Nineteen Shots for a Point That Changes Nothing

D.C. United 0, Atlanta United 0. Audi Field, Saturday night, Atlanta the visitors, and ninety-four minutes in which a goalkeeper made a save exactly twice — both times Sean Johnson, both times at the D.C. end. Lucas Hoyos was never asked a question. Not one of D.C.'s four shots found the frame.

One point. Atlanta United have twenty-three from twenty-five matches — W 6 D 5 L 14, goal difference minus fourteen — level with Columbus on points and wins after Columbus lost at home to the Red Bulls tonight, and beneath them on goal difference. Ninth place, the last playoff position, is Philadelphia on thirty points from twenty-four matches, seven clear. Atlanta are fourteenth of fifteen. Nine matches left.

Nineteen shots. Three on target, by ESPN's count. Seven blocked. Sixty-nine point seven percent of the ball, eight corners, twenty-eight crosses. And nothing.

The three deserve precision, because three on target, two saves and no goal needs explaining. Johnson saved from Breel Embolo in the 60th minute, from the left of the box, and from Alexey Miranchuk in the 86th, from outside it. The third was Embolo's tenth-minute shot from the centre of the box, blocked on its way to goal — the stat feed counts it as on target; nobody counts it as a save. That is the complete list of times Atlanta made Sean Johnson work.

D.C. played a 4-4-2 and did not pretend otherwise. Twenty-four clearances, twelve interceptions, thirty percent possession, a two-man front that spent the night as a two-man screen — the reading is mine; the numbers do not argue. Their last shot of any kind came in the 65th minute, a Tai Baribo header over the bar. After that they defended, and when the defending got expensive they fouled: Kye Rowles booked in the 68th, Kimito Nono in the 70th, Jared Stroud in the 71st. Three yellows in four minutes. René Weiler's side came in eleventh with a match in hand, and they left with what they came for.

Both benches moved at once. Weiler made three changes in the 56th minute; Tata Martino answered with three in the 57th — Adrian Gill, Tristan Muyumba and Matt Edwards for Mauricio Amaro, Jay Fortune and Júnior Alonso. At nil-nil, away, with the ball, a triple change is a coach deciding a point is not enough. My reading, not his, but what followed supports it: seven of Atlanta's eleven second-half shots came after the change, both of Johnson's saves among them. In the 80th minute Embolo's bicycle kick hit the post — Field Level Media has it off the left upright with the flag already up. And in the fourth minute of stoppage time Luke Brennan, an 87th-minute substitute, put a header from very close range against the bar. The last recorded action of the match.

Ninety minutes, and the nearest thing to a goal came after they had ended, and hit wood.

El silencio. Not the silence of a match with nothing in it — this one had nineteen shots — but the silence at the end of every one of them.

About the goalkeeper. Sean Johnson was born in Lilburn. On December 11, 2016, before this club had played a competitive match, Atlanta United acquired him from Chicago and traded him to New York City the same day. Tonight he made the two saves that kept the Georgia club he never played for off the scoresheet. Atlanta have drawn goalless twice this season. Both were against D.C. United, and both times the clean sheet was Johnson's.

One number I checked before printing it: nineteen is not the most shots Atlanta have taken in a match without scoring this year. April in Chicago was twenty, and they lost that one. Tonight is second.

The global reading, without irony: a goalless draw away at a mid-table side that sits in with a 4-4-2 and thirty percent of the ball is a point most of the world's leagues would bank without comment. In a season where the point changes nothing, it is not a result. It is a description.

Mathematically it is not yet nothing: nine matches, twenty-seven points still available, fifty attainable against a ninth-place line of thirty. I wrote on Wednesday what this season is and is not, and I will not write it again. The arithmetic is alive; nobody in the away end was consulting it.

Personnel, from the team sheet. Embolo's third start in three MLS appearances: two shots, both on target, no goal. Miguel Almirón, captain, four shots, none on target, withdrawn in the 73rd minute for Fafà Picault. Cooper Sanchez, eighteen, back from concussion protocol, started and played eighty-seven minutes. Giuliano Galoppo and Steven Alzate were not in the squad — Friday's club report had Alzate out with an illness and Galoppo questionable on the visa process. Paulo Díaz, a starter on Wednesday, was an unused substitute; no reason has been given, and I will not supply one.

Saturday: Portland, Providence Park, 10:30 PM Eastern. Nine left.