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Jamie Moreno makes MLS history in DC United win

May 19, 2007 - 11:16 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Jamie Moreno is making his case as the greatest player in Major League Soccer history.

Moreno's penalty kick in the 79th minute gave DC United a 2-1 victory on Saturday over Toronto FC.

The veteran forward's second-half tally gave him 108 career goals - tying Jason Kreise's MLS record. Moreno has played on four MLS championship teams (three with New York/New Jersey and the 2004 United team) and holds the record with 32 career penalty-kick goals.

"It's a great achievement, I never qualify myself as a top scorer of goals but I've been in this league so long definitely got me there so I'm happy that my teammates have given me opportunities to stay in MLS," Moreno said. "As long as I'm playing I am going to keep enjoying it."

Moreno has notched all three of his goals this season from the penalty stripe, including another game-winner in the 73rd minute May 6 to beat Chivas USA.

"The second half we moved the ball better and we knew they were going to get tired, they had played 3 games in a week," Moreno said. "We were lucky to score the first goal and the second was a good hit. Today I was ready to play the game and all that matters is that we won."

Toronto, in its inaugural year as an MLS franchise, dropped its first four games of the season, but appeared to be breaking out with wins in it last two matches over Chicago and Houston and an opening-half goal against DC. An own-goal and an ill-advised penalty kept it from extending its winning streak to three games.

"We were a bit of a tired team, three games in a week," Alecko Eskandarian said. "I thought we played good in the first half, took it to them and were pretty physical but we didn't get the result we wanted. But it's a long season and we've proved that we can play with one of the top teams which although their record doesn't show it they (DC) are one of the best teams in the MLS."

Toronto FC opened the scoring in the 44th minute when Maurice Edu grabbed a rebound inside the box and flipped it with his heel back to Alecko Eskandarian, who blasted it past United goalkeeper Troy Perkins for his first tally of the season.

DC wasted little time even the match in the second half. Christian Gomez took a free kick from 40 feet out in the 52nd minute. The United midfielder blasted a shot into the box where Toronto defender Kevin Goldthwaithe attempted to head it out of the box.

"These things happen and I was really hoping we'd get a chance to have a penalty kick back," Toronto coach Mo Johnston said. "At the end of the day we got nothing. From the first four games of the season we are definitely starting to look better and that makes me happy but there are still a lot of changes to be made."

Goldthwaithe's deflection went past Toronto goalkeeper Greg Sutton for the first own-goal in franchise history, evening the match at 1-1.

A furious last five minutes by Toronto yielded no goals. Toronto outshot DC United 9-8, but were stymied by a strong defensive effort and some key stops by Perkins.

"We still have some things to fix," DC coach Tom Soehn said, "We're still finding the right compliments but the mentality is better and we're headed in the right direction."