Chicago Fire happy with tie; Galaxy not so much

The difference in the two rosters is startling.

The Los Angeles Galaxy brought an all-star-caliber roster to Toyota Park on Wednesday night, though not all of those players saw action.

The Galaxy's Robbie Keane, Giovani dos Santos, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard and Nigel de Jong are among the best-known players in the world. The Fire has nobody to match those players' reputations.

The all-world Galaxy drew with the Fire 2-2 even though de Jong, Keane and Gerrard didn't play.

"This is a game we should get 3 points in my opinion," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said, "because we're capable of winning this game."

Arena has the luxury of picking from a who's who of the soccer world. The last-place Fire (5-11-8, 23 points) is trying to rebuild its roster.

"I think we did a fantastic game," Fire coach Veljko Paunovic said. "I'm feeling very sorry for our guys, very disappointed we didn't get more from this game. I think the performance was fantastic."

The Fire had a chance to build on Saturday's road winless streak-ending victory at Montreal but couldn't put away some good chances against a disorganized Los Angeles defense.

"We finally feel we are there," Paunovic said. "We finally feel like a team that can win (against) anyone in this league. Feeling proud of our guys, pushing hard until the end. Also a very important thing that we played against one of the best teams in the league. Having that performance against them means a lot for the confidence."

"Pretty sloppy game," Arena said. "Difficult conditions, really hot and humid. As you can see the last 20 minutes of the game was wide open and pretty sloppy. We played a good first 30 minutes.

"I don't know how we fell apart the last 15 minutes of the first half, but it was a killer, and we're fortunate they didn't get the third goal at the start of the second half."

Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute on a goal by U.S. national-team regular Gyasi Zardes. The Fire tied the game three minutes later on Arturo Alvarez's goal, then took the lead on David Accam's 39th-minute penalty kick.

The Galaxy brought dos Santos off the bench in the 60th minute, and he got the second Galaxy goal in the 69th.