If you're a neutral wanting to watch an exciting MLS game, it's probably best to avoid a Vancouver Whitecaps away match.
The Caps headed back into the Home Depot Center this evening to take on Chivas USA, and it was another defensive display to the fore in a scoreless draw that offered little in the way of excitement.
As we keep saying, it's not pretty, but it gets the job done.
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Vancouver went into the game on a high but tired, after grinding out a huge win in tough conditions in Colorado on Wednesday.
The performance impressed Martin Rennie enough to name basically an unchanged side, with only Sebastien Le Toux coming in for the suspended Darren Mattocks.
It was a slow start to the game from both sides, with the Caps setting their stall out early as looking to be organised and hard to break down at the back, but at the same time also looking the far more dangerous team going forward.
There was little to show for it apart from a half chance for Le Toux in the 13th minute, following good work by Eric Hassli.
Le Toux had an even better chance in the 35th minute.
It was route one all the way as a long kick from Joe Cannon was nicely flicked on by Hassli. Rauwshan McKenzie struggled to control it and the ball hit off his head into the path of Le Toux, who hit his first time effort well wide.
And that was it in a first half low on excitement, with the home side barely in the game as an attacking force.
The second half started in much the same pace, but Chivas at least gave some early indication of moving out of first gear when Jay DeMerit first had to block a Juan Pablo Angel shot, and then Jose Erick Correa hit a shot over from a corner.
The Whitecaps had the best chance of the game so far ten minutes into the half.
A nice fourteen pass move, ended with Davide Chiumiento being put through by a lovely ball from Alain Rochat, and with Kennedy rushing out to close down the angle, Chiumiento ballooned it over.
Hassli picked up a booking (and another suspension) for what seemed an innocuous challenge on Danny Califf, and with his anger brewing, the Caps made the decision to take him off for Camilo, but not before the Frenchman curled an effort over in the 68th minute.
Cannon had been a spectator for most of the night, and in an uncharacteristic slip in the 72nd minute, he spilled a low Angel free kick, but Martin Bonjour was quick to pounce on the loose ball and turn the ball behind for corner.
He made up for the mistake a minute later when he brilliantly tipped a curling Paolo Cardozo free kick over for a corner.
With Chivas right back in the game, the Caps tried to kick start their own attack and Le Toux flashed a header wide left from a Y-P Lee cross.
Chivas nearly nicked a late winner with less than two minutes remaining.
Ben Zemanski found himself free in the six yard box and on the end of a perfect James Riley cross, but somehow managed to sky the ball high and over.
As the game entered stoppage time, Cannon came up huge once again to keep out Chivas twice in a late goalmouth scramble.
Neither team were able to carve out anything in the last few moments and although it wasn't one of their best performances of the season, the Caps will go home happy with another away point and their ninth clean sheet of the season.
The game was there for the taking, but in the end, their exertions from earlier in the week took their toll.
There is little rest for Vancouver as another match beckons on Wednesday. At least time it is on Canadian soil, albeit in Toronto.
FINAL SCORE: Chivas USA 0 - 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 11, 659
CHIVAS USA: Dan Kennedy; Jorge Villafana; Rauwshan McKenzie, Danny Califf, James Riley; Ben Zemanski, Laurent Courtois (Ryan Smith 46), Nick LaBrocca, Paolo Cardozo; Juan-Pablo Angel, Jose Erick Correa [subs Not Used: Tim Melia, John Alexander Valencia, Blair Gavin, Cesar Romero, Casey Townsend, Alejandro Moreno]
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour, Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Alain Rochat, Gershon Koffie; Barry Robson, Sebastien Le Toux, Davide Chiumiento; Eric Hassli (Camilo Sanvezzo 69) [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Greg Klazura, Carlyle Mitchell, Jun Marques Davidson, Michael Nanchoff, Russell Teibert]
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