A steady rain put a damper on the inaugural game at Saputo Stadium on Monday, and the Vancouver Whitecaps helped too.
Vancouver (3-1-1) held the Montreal Impact (2-4-1) to a 0-0 draw to extend their unbeaten streak to three.
"You have to give Vancouver credit because they have a very sound defensive system, but even so, we managed to get some chances," said Impact coach Nick De Santis, whose team has played 277 minutes since its last goal.
And no chance was bigger than the one fashioned by substitute Antonio Ribeiro with two minutes remaining. Ribeiro broke past a defender and had goaltender Srdjan Djekanovic at his mercy when he was pulled down from behind by Vancouver's Omar Jarun.
Referee Dave Gantar signalled a foul which would have provided Ribeiro a penalty shot, but the sideline official ruled that Ribeiro was offside.
Vancouver had the best scoring chance of the first half when Eddy Sebrango redirected Martin Nash's shot as it came through the box, but Matt Jordan dived to deflect the ball, which then bounced off a goalpost.
Jordan stopped eight shots, but it was Djekanovic who had the toughest saves of the day. In the 72nd minute, forward Joey Gjertsen broke in alone, but was foiled when Djekanovic got his hand on a rising shot and directed it over the bar.
Djekanovic now has four shutouts in five league games.
"If you look at it, this was the third game in a few days, so the result today was very good," Whitecaps head coach Teitur Thordarson told whitecapsfc.com. "We could have won it, but we could also have lost it as well."
The announced crowd was 13,034, a sell-out, but there were no more than 9,000 fans when the game started.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
