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Revolution, Galaxy play to a draw

Aug 31, 2008 - 3:18 AM By Brian Devine PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts (Ticker) -- Shalrie Joseph recorded a late goal as the New England Revolution salvaged a 2-2 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night.

The Revolution (11-6-5) tied the contest in the 71st minute when Joseph accepted a feed from Michael Parkhurst, moved into the penalty area to the left of goalkeeper Josh Wicks and blasted a shot just past him into the left corner of the net.

The goal was Joseph's fourth of his career against the Galaxy and the first career assist for Parkhurst.

"We should be happy but at the same time if there was a trophy for balls the other team would have won it hands down, there is one team hanging on at the end," Revolution coach Steve Nicol said.

Bruce Arena, coaching his second match with Los Angeles, replaced goalkeepers at halftime, inserting Wicks in place of Steve Cronin because of a finger injury that Cronin suffered on New England's first goal.

Los Angeles (6-9-7) had taken a 2-1 lead thanks to Landon Donovan's league-leading 16th goal and his second of the match.

"I'm so pleased with the result and the way we played because out team over the last two months or so has not played well and tonight we saw more evidence of a team and obviously the quality of some of our individuals that need to perform at this stage," Arena said.

"Everybody knows that Landon is a great goal-scorer, it is what he does, it is what he has done his whole career and it is what he will carry on doing because he is very talented and, if you give him the ball in the right places he will score 99 percent of the time, tonight was a good night for him because he had two chances and put them both away," Galaxy star David Beckham said.

From midfield, Eddie Lewis made a nice pass up to Donovan that allowed him to split two New England defenders, walk in uncontested and bury a shot in the lower right corner of the net.

"Just a great ball from Eddie, I kind of got tangled up with someone, and I turned around and the ball was just there, I'm not sure how he got it there but a great ball," Donovan said on Lewis' pass.

"I was pretty much caught out in no man's land in terms of the ball broke down, and he pretty much came in on a breakaway even though guys are around him and I'm not really where I want to be and he showed that he was coming across and as I started to move he put it to the other side," Revolution goalie Matt Reis said.

In the first half, New England opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when Khano Smith sent a ball into the penalty area that was headed into the net by Taylor Twellman.

It was the fifth goal of the year for Twellman, who paid a price for the tally, as Cronin came charging toward the pass and, in an attempt to clear the ball away, ended up delivering a blow to Twellman's face that required him to leave the match for several minutes.

"Other than the fact that Landon makes two unbelievable runs, he is smart and he is fast and he scored two great goals, it is unfortunate that we gave up two but, at the same time, I think we competed well, we had to come back, we desperately wanted to get three points but we fought back to get at least a point," Revolution defender Jay Heaps said.

The Galaxy also had some good scoring chances in the eighth minute by Edson Buddle and again in the 13th by Greg Vanney.