The phrase "a dull match" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a sporting event or competition that is unexciting or lacks intensity.
Example: "The game turned out to be a dull match, with neither team showing much effort or skill."
Alternatives: "a boring game" or "an uneventful contest."
In football, a predictable match is nearly always a dull match.
It was often a dull match, devoid of imagination and finally reflecting too much vulnerable batting.
The other chucklesome moment enlivening a dull match was Champion's description of Greece coach Otto Rehhagel's hair as "unfeasibly dark for a man his age".
It's as if we were watching a Wimbledon final in which, quite unlike the sizzler we actually witnessed on Sunday, the two combatants were playing below their reputations and giving us a dull match.
The younger sister yesterday enjoyed another crunching win, this time by 6-1, 6-2 against Emmanuelle Gagliardi, a Swiss player just inside the top 100, enlivening a dull match by the assortment of different noises which accompanied her hardest hits.
"It was a dull match and it looked like both teams were afraid of losing," said L'OM president Pape Diouf, going some way to explain why Ligue 1 is consistently Europe's lowest-scoring: this season, French matches average 2.13 goals per game, compared with 2.34 in Italy, 2.58 in England, 2.85 in Spain, and 3.08 in Holland and Germany.
As a largely dull match without meaningless chances suddenly sprung into life in the second half, Schalke stumbled upon their good fortune like a late-80s, new-school hip-hop producer getting hold of the James Brown's Funky People compilation: suddenly, they had all the breaks.
In 2010, Spain defeated the Netherlands in an excruciatingly dull match, the only goal coming four minutes from the end of overtime.
If I'm honest, I saw too many dull matches at Wimbledon, with barely a shot worth cherishing or mentioning.
Without the danger of relegation, clubs that realise they cannot win that year will stop trying, turn to some other contest and play dull matches.
After so many dull matches, so much denial of the sport soccer can be, the real thing has begun to surface.
