As far as points earned in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Jesper Sørensen era, their 0-0 road draw with Minnesota United on Saturday won’t rank too highly.

Days after a frustrating 4-3 road loss to FC Cincinnati, the Whitecaps found a way to rebound defensively, but did so at the cost of their offence. As a result, they gritted their way to their first 0-0 draw since opening the season with that same result in the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup against C.S. Cartaginés back on February 18th.

Of course, the big story this week was the impending departure of Whitecaps midfield stalwart Sebastian Berhalter, who looks set to join EFL Championship side Middlesbrough. With that still being finalized, he was left out of the squad for this game, and it’s safe to say that he was dearly missed.

That the Whitecaps, who lead MLS in xG generated with 39.0, generated just 0.44 xG from 11 shots in this Minnesota clash gives an idea of how much so.

At the same time, it’s not as if they were devoid of attacking talent. For the first time, we saw an extended period where Designated Players Thomas Müller and Ryan Gauld shared the pitch together – since last fall, it’s usually been one or the other.

As one would expect, Müller and Gauld had bright moments on the ball, but they also had a few moments where they didn’t seem quite on the same page. And that can be said of the team as a whole.

Against a Minnesota team that was extremely sloppy on the ball (they completed just 74% of their passes in this game), the Whitecaps seemed to be afflicted by a similar sloppiness, but only in Minnesota’s third of the pitch. That they only had 24 touches in Minnesota’s box, despite attempting 243 passes in the final third (at a respectable success rate of 82%), gives an idea of where they struggled, and that was in terms of their ball progression into the box.

Despite that, they still had some good attempts from dangerous areas, even if they didn’t generate the sort of quality attempts they’re known for racking up (they finished the game with zero big chances).

Early on, Brian White had a pair of good chances, as he attempted a tight-angle shot that was easily saved by Minnesota’s Drake Callender in the sixth minute, before he headed a Müller cross over the crossbar in the 14th minute.

At the other end of the pitch, meanwhile, Minnesota began to push for chances, and had a couple of good attempts around the 20th minute, as Mamadou Dieng forced an excellent save out of Yohei Takaoka after a nice flick from Anthony Markanich. Then, on the ensuing corner, Dieng was denied a headed goal by Takaoka’s hands, before Markanich flashed the subsequent rebound well over the goal.

Continuing that busy sequence of play from both teams, Cheikh Sabaly had a good chance from a tight angle after a White flick in the 23rd minute, but he’d be unable to get much venom on his attempt, making it an easy save for Callender.

Eager to find a goal before the half, Mihail Gherasimencov, who had come on for an injured Ranko Veselinovic (who was making his first MLS start since the knee injury he suffered last summer), had a good attempt from inside of the box, but he shanked his shot wide of the goal.

On the other side of the break, both teams traded chances pretty early on, as Dieng had another good attempt on a corner, sending his attempt right at Takaoka, before Gauld, who had come onto the pitch at half-time, attempted an audacious outside-of-the-boot shot that Callender did well to get down and parry away.

Soon after, the Whitecaps had their two best chances of the half in the 76th minute, as Müller almost squeezed a long shot past Callender, who had to scramble to make the save, before Müller teed up Gauld for a dangerous right-footed shot that he sent right at Callender moments later.

Despite the Whitecaps being on the front foot for most of the half, as Minnesota’s fitness levels dipped significantly, one of the Loons’ substitutes, Tomás Chancalay, had a pair of great chances in transition in stoppage time.

Firstly, he did well to pick off a sloppy Whitecaps throw-in in the first minute of stoppage time, but despite having plenty of space to generate a shot, he sliced his attempt well wide of goal. Undeterred by that miss, however, he continued to press on, and had an excellent chance in the third minute of stoppage time, as he got on the end of a perfect through ball from Joaquín Pereyra in behind the Whitecaps defence, but he fired his low shot just wide of the post.

The Whitecaps would get one last attempt from there, as Sam Adekugbe, who was making his first Whitecaps appearance since suffering an Achilles injury last summer, tried to give himself a storybook ending with a late shot from distance, but his attempt sailed well over the goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

That would spell the end of the match, one that will probably frustrate both teams in hindsight.

Certainly, the Whitecaps will feel that they could’ve gotten much more out of this one, especially in the second half. There was a period in the second half where it felt like they had Minnesota on the ropes, but they never found the killer blow needed to score a goal that probably would’ve won them the game right then and there.

Typically, that’s something that the Whitecaps are quite good at doing – this was just the third time in MLS play that they’ve been held scoreless all season, after all. For whatever reason, whether it was Berhalter’s absence, other injuries in the squad (especially to the Whitecaps wide attackers), or the freshness of the Gauld/Müller partnership, the Whitecaps didn’t have their killer edge in this game.

Minnesota, meanwhile, will feel frustrated that despite being let off the hook by the Whitecaps, they didn’t capitalize on the chances that they had to win this game. Ultimately, they were able to generate three big chances and 1.1 xG, so they can say that they had their attempts to snatch three points that would’ve been very valuable in their hunt for the playoffs.

In the end, however, that was the story of the game – this felt like a boxing match where one fighter (the Whitecaps) never really found their punching range, and the other (Minnesota) was swinging too wildly to take advantage of that.

Therefore, the fitting outcome? A no-decision.

(Photo Credits:Vancouver Whitecaps)