However, to their credit, FC Dallas never withered. In the 31st minute, Drew Moor's second goal of 2009 drew things level and FCD came away with a point for the second consecutive week in a 1-1 draw.

"It was a difficult game for us, a very stressful game," FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman said. "The players were put under a lot of pressure early. On the positive side, we got a point at home against a team we played 65 minutes with a man down. We absorbed their pressure and their attack. I thought our defense and in particular, Ray Burse was outstanding today."

FCD opened the night in a 3-5-2 formation with an identical 11 to the one that finished last week's 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders FC. Hyndman shifted them into a 4-3-2 after the expulsion and to a 4-4-1 for the second half after making two substitutions.

"I think we adjusted pretty well to being a man down," captain Pablo Ricchetti said. "We played 65 minutes a man down. We tried to force them to play backwards. We didn't put many people forward. We had to drop a little bit, hold and try to counterattack."

After Donovan's sixth goal of the year, Ricchetti gave his teammates a simple message.   "I told them to keep it simple," he said. "I told them that they scored and that's it. We have 85 minutes to play, to tie this game or to score two goals and win. That was my only message to them, keep playing and keep focused."

Normally a holding midfielder, Ricchetti made his third career start at center back in Hyndman's modified formation and his coach praised his performance.

"Pablo did fine," Hyndman said. "I thought he was a little shaky at the beginning but he did fine as soon as we got some help there with them."

In the 13th minute, the Argentinean veteran made a goal-saving play when he cleared a shot by LA's Mike Magee off the goalline.

"I saw the shot and tried to protect Ray Burse," he said. "I tried to be there. It was nothing special. It was a lucky play I guess."

Hyndman made two changes to begin the second half, taking Brek Shea out of the game for Alvaro Sanchez and bringing on Anthony Wallace for Andre Rocha. The coach later used his final sub on Eric Avila, who replaced Dave van den Bergh.

"I thought all three of our subs were good subs today," he said. "Sanchez, I thought he settled things down and he worked hard on both sides of the ball. He was sending some good balls in and he brought some energy. I think we got a lot of him. Eric did a good job when he went on the field. He did a good job of getting down to the baseline. I thought Wally had a very good game. It's not easy covering that flank over there with Donovan and (Chris) Klein coming through."

The Dallas coach offered a simple reason for taking out both Rocha and van den Bergh.  "With us a man down, it was really hard for both Andre and Dave to do the work we needed them to do because LA was sending a lot of players forward," he said.

Moor's goal came in his 100th career start and the 4th year defender saw a lot of similarities between tonight's draw and the one last weekend.

"I thought the way the first half went and with the way we came out in the second half, it was similar to last week," he said. "We were on our heels early in the game and gave up an early goal, which we have to stop doing. We just need to tighten things up in the back. With us playing three in the back, they did a good job of countering that with playing guys high and wide. They sent a lot of guys running through. I don't think we won our individual battles in the first half, but in the second half, we were a different team."