The Los Angeles Galaxy overcame an early goal with a quick response of their own, battling back to claim a 1-1 draw with the Columbus Crew on Saturday afternoon at Crew Stadium.
A fortuitous finish by Peter Vagenas cancelled out an Eddie Gaven goal as both goals came in the opening 15 minutes, and the Galaxy were twice denied by the goalpost to settle for a share of the spoils.
The Crew attacked with vigor in the match's early moments and quickly ended the Galaxy's team-record shutout streak nine minutes into the match.
"It was a great cross and great header," said Galaxy forward Landon Donovan.
With Tyrone Marshall and Chris Albright suspended for the match, the Galaxy went with a youthful backline. Each member of the quartet is younger than 24 with Nathan Sturgis being the youngest at 19. Benjamin Benditson made his first MLS start.
"I thought they did great. It was a little bit of a breakdown on the first goal," said Donovan. "I think Sturgis gets caught with the game over the top."
The Crew's Ryan Coiner played a ball from midfield into the right corner, where Jacob Thomas ran onto it and whipped a cross into the goalmouth for Gaven to head home from inside the goal area. Galaxy coach Frank Yallop agreed the backline played well, but not perfectly.
"I have to commend the young lads that came in. A lot of them haven't played in a lot games," said Yallop. "But we have to defend better than we did today."
Offensively, the Galaxy had a rather bizarre match in which their lone goal came from a fluke deflection, but could not convert the best chances, including a gifted breakaway for Donovan.
Donovan happened to be in the right place at the right time when Jacob Thomas made a poor pass back to Marcos Gonzalez. However, Donovan's shot struck off of the right post after he calmly curled it around Crew 'keeper Bill Gaudette. In the first half, Donovan set up Herculez Gomez for a shot that also deflected onto the post after Gaudette made a kick save.
"We are pretty close to scoring more goals than one in a game," said Yallop. "Landon hit the post. Gomez hit the post."
Added Donovan: "It was similar to last week in which we had some chances but lacked the quality pass or shot. The two post ones were just unlucky. It goes in seven or eight times out of 10, but just didn't today."
Since neither found the back of the net, the Galaxy relied on Vagenas's deflected shot for a point.
"My strike on net was pretty fortunate. It was a corner kick that was drawn out. Josh (Gardner) and I worked yesterday on trying to find the other on the top of the box," said Vagenas. "He did a good job of taking everything off the ball and laying it to me."
While the setup was well rehearsed, the result was anything but.
"It was on my off foot so I just wanted to make sure I kept it down and in play. It was fortunate enough to take a defection and get into the net," said Vagenas. "Otherwise, I think their goalie had a pretty good read on it."
Since the Galaxy are still trying to make up ground in the Western Conference standings, they were not exactly thrilled with the result. After a draw between Colorado and Chivas USA on Thursday they had a golden chance, but the pair are still tied for third place, four points ahead of the Galaxy.
"We are pretty disappointed with the tie. It wasn't our best performance. A positive from today is that we got a point even when we didn't play our best," said Vagenas. "There is room for improvement. I don't think individual players in this room are happy."
Despite the feelings and desire to win, Yallop thought it was a fair result for the second of four consecutive away matches.
"It was a scrappy game. It wasn't really pretty, especially the second half," said Yallop. "I think a draw was a fair result for both teams."
John Kuhn is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
