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Two weeks into the Major League Soccer season, St. Louis City SC is one of three teams yet to allow a goal and one of four teams yet to score. It’s the only team in both categories.

City SC has been perfect on defense but imperfect on offense after the team played its second straight 0-0 tie, this time against expansion club San Diego FC, which was playing its first home game Saturday night. It’s the fourth time City SC has posted back-to-back shutouts in its first two seasons-plus. In the process, by snapping San Diego’s win streak at one, City SC assured that its record 5-0 start for an expansion team will last a while longer.

“I said to the team now after the game that we should not think too much now and try to turn every stone and look like, where’s the problem?� said goalkeeper Roman Burki, who had a bit more to do in this game than in the first one, actually having to make a save. “There is no problem. We played really good with the ball against Colorado, which we should have won, and now we played really good against the ball. So we can do both. And we just have to accept that today, the team was really good, was better than we were. Without the fight that we put on the field, we wouldn’t have a point.�

Coming into the season, upgrading the defense was supposed to be the bigger problem, but the three-man back line, this time consisting of Henry Kessler, Kyle Hiebert and Jannes Horn, seems to have the situation under control, while the offense, which averaged two goals per game after the team was remade in the summer transfer window last year, isn’t quite there.

Unlike the first game in which City SC had plenty of chances, mostly by forward Simon Becher, but couldn’t score, this time it didn’t have to worry about finishing because it got so few chances. City SC had just two shots, both on target, and had an expected goals total of .1, which is as small as it sounds.

“I thought we lost the ball too easily and too quickly,� said coach Olof Mellberg, still searching for his first win. “I think that that’s what made us defend for long periods of time. We knew this was a good possession team. So if you lose the ball easily and unnecessarily eight, nine, 10, 11 times in the first half, in 45 minutes, you end up defending basically the whole half. We need to improve our build up, have more options there so we don’t end up defending most of the game.�

San Diego had possession for 67% of the game, and there were long stretches in which City SC’s offense not only didn’t threaten, it didn’t get past midfield. The team’s best scoring chance came in the 70th minute, when after a free kick, the ball eventually got to Klauss in the penalty area, but his shot from close range was straight at the goalkeeper.

Burki said he didn’t have concerns about the attack.

“I think we played a really good team today, which just didn’t allow anything,� he said. “Obviously, now, after the game, we can always say, we should have gone a little bit higher, tried a little bit to press higher. But the quality that I saw from San Diego was there. It would have been maybe too much of a risk that they played us out and then we did not have enough guys behind the ball. I think definitely the way the game was going; we were happy with the point on the road. I told the team before the game that we are not here to entertain the party that they want. And we did that.�

And considering how little City SC had the ball, any kind of offense was an accomplishment. City SC had the ball less than in any other game it has played that didn’t involve a red card.

“It’s definitely frustrating,� said Burki, “obviously especially for our offensive players, maybe also for the midfield players. You obviously want to play. The game is more fun when you have the ball. But I would say, if you compare our performance that we had in a game like this last season, we would have never gotten away with a point last season. So we played really good defensively, and that not just the defense, the whole team, also the strikers. So I think there was just a really good fighting performance from our side.�

Mellberg made two changes to the starting lineup from his first game, moving Horn into Josh Yaro’s spot on the back line and giving a first MLS start to Conrad Wallem, who played on the left wing.

Cedric Teuchert got a start and played 45 minutes before being subbed out, which was the pregame plan. Teuchert saw little practice leading up to the team’s first game because he had to go Germany to get his green card, so his fitness has some catching up to do. Chris Durkin came on for Tuechert at halftime, as he too worked his way back into game shape. Celio Pompeu came on as a late substitute to make his first appearance since June 14, when he seriously injured his leg in a game.

“Defensively, it worked out well,� Mellberg said of the changes. “Attacking, it didn’t work out so well.�

City SC dressed just seven substitutes rather than the allowed nine. Tomas Ostrak and Joey Zalinsky, who both were on the bench but didn’t play in the first game, and Michael Wentzel stayed behind to get minutes with City2 in a preseason game.