New England Revolution 0:0 D.C. United - D.C. make it ugly and earn the point

First, the good news. The Tradition - the debuting-today collaboration golden ale between D.C. United and local craft brewery DC Brau - is fantastic. Also, United did not concede a goal and so did not lose. End of recap.

If only. The beer is delicious, and United did keep a clean sheet in league play for the first time since another scoreless road draw on March 16 in New Jersey. But tonight, the Black-and-Red also couldn't find the net on the other end and were forced to settle for a point tonight. Not that they're really "settling" after the year we've seen from United so far.

All that said, this is a fair result, which in itself is an improvement for D.C.. Neither side created much on the night - as a combined three shots on goal will testify. United came out strong in the opening minutes, pushing New England back but failing to create any real chances. New England came back into the game through the middle part of the half, and the combination of Ethan White's emergency defending and Bill Hamid's reflexes were enough to keep things level going into the break.

New England came out hard in the second half, but United were able to withstand pressure. As the half went on, things opened up and got to be very end-to-end. The end result wasn't actually much of anything, besides tactical fouls and corner kicks. The best chance for each side came through this sequence, as New England hit the post after a short corner, and Perry Kitchen sent his header wide of the far post from a corner at the other end.

The draw extends United's club record winless streak to 12 games, but it was enough to add 20% to United's point total. Which, after 14 games, is actually probably worse. But we started this recap on the positive, and let's bring it back to end there, as well. D.C. firmly belonged on the field tonight. It wasn't New England's best effort, but some of that is on United's possession game - flawed as it is - and defense. United didn't back into a draw this time; they earned it, if only because the Revs were just as bad as D.C. tonight.