Saturday night in Missouri, the Vancouver Whitecaps played out a 0-0 draw with St. Louis City SC at Energizer Park.

It was a standout match for Vancouver in the sense that Jesper Sørensen’s side was less dominant than we have come to expect this season, but that’s really just a demonstration of how well Vancouver has played up until this point. In any normal season, this was a quality, gritty, road performance where a point is well earned and a clean sheet is to be celebrated. Instead, the Whitecaps will likely walk away feeling they could have done more.

In particular, it was clear that despite their recent struggles, mostly associated with goal scoring, Olof Mellberg’s side is a disciplined and well-drilled defensive unit. That was very much on display in this match. St. Louis was able to frustrate Vancouver with their pressing and counter-pressing, disrupting their flow before they were really able to get things clicking in the final third.

By starting Ali Ahmed and Emmanuel Sabbi in support of Brian White, Vancouver certainly had the opportunity to place St. Louis under pressure in wide areas, but the pacey wingers were not able to stress City’s defense often enough to really keep their opponents on the back foot. Equally, Vancouver has normally been able to rely on a high level of superiority in the midfield, and that was a little bit lacking in this match. Sebastian Berhalter and Pedro Vite were not given much time on the ball and play became pretty stop and start, which didn’t really suit Vancouver’s strengths.

Perhaps the biggest talking point from the match itself came partway through the first half, as a St. Louis goal was called back for an offside in the build-up. To be completely fair, Vancouver probably deserved to concede in this moment, as the defending at the back post from Tate Johnson left a lot to be desired.

Nonetheless, Conrad Wallem was found to have been in an offside position as the initial ball was played into Vancouver’s box. While Tristan Blackmon redirected the initial cross back out to Wallem before he played in his own ball that setup the potential goal, it was all deemed to be part of the same attacking sequence, and therefore the goal was chalked off. I can see both sides of the argument on this ruling, but the game tends to be called this way now, so I didn’t have a major issue with the decision.

Vancouver did grow into the game as the second half went on, as St. Louis (rather predictably) struggled to continue their press with the same rate of intensity. Both Daniel Rios and Brian White had opportunities to test Benjamin Lundt between the sticks for St. Louis, but neither was able to find the target with their efforts, which could have potentially grabbed all three points for Vancouver.

Overall, I think this is a point the Whitecaps will take, even if their form this season has raised expectations to the point where this feels a bit disappointing. Vancouver had to keep an eye on their looming midweek clash with Miami, while St. Louis absolutely had their backs against the wall after losing four straight- the pressurized atmosphere in the stadium that was created by the St. Louis supporters was evident throughout the match.

Given these background conditions, I think this is a result the Whitecaps look back upon positively. So many road matches in MLS look like this, we’ve just been blessed so far this season.