Sporting Kansas City draws Houston 0-0

As soon as the lineups came out a 0-0 was the expected result. The teams did not disappoint as the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City drew 0-0 at BBVA Stadium.

A total of five yellow cards were handed out during the match, four being issued to Sporting Kansas City players. Houston controlled the tempo of the match, holding on to possession for 60.8% of the match.

Despite it being a scoreless draw, there was lots of activity in the first half. In the sixth minute, Will Bruin got a fantastic ball from Barnes in the box and took a shot near the six-yard line but was denied by the foot of Jimmy Nielsen. Nielsen would make several great saves throughout the match to keep Houston off the board.

Sporting got their first chance in the 12th minute when a ball sent into the box was shot towards goal by Dom Dwyer but sailed over the bar. It would be one of only four shots that Sporting KC attempted throughout the match.

The first booking would happen in the 24th minute after a clumsy tackle from Aurelien Collin outside of the box. His tackle on Ricardo Clark earned him a yellow card, which suspended him for Sporting KC's next match for yellow card accumulation. It was his league-leading twelfth of the year.

Corey Ashe earned a yellow card of his own less than ten minutes later. After Sporting KC squashed a Houston chance, Sporting was making it's way on the attack and CJ Sapong was tackled hard in the midfield by Ashe. Ashe would be shown the yellow for this foul.

The half would draw to a close but not without the best chance of the night from the Dynamo. A last-minute placement of Aurelien Collin near the post proved beneficial as he blocked a Brad Davis free kick that would've out of the reach of Nielsen. If Collin wasn't there, we would be talking about a 1-0 Houston win.

Nielsen came up big again in the second half. Will Bruin found space in the box in the 67th minute but his shot was deflected away by the White Puma. The ensuing rebound shot went wide right and Houston was kept off the board again.

Teal Bunbury came on for Dom Dwyer later in the second half and showed some flash, including tracking down a ball down the center of the pitch and getting a shot off in the box but he only sit side netting as Tally Hall did a good job to cut Bunbury's angle off.

Neither team was able to get a decent chance for the rest of the game as they both had to settle for a 0-0 draw and one point.

Sporting gets the weekend off before taking on DC United next Saturday in the final home match of the regular season at Sporting Park. They moved one point closer to New York and are now down by one point and on equal games played with the Red Bulls. Here is the updated Supporters Shield standings, where things are as tight as always.