The United States battled back for a 1-1 draw with Ecuador after Folarin Balogun scored in the second half of a back-and-forth match at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, on Friday night.

Christian Pulisic, whose status was uncertain because of an ankle injury he suffered during training this week, was named a substitute, while Antonee Robinson, whose availability was also in question, was left out of the squad.

The U.S. entered Friday's match after splitting its pair of September friendlies, losing 2-0 to South Korea before bouncing back to beat Japan by the same score. Ecuador, which finished second in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying, was down several star players, including Chelsea midfielder Moisés Caicedo.

"It's good to build momentum," Balogun said. "Disappointed to not get the win, but I think we was the better side and there was a lot of positives to take into the next game."

The Americans started well during an up-tempo opening 20 minutes, but fell behind when Enner Valencia collected a through ball on a counter-attack and fired a low shot past Matthew Freese to give Ecuador a lead it took into halftime.

The U.S. continued to look sharp in the second half and broke through when Balogun, who pushed the action all match, redirected Malik Tillman's cross off the post and into the net to level the score at 1-1.

It was Balogun's second goal in as many games for the U.S., and seventh in 20 appearances for the national team.

"I felt like we dominated," midfielder Weston McKennie said. "I hope we take confidence. I hope we take the adrenaline from this game, playing forward, rotating the ball, having patience with the ball, and just always trying to be dangerous."

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino made numerous changes in the second half, including bringing on Pulisic in the 73rd minute, but the Americans could not score the go-ahead goal.

Max Arfsten on the left and Timothy Weah on the right started as wing backs in a 3-4-3 formation. Five days after his birthday, defender Tim Ream became the third non-goalkeeper to play for the U.S. at 38 or older after Ed Murphy in 1969, Gordon Bradley in 1973 and Preki Radosavljević in 2001. Ream was joined by Chris Richards and Miles Robinson on the back line.

The U.S. plays Australia in another friendly Oct. 14, and will regroup for two more exhibitions in November against Paraguay and Uruguay.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.