Los Angeles 3 - 3 Columbus

Galaxy surrender late lead, earn draw with Crew

Updated: June 22, 2008, 7:44 AM UK

CARSON, California -- Landon Donovan has set a blistering pace in his zest to capture the Golden Boot. However, if he wants to keep his lead over the field in the MLS scoring race, he may need to be a bit more selfish.

Donovan scored two goals Saturday, but watched helplessly as the Los Angeles Galaxy gave away two second-half leads before settling for a 3-3 tie with the Columbus Crew.

Donovan tallied in the fourth minute and Edson Buddle scored in the 47th minute to stake the Galaxy to a 2-0 lead.

Although Brad Evans and Robbie Rogers tied the game at 2-2 in the span of just four minutes midway through the second half, Donovan seemingly put the contest away with a penalty kick goal in the 83rd minute after Crew defender Danny O'Rourke tripped David Beckham just inside the box.

"Going down two goals and coming out with a tie is great," Evans said. "The guys never put there heads down and kept going. (Crew coach Sigi Schmid) always tells us that we are going to get our chances in the game and, tonight, we had a fair amount of chances. My goal is to sniff out opportunities in front of goal and put them away."

But the Galaxy (6-4-3) were unable to notch their fifth win in six games as second-half substitute Steven Lenhart, who came on in the 76th minute, muscled his way inside the goalkeeper's box and beat keeper Steve Cronin for the tying goal in the 88th minute.

"It really feels like a loss - at this point - when we commanded the game so long and went in front (by two goals)," Beckham said. "We really need to learn how to finish games off. Coming in at halftime, we were disappointed. If we can't finish off these games, it will spell trouble in the long run. I had an opportunity at the end to put the game away and missed horribly."

With his MLS-best 11 goals, Donovan remains well ahead of the pack. However, while he has missed three games this season - two due to his commitment with the United States national team, one because of injury - Buddle has become a point machine, scoring eight times in his last six games.

With nine goals, Buddle is Donovan's closest competition in the MLS scoring race as they rank 1-2. With their 20 goals, the duo has combined to score more goals than eight MLS teams and as many as three others.

Only New England and D.C. United, each of which have 21 goals, have scored more.

Cronin made just one save for Los Angeles while William Hesmer turned away four shots for Columbus (7-4-2).

"I'm proud of my team because we were able to come back, especially after being two goals down and the way we gave up the goals the first one being so early in the game," Schmid said. "(The early goals were) pretty tough psychological blows to take but we were able to come back and equalize the game."