Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

By MARK EDWARD HORNISH

CARSON, Calif. – The Montreal Impact have never won in Los Angeles, never scored in Los Angeles, and in fact have only visited the city once in their brief MLS existence.

But rather than bunker in against the in-form Galaxy, the Impact threw numbers forward and attacked the MLS Cup Champions, outpaced them, outshot them, and generally gave the Galaxy all they could handle, earning a well-deserved 0-0 draw in front of a sold out crowd of 27,000 on an unusually humid night at the Stub Hub Center.

Throngs of blue-clad spectators turned out to see the Impact’s latest star signing, Didier Drogba, but if they were hoping for the fireworks the Ivorian legend provided with his hat trick debut at Stade Sapudo last week, they were watching the wrong royal blue shirt, at least in the first half.

It was Impact captain Ignacio Piatti, along with Argentine Andres Romero, that ignited the Montreal attack, launching seven shots at Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts in the first half alone, and forcing two desperate diving saves from the Jamaican netminder within the first fifteen minutes. Ricketts was up to the task, however, and turned in his first clean sheet since returning to Los Angeles

“Some times you have to look at the look at the positives. We didn’t concede” said Ricketts after the match. “Unfortunately we didn’t create enough scoring, but I think we had a solid foundation in the back, and that’s something to build on.”

All this is not to suggest that the Galaxy were badly outplayed. Despite uncharacteristically inconsistently passing throughout the evening, LA had multiple quality opportunities, and could have walked away with three points if their finishing had been sharper.

Robbie Keane forced a diving save out of Impact veteran goalkeeper Evan Bush in the 15th minute, AJ De la Garza missed wide from range in the 21st, and Gyasi Zardes wasted a golden opportunity one minute later when he picked up a  deflected pass and caught Bush far off his line. But Zardes missed the open net just high, serving as an apt metaphor for the Galaxy performance on the night.

But the Galaxy’s best opportunity came in the 34th minute, when Juninho received an outlet pass from Omar Gonzalez, spun, attacked, and fired a needle-sharp through ball 30 yards through the Montreal defense and onto the foot of the streaking Robbie Keane.  Bush was alert, however, and came flying off his line to block Keane’s shot before he could properly deliver it.  The ball popped high up over Bush, and Calum Mallace cleared before Keane could get a second touch.

It was frustrating tonight, a lackluster performance” said Galaxy captain Robbie Keane, who has seen his torrid summer scoring streak cool in the past several weeks. “They made it hard for us, they defended well, but we certainly weren’t at the races. Everyone wasn’t as sharp as we usually are.”

Drogba provided several moments of excitement late in the match, first when he sprang lose from AJ DeLaaGarza on the Galaxy end line, raced in at the near post, and tried to beat a sprawling Ricketts low. Ricketts managed to deflect the shot, but it bounced up over him, and this time rookie David Romney had to make a desperate headed clearance over his own crossbar.

“It’s something you never think, growing up, is even a possibility” said Romney after the match, when asked about facing off against a legend like Drogba. “I think we kept him under wraps pretty good. He got a couple counters at the end of the night, but other than that, I think we kept him in check throughout the game.”

Drogba found himself with two more good looks at goal in the final five minutes, and could not convert on either, first electing to try to beat DeLaGarza one on one rather than dish to a wide open strike partner Dominic Oduro, and then wrong footing Ricketts in the 88th but missing just wide.

With the hard-earned point, Montreal remains in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and hold a four point margin over struggling Philadelphia Union for the final playoff spot with only eight games remaining. The Impact will stay in California for a midweek match against the surging San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday, before hosting conference rival New England Revolution on Saturday.

The Galaxy may be wondering if their mojo has left them. After winning eight of 10 in July and August, the Galaxy have now collected only 1 point in their last two games.

“We weren’t very good, and we kinda got what we deserved,” said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena in the post game press conference. “Bad passing, inability to beat players one on one, bad crossing, not aggressive looking at the goal, not a good performance in the attacking end of the field.”

When pressed to discuss the Galaxy’s flagging form of late, however, Arena disagreed with any notion the Galaxy are in trouble.

“I don’t know how you use two games to determine the state of a team. We’re 28 games into the season, 29 games into the season, we have probably the second or third most points in the league. I don’t think the roof is caving in on us. I think we’re okay.”

They remain well placed in the Western Conference playoff hunt, still in third place, but will need to regain their scoring touch if they hope to contend for their fourth MLS Cup title in five years.  The Galaxy travel to Rio Tinto Stadium next weekend to take on Real Salt Lake on September 19th.