Los Angeles picked up a vital point in its quest for a playoff berth with a 2-2 draw against New England
at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.
A raucous crowd of 39,256 watched as Taylor Twellman opened the scoring after 21 minutes. Landon Donovan tallied goals on
both sides of the halftime interval to give the Galaxy the lead before Shalrie Joseph collected a Michael Parkhurst pass and
fired home to grab the Revs a share of the points.
Revolution head coach Steve Nicol handed a debut to Costa Rican international Gabriel Badilla. Badilla lined up at left back
in a four-man back line with Chris Albright fit enough to return to face his former team. There was no place for Steve
Ralston; the Revs' captain was held out after suffering from back spasms in Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions League loss to Joe
Public FC. Shalrie Joseph took Ralston's place in the 4-4-1-1 and claimed the armband.
Eddie Lewis made his first start for the Galaxy on the left side of midfield. Greg Vanney lined up in an unfamiliar
holding-midfield role alongside Pete Vagenas. Vanney's place in the midfield meant Troy Roberts continued to partner with
Sean Franklin in central defense.
The visitors controlled most of the play in the opening twenty minutes as the Revolution struggled to adjust to unfamiliar
personnel inside an unfamiliar formation.
Early on, Beckham sent a 60-yard diagonal ball over the top towards the run of Buddle, but Matt Reis rushed out off his line to block Buddle's shot.
Things almost went pear-shaped for the home side after a quarter of an hour, when Lewis and Wells Thompson clashed in the
midfield. Lewis caught Thompson with a cleat inadvertently while the pair tangled and Thompson responded by lashing out with
his cleat. Thompson was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card.
Buddle then sent a cross-field ball to Beckham. The English international's cross found Donovan at the near post, but Donovan's flicked header floated over the bar.
Against the run of play, the Revs opened the scoring. Much of the credit went to Khano Smith's diagonal, curling ball behind the defense. Twellman reacted before Steve Cronin and headed the ball into the vacated net. Twellman caught Cronin's fists while heading home, forcing him off the field for a few minutes after the goal.
The goal didn't deter the visitors. Donovan clipped a ball over the top towards Buddle, but Reis was again alert to rush off his line to snuff out the danger.
Nicol sensed the experimental formation wasn't working out as he'd hoped and sent Sainey Nyassi on in place of Pat Phelan to allow Shalrie Joseph to tuck back into the midfield.
Just after the adjustments, the Galaxy got their deserved goal through the active Donovan. Vagenas' diagonal ball sent
Donovan drifting wide towards the left corner. Badilla tried to shade him out away from goal, but Donovan lashed with his
left foot and volleyed past a recovering Reis at the near post.
Soon after, Vagenas set up Lewis for a stinging shot at the near post that forced Reis into a smart save at the near post as
the Galaxy looked to seize the lead before the break.
That lead would finally arrive ten minutes after the break. Lewis sliced open the Revs' central defense with a throughball
and Donovan raced into the empty space. A simple finish past Reis created a gap between the two teams.
It took that second goal to spark the Revolution into the game. Five or six passes in combination set up Chris Albright to
cross into the middle of the field. Smith blocked off a couple of Galaxy defenders and the ball fell to Twellman at the far
post, but the Revs striker pushed it just wide.
Michael Parkhurst created the Revs' second by stepping into midfield and finding Joseph space between Vagenas and Lewis.
Joseph turned around Sean Franklin before firing home to the near post to knot the scores.
The Revs should have pushed in front four minutes later when Nyassi turned the corner and crossed, but Thompson sidefooted
wide as the Revs ended up with a home draw.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or
its clubs.
