Chicago, Vancouver play out stalemate

Chicago Fire and the Vancouver Whitecaps have been forced to share the points following a goalless 90 minutes at Toyota Park.

It would have been a different story had Erik Hurtado's long-range effort found the back of the net in the third minute, but Sean Johnson was able to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Johnny Leveron then wasted a great chance to break the deadlock in the 30th minute as the Vancouver defender struck a loose ball over from just 12 yards out.

However, the best opportunity of the first half, and match, fell to Chicago's Jeff Larentowicz, who directed his header just wide of the post.

Chris Ritter combined well with Alex just after the interval to create a promising chance, but the latter's low effort was impressively blocked by David Ousted.

Opportunities were few and far between in the second half, with both sides being reduced to speculative efforts as the match entered the closing stages.

A draw fails to help either team, with Chicago remaining eighth in the Eastern Conference and Vancouver staying in sixth in the Western.