In one of the wildest Major League Soccer matches, the Los Angeles Galaxy came from 2-0 down late to draw 2-2 with the New York Red Bulls.
The first half of action at the StubHub Center was marred by injuries. Ashley Cole, in the 10th minute, sent a long ball over the top. Robbie Keane went on his horse to try and chase it. At the same time though, Luis Robles came off his line and the two collided. Keane bled from the nose as a result and received treatment for several minutes.
45 minutes marked with injuries
On the half hour mark, Damien Perrinelle went down injured and had to be replaced by Aurelien Collin. Then Jesse Marsch’s night went from bad to worse. Two minutes later, Sal Zizzo came into the match for Connor Lade. This severely hurt the play of the New York Red Bulls. They could not move the ball around with any kind of precision at all because of the lack of stoppages.
Despite the interrupted flow of the proceedings, the Galaxy had a couple of chances to score before the end of the opening 45 minutes. In stoppage time, Giovani dos Santos danced around the penalty box as he searched for an opening. Dos Santos aimed for the bottom right hand corner but Ronald Zubar came in to block the Mexican international. Moments later, Jelle Van Damme thought he had scored but was offside by a wide margin.
Four goals split points in second half
New York had to make their third substitution right after the start of the second half. Bradley Wright-Phillips could not carry on from an earlier challenge. Gonzalo Veron came on and became a thorn in the Galaxy defense. Right before the 60th minute, Veron fired from outside of the box. His shot looked like it was going to test Brian Rowe, but the ball flew by the far post.
Persistency finally paid off for the Red Bulls in the 68th minute. Sacha Kljestan slipped Veron in between two Galaxy defenders and was one on one with Brian Rowe. Rowe went down low to try to cut off angles, but Veron chipped the ball over the LA goalkeeper.
Six minutes later, New York doubled their advantage. Sean Davis had a couple of inches of space inside the box before curling one into the lower right corner.
It looked like the New York Red Bulls were going to hang on for all three points. But with 10 minutes remaining, Mike Magee pulled one back for Los Angeles. Ashley Cole leveled the match late to steal a point away from the Red Bulls. Giovani dos Santos floated a cross into the box which Robbie Keane flicked onwards. Cole ran to put a foot on the ball and his shot beat Robles to pull one back.
Coming up
Bruce Arena and the Los Angeles Galaxy return to action on Wednesday night. There, they host FC Dallas in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals. The Red Bulls return home to welcome in the Montreal Impact on Saturday night.