St. Louis City clinched a playoff spot and set a league record by extending its unbeaten streak across all competitions to 21 games with a 0-0 draw against the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night.
St. Louis (14-6-9, 51 points) also stretched its unbeaten run in MLS play to a league record-tying 19 matches while remaining a point behind Western Conference-leading Vancouver (15-7-7, 52 points), which clinched a playoff berth in its previous match. Both teams have five matches remaining in the regular season.
St. Louis can pass the 2004-05 Columbus and 2010 Dallas clubs for the longest unbeaten run in MLS play with a win or draw Saturday at Minnesota.
The Whitecaps led 17-8 in shot attempts but forced Roman Burki into just one save as he recorded his fourth clean sheet and St. Louis its fifth.
Vancouver was rampant early, registering 10 of its 17 attempts in the opening 13 minutes.
Brian White fired narrowly wide in the third minute, and Mathias Laborda ended the early onslaught when his looping header skimmed the crossbar.
St. Louis eventually settled down, and a collision that forced right-sided midfielder Conrad Wallem to exit in the 40th minute took some bite out of the remainder of the first half.
After halftime, St. Louis looked more threatening.
Saturday hat-trick scorer Carlo Holse attempted a long-range chip of Takaoka seconds after the restart but missed the target. In the 66th minute, he forced Takaoka into a fine reaction save at the near post with a first-time half-volley.
Takaoka stood strong again to deny Simon Becher from close range after Fallou Fall’s diagonal ball created the opportunity.
Vancouver’s best opportunity after the break came a few minutes into the second half, when Emmanuel Sabbi beat at least three St. Louis defenders on a dazzling dribble through the attacking half but fired wide of Burki’s near post.
–Field Level Media
