Federico Higuain's penalty kick in the 69th minute rallied the Columbus Crew to a 1-1 tie against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday after Warren Creavalle had given the Dynamo a first-half lead.
The Crew (4-4-5) have a 1-2-3 record at home and have not won in the past three matches at Crew Stadium despite taking six of the game's seven shots on goal.
''We created chances. I'm not frustrated,'' Crew coach Robert Warzycha said. ''The guys gave everything on the field. The attitude was good. The speed of play was good. The passing was good.''
Houston (6-4-4) is 0-2-2 in its past four games and 0-3-6 against the Crew in the past nine meetings, but coach Dominic Kinnear was happy with the point considering he lost Eric Brunner and Adam Moffat to injuries in the first half.
''You prefer to use your subs in the second half if you can, but to go down a midfielder and a defender; I wasn't expecting it,'' Kinnear said. ''It happens sometimes and you ask guys to do something they weren't expected to do from the first minute.''
Making his first start, Crew rookie defender Chad Barson drew a foul by Andrew Driver with a cutback on the right side of the box to earn the penalty.
''I tried to step to the ball and beat the other guy to it,'' Barson said.'' Luckily, I got a touch and he took me down.''
Higuain ended a 294-minute home scoreless drought for the Crew by converting his third penalty in four tries this season. He has four goals.
Houston earlier got in front on Creavalle's third goal.
He ran into unmarked space as Kofi Sarkodie dribbled to the right corner. Sarkodie sent a cross that Creavalle one-timed past goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.
