Dynamo, Galaxy battle to scoreless draw

Result leaves two Western clubs in first-place tie with Chivas USA

Goalkeepers Pat Onstad and Donovan Ricketts pitched shutouts in front of a near-sellout crowd at Robertson Stadium. Both teams gained a point in the standings after the scoreless draw, creating a three-way tie for first place in the Western Conference standings.

Chivas USA gained a point after their tie against San Jose Saturday night.

The Galaxy play San Jose next weekend, and the Dynamo will travel to Carson, Calif., to play Chivas USA. Chivas has a game in hand (they face the Chicago Fire on Thursday) and is the odds-on favorite to clinch at least home-field advantage in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Extending a recent trend of losing a player due to red-card ejection, Dynamo forward Brian Ching was sent off in the 82nd minute by referee Kevin Scott.

After Ching was ejected, Houston still had three more chances to win the game, but the Galaxy turned away three corner kicks en route to the shutout.

With his parents in the stands for the first time this season, Geoff Cameron made the save of the game early in the second half to keep the game scoreless.

On slow-to-develop scoring play in front of Onstad, the veteran 'keeper came a bit too far out of the box, and Edson Buddle ended up with the ball and a seemingly open cage.

His pop-up shot toward the net was deflected, but the ball was still destined for the back of the net. Cameron sprinted toward the ball and made a last-second bicycle kick save on the goal line to deny Buddle and the Galaxy, who beat the Dynamo 1-0 in Carson on June 28.

In that game, Todd Dunivant scored in the 24th minute to end the Dynamo's then club-record 11-game unbeaten streak.

In a scoreless first half, and one that featured a Donovan-less Galaxy squad to start, the Dynamo carried play and had most of the scoring chances.

Lacking, however, was the communication necessary to capitalize on any of those chances.

The Orange were offside far too many times and were stymied by a red-hot Ricketts, who made several great saves when the Dynamo were able to get a shot on goal.

In the fifth minute, Luis Angel Landin was taken down at the top of the box, but Holden missed wide on the ensuing free kick.

Four minutes later, Onstad made back-to-back stops to keep the game scoreless when the Galaxy nearly converted their best scoring chances of the opening half.

First, Onstad made a nice save on a long-range shot by Chris Birchall and then needed to be real quick back to the ball when Eddie Lewis fired the ball toward the net after settling the rebound.

In the 24th minute, Cameron nearly headed home a shot by Brad Davis on a free kick. Two minutes later, it was Landin who nearly surprised Ricketts with a rising left-footed shot.

The Dynamo had their best chance of the half thwarted in the 28th minute when Davis and Holden had a clear 2-on-1 breakaway in front of the L.A. keeper.

Aiming for the left corner, Davis fired a shot after taking a bouncing pass from Holden, but Ricketts wasn't fooled and made the save.

Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com.

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