The New York Red Bulls and LA Galaxy both climb up to third in their respective conferences after a fiery encounter at Red Bull Arena ended in a 1-1 draw on Sunday.
Despite New York's early pressure, it was the visitors who took the lead when Bradford Jamieson IV skinned Chris Duvall and Dax McCarty on the edge of the penalty box with a great piece of skill and dribbling, and the 18-year-old striker brilliantly drove the ball into the bottom corner past the reach of Luis Robles, to score his first professional goal for LA and to give the Galaxy the lead in the 9th minute. New York responded well when Bradley Wright-Phillips almost equalised for the Red Bulls moments later when the English striker’s close range chance was somehow kept out by Jaime Penedo, who did well to react to the shot by Wright-Phillips and keep LA’s lead.
New York were looking for a penalty in the 25th minute when Felipe was brought down in the penalty box, the midfielder was calling at the referee for a penalty but the official made no call, and LA cleared the ball away from danger. Penedo was again called to LA’s rescue in the 35th minute when Kemar Lawrence burst down the left wing and played in a dangerous looking cross towards the box, but LA’s keeper did well to react off his line and parry the ball out for a corner. Gyasi Zardes should had doubled LA’s lead when the striker played a neat one-two with Alan Gordon, which set Zardes through on goal, but he couldn’t get enough on the final shot and the danger was eventually cleared by Matt Miazaga.
The Galaxy came out in the second half more defensively tight than they had at the start of the first half, giving Bradley Wright-Phillips no breathing space in the LA half. However despite their early defensive pressure, the visitors from the West Coast sacrificed a goal in the 58th minute when Wright-Phillips’ chance from close range was blocked by A.J DeLaGarza, but they ball flew into the head of Felipe, and the ball found its way into the back of the net to give the hosts the equaliser. Wright-Phillips came close to giving the Red Bulls the lead when Sacha Kljestan played him in, but the striker’s shot from point blank range, was brilliantly saved by Penedo to keep the score at 1-1 with 15 minutes to go.