Galaxy faces facts: 10-game road skid

HARRISON, N.J. — The difference between either keeping a streak alive or ending one sometimes comes down to luck.

The New York Red Bulls had it Sunday in remaining Major League Soccer’s only undefeated team, and the defending champion Galaxy didn’t in seeing its winless streak away from Los Angeles grow to 10 games in a 1-1 tie Sunday at Red Bull Arena.

Felipe gave the Red Bulls (3-0-3) the tie when a clearing pass by Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza hit off the Brazilian midfielder’s face roughly five yards from the goal line and went into the net in the 58th minute.

“That play, I followed the action and the ball came right to my head,” Felipe said of his first goal with the Red Bulls and 13th of his four-year MLS career. “That was the goal and I had to look again. I was completely lucky, but the importance was we scored the goal.”

The six-game undefeated start is the best in Red Bulls franchise history, and the Galaxy was left to wonder what it must do to win outside of Southern California. The team is 0-5-5 during its drought, including playoff games, with the last win away from L.A. coming in Colorado in August. The Galaxy had a “road” win over Chivas USA in August in a game played at StubHub Center in Carson.

“We showed a good fight but we still haven’t won since August away from home,” DeLaGarza said. “We still need to get results away from home if at the end of the year we want to be the Supporters’ Shield winner. Just for our own sake and morale of this team, being on the road we have to have a better mentality and finish teams off.”

DeLaGarza didn’t realize after the game that his clearing pass had gone into the net off of Felipe. He knew he’d blocked a shot by Bradley Wright-Phillips but he thought his clearing attempt hit off Sacha Kljestan.

“Again you need a little bit of luck when you are away from home and we have to go do it on our own,” DeLaGarza said after the Galaxy extended its unbeaten streak to three games (2-0-1).

Until the fortuitous tally, the Galaxy (3-2-3) appeared headed to a win on the first MLS goal by Bradford Jamieson and two excellent stops by goalkeeper Jaime Penedo on Wright-Phillips, the league’s top goal scorer last season.

Jamieson had scored in the ninth minute after turning around defender Chris Duvall and beating keeper Luis Robles with a shot from the left side of the box.