Major League Soccer

Moreno nets 100th goal, D.C. United rolls over Columbus 5-1.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Wednesday, May 31, 2006) -- Jaime Moreno became the second Major League Soccer player to score 100 goals, but it was four second-half tallies that gave D.C. United a 5-1 rout of the Columbus Crew before 11-725 at RFK Stadium tonight.

Moreno reached his milestone with a penalty kick in the eighth minute. "It might sound strange, but the truth is it doesn't matter to me that much," Moreno said. "What matters to me more is when United plays well and wins. I'm not going to disagree that the 100 goals are very important for my career, but I'm happier about the victory. And even though it was from a penalty kick, it counts the same, right?"

United coach Peter Nowak was not overly sentimental about his star striker's accomplishment.

"I'm his coach and I'm glad," he said. "We are over this 100th goal. I'm glad this happened so early so we can don't have to drag this thing over the whole season and wait for that 100th goal."

United (6-1-3, 21 points) leads the Eastern Conference by eight points over the Kansas City Wizards (4-4-1), who have a game in hand, but have dropped three straight contests. The Crew fell to 3-4-2 with 11 points.

"I think you never feel comfortable at the end of May," Nowak said. "Everything can happen pretty fast in our league and we have to play until November. I wish we knew we were going to play in the playoffs today, but like I said, the season is long and things can change very fast. All we have to do is play the same way. I think 40 points was our goal to make the playoffs. As soon as we got the 40 points, we're going to look at what is available for us."

Alecko Eskandarian, Moreno's partner on top, scored one goal, but also made the run that led to Moreno's PK and triggered a shot that forced a decisive own goal. In the eighth minute, Moreno threaded a lead pass to Eskandarian, who carried into the box and tried to step left around Dan Popik. The goalkeeper grabbed the legs of Eskandarian, who went tumbling through the box.

Popik was issued a yellow card that very well could have been red. He guessed wrong on the penalty, diving to his right as Moreno sent a hard roller behind him, just inside the other post.

"It was a great run from Alecko," Nowak said. Moreno "made the PK very cleanly and I hoped he would score other goals, not from (penalty kicks), but it doesn't really matter."

Moreno, who has played 10 of his 11 MLS seasons for D.C., has six goals on the season, tied with FC Dallas striker Carlos Ruiz for second in the league, one behind Houston Dynamo forward Brian Ching, who will miss a month of games while he is with the United States World Cup team. Moreno is three behind Real Salt Lake striker Jason Kreis, who hold the MLS career goals lead of 103, three coming in 2006.

Eskandarian is one of five players tied for fourth in the league with five goals.

Despite complete dominance of possession, United went into intermission tied 1-1, its sloppy marking allowing midfielder Sebastian Rozental to loft a pass for forward Joseph Ngwenya to volley out of the air and into the net in the 21st minute.

United's second-half onslaught began quickly with an own goal less than three minutes after the break. A minute after Popik stopped close-in drives from midfielders Freddy Adu and Clyde Simms, playmaker Christian Gomez sent a right-side corner kick to the near top corner of the six-yard box where Eskandarian headed a shot, aiming for the far post. Defender Ezra Hendrickson, facing the goal, stuck a foot out trying to clear the ball, but instead sent it over Popik and high into his own net for a 2-1 United advantage.

In the 60th minute, Moreno took a pass from Adu and drove an angled shot from the left side of the penalty area. Popik was able to stop that attempt, but left a rebound at the far post for midfielder Josh Gros to tap into an unguarded net, making it 3-1

Five minutes later, Perkins denied a Crew effort to get back into the game. He made a reaction save on Ngwenya, and defender Bryan Namoff cleared the ball from traffic.

In the 71st minute, United raced the length of the field to increase its lead to 4-1. Perkins dropped quickly to deny midfielder Eddie Gaven's attempt from a sharp angle and D.C. defender Bobby Boswell quickly fed the rebound to Gomez, who carried briefly before leading Eskandarian. From about 45 yards out, Eskandarian moved forward with Hendrickson's replacement, Marco Gonzalez, on the back of his left shoulder. When he reached the top of the box, Eskandarian laced a bouncing shot past the charging Popik.

"I think we made most of our chances," Nowak said. "In the first half we had good chances to score a goal and basically the goal for Columbus was very discouraging in that moment. We made mistakes -- communication wasn't there. I think in the second half, we made most of our chances and scored beautiful goals."

Reserve forward Lucio Filomeno was the recipient of a errant Columbus pass in the box and quickly put away his first goal of the season for a 5-1 bulge.

"Our energy wasn't there. Everybody's got to share in the blame," Columbus coach Sigi Schmid said. "We got beat. I thought D.C. played well. We gave them way too much space and way too much respect. You can't give a good team that much respect and not expect to be punished for it. Obviously, we've got to do it better next time."

Referee: Jair Marrufo. Referee's assistants: Nathan Clement, George Vergara. Fourth official: Mark Geiger Time of game: 1:49. Attendance: 11,725 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Weather:Partly cloudy, 85 degrees.

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