HOUSTON — The Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo played to a scoreless draw today, creating a three-way tie atop the Western Conference.

Donovan Rickets made four saves for Los Angeles (11-6-12), and Pat Onstead had three for Houston (12-8-9) to help the team match Chivas USA with 45 points. Both the Galaxy and Dynamo have one match remaining, while Chivas has two.

Chivas plays at Chicago on Thursday before hosting the Dynamo next Sunday, and the Galaxy complete their schedule at home against San Jose on Saturday.

Los Angeles had a chance to break the scoreless draw in the 52nd minute after Edson Buddle pulled Onstad off his line. The goalkeeper, though, deflected Buddle's blooper from 7 yards, and Houston's Geoff Cameron cleared it off the line with a bicycle kick.

Houston's best scoring chance came in the 77th minute after Stuart Holden got a pass inside the goalkeeper's box. Holden's point-blank shot was stopped by Ricketts.

For the fifth straight match and sixth time in seven games, Houston finished with 10 men after Brian Ching was ejected in the 83rd minute for a red card.

David Beckham was given a yellow card for tripping up Ricardo Clark to start the altercation, but Ching exchanged words with Beckham, earning a caution. Ching, a Kamehameha Schools alum from Hale'iwa, then was given a red card for apparently head-butting a Galaxy player.

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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com