The Nil-Nil Draw Problem

So far in this season in Major League Soccer, there have been far more scoreless draws than in the past several seasons. Back in 2005 there were only nine scoreless draws, so far in the 2011 season there have been about twenty three. This problem is clearly beginning to reach epidemic proportions. What is the the first word that comes to mind when you think about a scoreless draw? Boring. Sure there may be several shots on goal and the subsequent saves on those shots by the goalkeepers, but when the match ends with no tally it simply feels empty. One of the contributing factors of this is the tendency for teams to bunker down when they're on the road, not willing to take risks and happy to simply sit back and take the single point. The teams are essentially playing not to lose.

A perfect example of this could be seen in the Sounders' home match against FC Dallas. As soon as FC Dallas got their goal, they bunkered down and put almost every single player behind the ball and simply weathered pressure from the Sounders for the rest of the match resulting in final possession numbers of 65% to 35% clearly in the Sounders favor. Sure a win was involved in this case, but this habit of bunkering makes for incredibly lopsided and boring matches of soccer. When one team is just packing their box, and the other team is just hammering away at them with little hope of getting the goal they need it just isn't entertaining.

Another potential cause for this problem is ineffectiveness in scoring and just not being able to capitalize on goal scoring opportunities. That certainly seems to be one of the main themes of this season of Major League Soccer, it seems like just about every team has at some point hit some sort of goal scoring dry spell. The Sounders certainly did earlier in the season, but those issues are clearly behind them as proven by the fact that they've scored ten goals in their last three regular season contests. Including the US Open Cup, they've scored fifteen in their last five. This issue doesn't really have that simple of a solution. Teams simply have to find their form and get in some sort of a groove, just as the Sounders have as proven by their current nine game unbeaten streak and latest proficiency at goal scoring.

The inspiration for this post.

What are your thoughts on this issue?