Actually, it might be bad luck: Boston loses 1-0 to Sky Blue FC

The temptation was strong to simply leave a depressing gif in place of a recap tonight. Boston are scoreless in five games now, unless you count the one goal scored by Kassey Kallman on her own goalkeeper. So perhaps it would have been justified if tonight's recap was simply this gif and nothing else.

As much as it feels like it, though, we're not there yet.

Boston dominated large parts of the game, but still couldn't put more than a few shots on goal. They had some great moments in the midfield, Kristie Mewis demonstrated she is certainly capable enough to act as the engine of the attack, and Stephanie McCaffrey showed flickers of her old form. But it wasn't enough to put much of anything on frame. What did go at the goal was mostly harmless. Kyah Simon eventually dropped so deep later in the game that her value as an eagle-eyed poacher in front of goal was completely neutralized.

And that own goal. What is there to say about the own goal? Kassey Kallman had a weird deflecting touch on the ball in the 41' that bounced past Libby Stout and into the back of the net. OGs happen to players good and bad, in games big and little. If an own goal can happen to Laura Bassett in the semifinals of the 2015 World Cup, then it can also happen to Kassey Kallman in a slow game against Sky Blue FC. They're always awful, and that's that.

The Breakers certainly pressed for long stretches after the OG. Substitute Katie Schoepfer managed to receive the ball and turn towards goal a couple of times. It wasn't enough. The game ended 1-0, even though there were calls for a penalty kick when Kristie Mewis might have seen enough contact from a Sky Blue defender to send her down in the box in the 94'.

No PK, own goal, an earlier goal-line clearance in the 70' - Julie King might have said they can't call it bad luck anymore, but it honestly does seem like this game saw its fair share of plain old bad luck.

But the Boston Breakers are not done yet. They have more to offer than this listless struggle against a rising tide that threatens to swallow them before the season is half over. They problem is not that they're a bad team, it's that they're just not quite good yet. On a night when Sky Blue FC didn't really have much to offer, that should have been enough for Boston to come away with at least a point, but that accursed own goal sank them. Bad luck indeed.

STARTING XI: Libby Stout, Julie King (Christen Westphal, 68'), Kassey Kallman, Whitney Engen, Mollie Pathman, McCall Zerboni (Stephanie Verdoia, 83'), Angela Salem, Kristie Mewis, Louise Schillgard (Katie Schoepfer, 60'), Stephanie McCaffrey, Kyah Simon