CARSON — Last week, the Galaxy showed resiliency in rallying from a two-goal deficit to earn a point in a draw with Nashville SC.

Saturday, the Galaxy (1-0-3, six points) experienced another round of highs and lows, but again had to dig deep for what can probably be described as a frustrating 3-3 draw against St. Louis City SC in front of a sellout crowd of 25,174 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

“We didn’t win one point, we lost two points,” Galaxy forward Dejan Joveljic said.

The Galaxy took a 2-1 lead in the 51st minute on Joseph Paintsil’s goal.

Nearly 10 minutes later, St. Louis scored the equalizer on an bicycle kick from Joakim Nilsson and in the 88th minute, a St. Louis corner kick found its way into the after Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy had a defender run into his path. The goal went down as an own goal, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead, but they wouldn’t hold it.

Halfway through the eight minutes of stoppage time, the Galaxy scored their own equalizer as Maya Yoshida headed in a free kick from Gaston Brugman to make it 3-3 to secure a point.

However, the wildness didn’t stop there. In the last minute of stoppage time, Sam Adeniran got free from Yoshida and headed toward goal. Galaxy defender Martin Caceres ran toward him and committed probably the clearest foul of the night. Caceres, who already had a yellow card, was issued a straight red.

When play restarted, the St. Louis free kick was secured by McCarthy and the referee Atahan Yaya signaled the end moments later.

The week is another with MLS using replacement referees and both teams had their moments of displeasure with Yaya’s performance.

“I was frustrated,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “I felt like the standard of what’s a foul, what’s not a foul was off and I felt like that was consistent for the night …sometimes it happens and I felt like it happened tonight. I don’t know if it was major calls, major moments …I didn’t see the third goal. I just felt like …they’re a pressing team, they get into your space, they get into your face and I’ll say this to anyone, if the standard of a foul is off, when you play these teams that  are in your face and up your back and grabbing you from behind, then it’s going to be tough for the team that wants to have possession.”

The night started off well for the Galaxy, but things would turn wild in a matter of moments.

Joveljic broke open the scoring in the third minute, putting the finishing touches on a the epitome of a team-goal. Building out of the back, the Galaxy put together a string of passes, ending with Julian Aude finding an open Joveljic, who beat St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki for a 1-0 lead.

The goal was the fourth in the first four games for Joveljic. He scored six all of last season.

Inside the first 20 minutes, was where the Galaxy will look back and wish they had the chances back. After Joveljic’s goal, the next chance came on a Diego Fagundez close one-time shot just outside the six-yard box that Burki slapped away with one hand. Burki was credited with six saves, but it seemed like everyone was the perfect chance for the Galaxy to breakthrough.

Then came one of the weirdest sequences you might ever see. Riqui Puig’s shot on goal hit the crossbar and the rebound came off for Joveljic and his header also hit the crossbar.

“We missed and or Burki made a bunch of great saves and we missed some great chances,” Vanney said. “We shouldn’t have even been in the game, honestly in my opinion, we should have buried enough of our chances because they were really good chances, they weren’t just kind of good chances, they were really good chances …a lot of really good chances. I think there were six or more in there tonight, if we were clinical.”

Later in the half, St. Louis had found their footing and Tomas Ostrak scored the equalizer to make 1-1 in the 27th minute.

The Galaxy will return to action Saturday on the road against Sporting Kansas City.

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