LA Galaxy Vs. New England Revolution, Fulltime: Galaxy Dominate, But Settle For Tie

Three disallowed goals and rainy conditions that turned the field into a swamp didn’t exactly provide the perfect end to an impressive opening week for MLS, but you certainly won’t be hearing the New England Revolution complaining. Despite being thoroughly outplayed and clearly struggling with the conditions more than their opponents, the Revolution held on for a 1-1 against the LA Galaxy on Sunday night.

The Revolution took the early lead when Shalrie Joseph found himself all alone at the far post and headed home the go-ahead goal in the 3rd minute. From there, though, it was almost all Galaxy.

Juninho had one goal disallowed when a foul was called on Mike Magee during a scramble for the ball inside the six-yard box. It was perhaps a questionable call, as Magee barely touched the goalkeeper, but Magee could certainly be faulted for touch the goalkeeper at all. Magee then appeared to make up for the mistake a few minutes later, but his apparently equalizing goal was waved off when three Galaxy players all appeared to be in offside positions.

The Galaxy finally found an equalizer that stood up, when Juninho fired a rocket from about 23 yards out. Juninho collected an errant Revolution clearing attempt took one touch and blasted the ball inside the near post.

After catching a bit of a break in the 65th minute when Joseph just missed his second goal when he beat Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders but clanged his shot off the post, the Galaxy had a third goal disallowed in stoppage time. Again, offsides was the culprit, as Angel was about a yard beyond the second defender.

In the end, the Galaxy fired six shots on target to the Revolution’s one. But they missed too many clear opportunities and had to settle for a tie at home against a team many expect to be near the bottom of the table.