Minnesota United and Toronto FC play to a draw in a game of few chances

Toronto FC didn’t have a win this season, and didn’t have its usual forwards or defenders Saturday afternoon.

What it did have was the ability to neutralize Minnesota United, holding the high-flying Loons to a 0-0 draw in Toronto.

The Loons, not firing on all cylinders, took nearly an hour to find a shot on target, and even that was from the unlikely source of center back Nicolás Romero. It ended up being Minnesota’s only shot on target of the game, in a match that was free of big chances for either team.

The Loons had close to half the possession for the first time this year, but having more of the ball didn’t give them more of the chances, and a cagey first half petered out into a slow second half.

Through seven weeks, the Loons were far and away the team that had the least possession in all of MLS, holding the ball just 34% of the time. That they had 49% in this game, according to the official league stats, wasn’t a sign of growth or improvement.

In some ways, the Loons having half the possession is a sign they’re not playing their best game. It was another reminder that having the ball and doing something with it are two very different things.

“They’re a team, they’re really fighting for their lives at the moment,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay said. “I think that was reflected in the way they approached the game. It was a balance that we haven’t often encountered over the course of this year so far, where we’ve got the lion’s share of the ball and we’ve got to find a way of making chances with long spells of possession, lots of consecutive passes.

“Ultimately it’s a stalemate, and it felt like it was going to take something special to unlock it, or it was going to be a mistake. And unfortunately, in our case, neither of those scenarios arose.”

The Loons’ unbeaten streak stretched to seven games. While earning a road point is never anything to sneeze at, earning just a single point against one of the bottom-tier teams in the league is still somewhat disappointing.

Through eight games, Minnesota hasn’t played a single team that started Saturday in the top half of the league standings. Fifteen points from eight matches is a playoff pace, but given the softness of the schedule and the number of struggling teams Minnesota has played, when the Loons look back later in the year, 15 points may seem like too few.

Dayne St. Clair made five saves, none of them spectacular. His best, though, might have come in the last minute, as the Canadian keeper had to get down low to his left to catch a shot from Jonathan Osorio, his Canuck teammate.

“It definitely would have been a little bit nicer to get those extra two points for the bragging rights,” St. Clair said.

The Loons are back home next week to take on FC Dallas, a team still in transition after gaining All-Star attacking midfielder Lucho Acosta in the offseason but losing striker Jesus Ferreira and midfielder Paul Arriola, both former All-Stars. It’s the first of a run of three home games in four weeks for the Loons, concluding with their red-letter fixture against Inter Miami.