A point on the road is not much to celebrate, but for an LA Galaxy team in the middle of a grim stretch, holding on for a 1-1 draw counts as progress, Yahoo Sports reports.

How it went

The Galaxy took the lead early and then spent most of the night defending it. Joseph Paintsil scored in the 13th minute at Stanford Stadium, finishing on the counter with a first touch off a Marco Reus assist, the kind of quick, direct goal that flatters a team getting outplayed everywhere else.

And they were being outplayed. San Jose controlled 61 percent of possession and outshot the Galaxy 9-2 in the first half alone, a lopsided run of pressure that eventually told. Reid Roberts equalized for the Earthquakes in the 63rd minute, and from there LA was hanging on more than pushing for a winner.

The reason the game ended level rather than lost was JT Marcinkowski. The Galaxy goalkeeper made five saves to San Jose's one, the difference between a scrappy point and another defeat. His opposite number, Angus Gunn, was barely tested.

Why a draw feels like relief

The result reads better against the backdrop. The Galaxy came in having lost two straight by a combined 6-1, so simply not conceding a hatful was its own kind of achievement. They have now gone three games without a win since the World Cup break, and sit at 5-7-6 on the season, well off the pace.

That record is the real story here, and there is no dressing it up: this is a team from which more is expected, playing well below it, and now managing single points on nights it is second-best in most categories. A draw earned largely by the goalkeeper is the profile of a struggling side, not a recovering one.

What is ahead

San Jose, for its part, was without two important players, leading scorer Preston Judd, who has 11 goals, and captain Ronaldo Vieira, both out on yellow-card accumulation, which makes the Galaxy's inability to take control against a depleted home side more pointed, not less.

For the Galaxy the honest framing is that this stops the bleeding without fixing the wound. A point slows a bad run; it does not reverse a season sliding away from the playoff picture. The Herald will follow whether this draw is the floor the Galaxy build from, or just a quieter stop on the way down.