VANCOUVER – Second-half substitute Kekuta Manneh’s goal in the 86th minute gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a 2-2 draw with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday in Major League Soccer action.
Manneh fired in a shot from just outside the top of the Galaxy 18-yard box after taking a pass from Darren Mattocks.
In addition to setting up the tying marker, Mattocks scored Vancouver’s other goal as the Whitecaps overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits.
Stefan Ishizaki, in the first half, and Robbie Keane, in the second, scored for Los Angeles.
Vancouver improved to 2-2-3, earning a point after two straight losses. The Galaxy’s record now stands at 2-1-2.
It was the 10th all-time MLS meeting between the teams. The Whitecaps still have only one win against L.A.
Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted made his 20th consecutive start dating back to last season – a day after his wife gave birth to twin boys.
Striker Kenny Miller returned to the Whitecaps starting lineup after being used as a substitute in L.A. Meanwhile, midfielder Matias Laba started after sitting out a one-game suspension for receiving a red card (for two yellows) against Colorado two weeks ago.
The game got off to an eventful start as Whitecaps central defender Andy O’Brien received a yellow card in the first minute for
a hard sliding tackle on Keane.
L.A. applied early pressure, forcing Ousted to stop a Landon Donovan drive in the fourth minute. Two minutes later, Ousted blocked Keane’s attempt to lob the ball over him. Keane shot wide of the far post in the 26th on a shot from the left flank that eluded Ousted.
The Galaxy did a good job of keeping the ball away from Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Morales in the first 25 minutes. Vancouver became more dangerous when he started to figure more prominently in the match.
Morales volleyed his own rebound off a defender wide in the 29th minute and then saw L.A. goalkeeper Jaime Penede make a sensational save three minutes later as his shot bounced off Miller’s shoulder and headed straight for the net. Just another two minutes later, in the 34th Penedo stopped a Morales free kick.
But Ishizaki put the Galaxy on the scoreboard in the 38th minutes as he and Baggio Husidic used their heads to score. Ishizaki jumped high to head in Husidic’s header into the centre of the box from the left side of the area.
Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson tried to jump-start his team at the start of the second half by substituting Manneh in for midfielder Russell Teibert. Robinson also replaced O’Brien with Johnny Leveron in central defence.
In the 65th minute, Robinson tried to inject more speed by substituting Morales for Erik Hurtado and putting him out wide on the right wing. The move paid off quickly as Hurtado factored immediately into play and the Caps applied pressure from the right flank.
Two minutes later, Mattocks created a 1-1 tie as he ran onto Gershon Koffie’s long, curling lead ball along the right flank. Penedo beat him to it, but could not control the ball and it bounced off the goalkeeper and a defender back to Mattocks.
Mattocks then put in a right-footed spinner from a seemingly impossible angle near the goal-line.
But Keane gave L.A. a 2-1 lead 10 minutes later as he fielded a header from second-half substitute Rob Friend, a Kelowna, B.C., native, and then volleyed a shot past Ousted from the goalkeeper’s doorstep.
But just when it looked like Keane would be the winning-goal scorer for the second straight week, Manneh emerged the hero.
The Whitecaps had two chances to win in the closing minutes, but Miller fired wide from inside the L.A. box in the 89th and Penedo blocked Manneh’s sliding volley from beside the near post in added time. Ousted also prevented a Galaxy victory in added time by stopping Friend.
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