— Familiarity breeds contempt, but when North Carolina FC and Puerto Rico FC played for the fifth time this year, the result was an exercise in fallow fútbol. Saturday's 0-0 tie is North Carolina FC’s first scoreless draw since September 10, 2016, and NCFC remains winless in six home matches for the NASL’s fall season.

“We knew this was a big game, a game we were looking to get three points coming off a pretty good road trip, with a great result in Edmonton and a disappointing one in Indiana,” said NCFC manager Colin Clarke. “With seven games to go and three at home, it was a very important game, and we failed to win.

"We didn’t get beat, but we keep tying matches that we feel we should get three points out of.”

North Carolina put only three of their 20 shots on frame, but the team had its chances. Tiyi Shipalane banged a shot off the woodwork in the just the fourth minute; Lance Laing clanged his own in the 54th. Otherwise, only a few half-chance headers and a Nazmi Albadawi deflected skimmer in the 86th minute accounted for the home side’s offensive output.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico FC manager Marco Velez was grousing after the match about a penalty not whistled against NCFC defender Connor Tobin in the second half, until Velez was asked whether he was should be satisfied with a road point since his team didn’t put a single shot in target.

“I didn’t know that,” Velez said. “I know we had some chances, but we’ve had some problems in the final third. Knowing that, I guess so, and having a clean sheet is always good.”

Both teams came into Saturday’s game carrying particular difficulties. Puerto Rico last played on Sept. 2, before their training and Sept. 9 match were interrupted by Hurricane Irma. Velez said his team’s last day of training before Irma was Tuesday, Sept. 5, and it resumed practice with about half the squad last Sunday. The full team didn’t return until last Wednesday.

“It was a nerve-racking situation,” Velez said. “A lot of the guys hadn’t been in that situation before with hurricanes. So, they didn’t really know what to expect or if they were going to be safe. As soon as it was confirmed [Irma] was actually going to hit us, some guys left [Puerto Rico] because they didn’t feel safe.

"We had to stop training for four or five days, and by the time they got back, with all the delays and flight changes, guys were coming back sporadically.”

Meanwhile, North Carolina FC was playing its third game in a week Saturday. The stretch started with an impressive road win at FC Edmonton last Sunday and was followed by a disappointing, late-game loss at Indy Eleven.

Nine of NCFC’s 21 points in the spring season came from three wins over Puerto Rico FC. North Carolina FC has now drawn Puerto Rico, the last-place team in the league, twice at home in the fall season. North Carolina’s last home win was July 15 against — you guessed it — Puerto Rico.

“You go back through the [home] games, we’ve had chances to win them,” Clarke said. “T[his] was a tough one, being our third game in seven days with a lot of travel. [Puerto Rico] hadn’t played in two weeks. So, I thought we started well, but you just need that [first] goal.”

North Carolina FC (8-9-9, 33 pts.) continues to cling to third place in the overall NASL standings. However, the fourth-place Jacksonville Armada and fifth-place New York Cosmos, which play each other on Sunday, each currently have three games in hand on NCFC. North Carolina plays four of its final six regular season games on the road, beginning with a trip to the Cosmos next Saturday, Sept.23. North Carolina next returns home on Oct. 1 against Indy Eleven.

In the meantime, the waning home team is again left to contemplate the points that got away.

“If anyone deserved to win tonight, it was us,” Clarke said. “But it wasn’t to be. We just have to stay positive and keep moving on.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NCFC: Sylvestre, Black, Tobin, Ibeagha, Miller, Fortune (Akinyode, 84’), Kandziora, Albadawi, Shipalane (Glenn, 78’), Laing (Molano, 67’), Gorne

PRFC: Spangenberg, Culbertson, Soria, S. Moses, Kavita, Puerto, Rubio (J. Rivera, 75’), Yuma, Quintilla, Gentile (S. Rivera, 85’), Ramos (Marrero, 64’)

GOALS

NCFC: ---

PRFC: ---

CAUTIONS

NCFC: Shipalane, 23’

PRFC: Rubio, 59’; S. Moses, 72’

EJECTIONS

NCFC: ---

PRFC: ---

ATTENDANCE: 5,027