21 goals/game given up in 2014, versus 2.16 goals/game given up in 2015 so far.

Part of that can probably be attributed to 2014's back line being shakier than this year's, but Alyssa Naeher also being gone for part of the 2015 season, with the two factors about balancing out.

The team hasn't particularly shown improvement over the two years that Coach Durkin has been in charge. They've done noticeably worse since Lisa Cole's tenure, when the team went 8-8-6 with a +1 goal differential and finished just one place out of playoff contention.

Surely management and ownership have to ask some hard questions in this offseason for the good of the players and the organization. For as hard as the players work, they deserve to play in a system that rewards that work with wins. For as much as the fans give, they deserve to watch a team that isn't floundering.

This latest loss is just a symptom of a larger problem, and it's unsure whether Coach Durkin deserves a third season to try to bring his long-term plan to fruition.