Defense and stout goalkeeping were on display as visiting St. Louis City and the Houston Dynamo played to a scoreless draw on Saturday in a Western Conference match.
St. Louis’ Roman Burki recorded seven saves to earn his fourth clean sheet of the season, while Houston counterpart Steve Clark stopped three shots to produce his third shutout of the campaign.
The Dynamo (4-4-2, 14 points) snapped a two-game losing streak, while St. Louis City (2-1-7, 13 points) drew for the second consecutive match.
Houston had a pair of early chances to open the scoring as Ibrahim Aliyu and Micael dos Santos Silva tested Burki in the ninth and 18th minutes, respectively, but were turned away.
Tomas Totland produced St. Louis City’s first shot on target in the 25th minute, but Clark was up to the task.
Houston’s Hector Herrera tried Burki from the center of the box in the 37th minute, and St. Louis’ Celio Pompeu responded a minute later with a shot from outside the box, but Clark gobbled it up.
Tate Schmitt had the Dynamo’s fourth shot of goal and was stopped by Burki in the 42nd minute, but Houston’s Daniel Sternes had the half’s best opportunity, clanging a shot off the cross bar in the 44th minute.
St. Louis nearly scored in the 51st minute when Chris Durkin’s left-footed shot from the center of the box was blocked by Erik Sviatchenko. The opportunity was listed as a 39 percent chance at a goal, the highest percentage of the game’s shots on goal.
The Dynamo had shots on goal in the 63rd minute by Steres, in the 64th by Sviatchenko and in the 65th from Amine Bassi but could not find the net.
Then Burki made the save of the match, leaping high in the 83rd minute to deflect a blistering shot from Jose De Lima Junior over the crossbar to keep the Dynamo off the scoreboard.
–Field Level Media
