FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In a rematch of last season’s MLS Cup Final, the New England Revolution and LA Galaxy each scored twice in the first half but had to settle for a 2-2 draw at stormy Gillette Stadium on Sunday night.
Both teams entered the rain-soaked occasion with some key components missing, with LA depleted due to injuries and New England serving a couple of suspensions.
Poor weather conditions and missing players aside, both clubs played a highly entertaining first half.
The Revs came out firing immediately, with Scott Caldwell playing Charlie Davies through in the opening seconds, but the striker’s finish flew just high.
Five minutes later Caldwell again set up another solid Revolution opportunity. The midfielder took a nice swiveling pass from Juan Agudelo into the left side of the Galaxy penalty box before sending a searching low cross through the area to the far post, where Teal Bunbury slotted it home for the 1-0 lead.
Yet the Galaxy found their footing and created pressure of their own, which led to a nice 18th-minute strike from Ignacio Maganto to level.
Baggio Husidic pushed a bouncing pass to Maganto at the top of the box and the LA rookie blistered a right-footed half-volley past Bobby Shuttleworth for his first career MLS goal.
Nine minutes later it was Maganto sending one in from the left side to Jose Villarreal who, with his back to the net at the top of the box, made a terrific heel pass to lead a charging Gyasi Zardes into the box. Zardes fired a cool finish to the right to put the visitors ahead.
Just after the play, Villarreal was forced to the leave the game with a left shoulder injury that he suffered earlier in the game following a double-team tackle from London Woodberry and Jermaine Jones.
Not long after it was Jones who would be removed, as he hit the soaked turf holding his stomach and had to make an early exit with what was ultimately declared a left groin injury.
Before the halftime whistle, the Revs would square things up off a gorgeous free kick. Diego Fagundez lifted a right-footed bender over the LA wall from about 19 yards out that nicked off the fingertips of Jaime Pinedo, but rippled the netting nonetheless.
The second half provided far less fare for the highlights reels, as both ends got bogged down as the rain continued to hammer down. Agudelo got home hopes high in stoppage time as he broke in alone on Penedo, but not before the offside flag went up.
Both teams next head west for Saturday night tilts, with the Galaxy hosting Vancouver Whitecaps FC while New England venture to Portland.
