Minnesota United plays MLS leader Vancouver to a scoreless draw

Goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair said earlier this week that Minnesota United had set a team goal of not losing to the same team twice in a season.

Maybe Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw at Vancouver, which defeated the Loons 3-1 in late April, then qualifies as mission accomplished.

The Whitecaps, who are on top of the MLS standings in terms of points per game, might have been excused for having an eye on the coming weekend. Vancouver travels to Mexico City on Sunday for the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, looking to become the second MLS team in history to win the transcontinental tournament.

The Loons, meanwhile, had to be happy just to pick up a point on a difficult road trip and stay near the top of the Western Conference, in a tie for second place.

“Whilst it certainly wasn’t a performance that I will be writing home about and in no way was it a statement, it’s a very good point on the road — and I’m sure over the course of the coming weeks and months, we will look back at this as a really important one,” Loons manager Eric Ramsay told reporters in Vancouver.

The numbers say the Whitecaps had far, far more scoring chances, but it was a case of adding up a lot of low-value chances rather than consistent high-danger shots. St. Clair didn’t have to make a non-routine save until the 80th minute of the match, when he had to get down quickly to stop a shot from Jayden Nelson.

For the night, Vancouver had 21 shots, but just three were on target; Minnesota blocked seven. The Whitecaps also had seven corners to zero for Minnesota and probably sent six or seven times as many passes into the penalty area as the Loons did.

Minnesota’s trouble was not any sort of structural problem, but wayward passing. Whether it was the artificial turf at BC Place or just an off night, the Loons had any number of giveaways, including a few that just appeared to be passes hit to no one.

“I think first half, we were extremely flat, not a lot of energy,” the Loons’ Michael Boxall said. “Vancouver’s always a difficult place to play. [The] atmosphere isn’t great, so it’s one you have to get yourself up for — but I mean, it’s our jobs to do this.”

The Loons ended up with just one shot on target, a tame first-half header from Bongokuhle Hlongwane.

“It was for us a really poor performance that everyone will be really frustrated with,” Ramsay said. “… We’ll be really frustrated with ourselves in terms of the number of easy giveaways and unforced errors that led to the performance feeling like it lacked any fluency whatsoever.”

The Loons’ season has been more defined by points dropped than points gained. Minnesota was disappointed to blow leads against Sporting KC and the LA Galaxy and struggled to home draws against Dallas and Austin.

MATCH SUMMARY: Minnesota United 0, Vancouver 0

MLS standings

Against perhaps the best team in the league, then, holding the home team to a scoreless draw probably feels less like two points dropped and more like one point gained. It’s one of the few cases this season in which the Loons have picked up something in the standings that arguably they did not deserve — and of course, those can be the most important points of all when it comes to the standings at the end of the year.

The Loons head south to Seattle, visiting the Sounders for the league’s marquee “Sunday Night Soccer” matchup. Minnesota has to be wondering whether there might have been another day it could have had the MLS spotlight; since 2017, the Loons are 0-10-0 in Seattle.