Houston held Minnesota 0-0 after losing a man at 45 minutes

A goalless draw at BBVA Compass Stadium, with Houston Dynamo down to ten men for the whole second half and keeping most of the ball without creating many chances.

Houston Dynamo and Minnesota United FC drew 0-0 at BBVA Compass Stadium, and the match turned on a single sequence. B. Olsen was booked at 44 minutes and shown a red card at 45, so Houston spent the entire second half with ten men. Almost everything else in the numbers has to be read with that in mind.

Houston had 55 per cent of the ball, which is more than its usual home share of 51.6 per cent. Keeping possession for a long spell with a man short is a different thing from keeping it because you are the better side, and the pattern here looks more like the first than the second. The team passed the ball 555 times, with 500 of those finding a teammate.

The shots tell a thinner story. Houston managed nine attempts, well below the 11.8 it usually takes at home, and its expected goals figure, a measure of how good the chances were, came out at 0.68 against a home norm of 1.08. In plain terms, the chances it did create were of lower quality than the ones it normally makes, and the side that usually scores 1.3 goals at home scored none.

Minnesota went the other way. Its 17 shots were above the 14.4 it averages away from home, yet its expected goals of 1.35 sat below its away norm of 1.92. Only five of those attempts came from outside the box, with 12 inside it, but the quality of the chances still fell short of what the side usually creates on the road. Five of its shots were on target, and Houston's goalkeeper was the reason none of them counted.

That goalkeeper was J. Bond, who made five saves and was the clearest individual figure in the match, with a rating of 8.3 reflecting his work. Lucas Halter was the most active Houston outfield player, taking three shots and winning four duels. Guilherme created three chances for teammates, which was the joint highest tally in the match. Minnesota's most dangerous attacker on the evidence was J. Díaz, who had a shot on target from the substitute's bench after 73 minutes.

Set against the league as a whole, the picture is more ordinary than it first looks. The average team in this competition takes 13.5 shots and produces 1.47 expected goals per match, so Houston's nine shots and Minnesota's 17 both sit close to that line in different ways. The average match has 3.4 goals, and this one had none, which is unusual enough to be the headline rather than the quality of either side's chances.

Houston are fifth in the table on 47 points, and Minnesota United are 13th on 34 points. Minnesota have now lost their last three away matches, a run that makes a goalless draw in Houston a more useful result for them than it looks on paper.

Player of the matchJ. Bond5 saves8.3

Lucas Halter4 duels won7.3

H. Herrera3 duels won7.2

J. Díaz1 shot on target7.1