WASHINGTON -- As they have on countless occasions over the past 13 years, D.C. United rode the goalscoring prowess of Jaime Moreno to a well-deserved 2-1 win against FC Dallas in damp conditions at RFK Stadium on Saturday night.Dallas midfielder Andre Rocha gave his team a stunning lead on a 28th-minute corner kick after United made the brighter start, but D.C.'s sustained pressure eventually paid off as the MLS all-time scoring champ produced two calm finishes to secure the full three points.United coach Tom Soehn ran out a largely straightforward starting XI that featured Santino Quaranta in the attacking midfield role and Moreno as captain -- with one notable exception, at goalkeeper, where rookie Milos Kocic was preferred to veteran Louis Crayton between the sticks.The hosts dominated proceedings at the outset as Dallas sat deep in their own end. Four minutes in, Moreno latched onto a rebound along the left side of the FCD penalty box and cut inside to unleash a bending drive on target, but Hoops goalkeeper Ray Burse punched the effort away.Minutes later Moreno found himself in open space some 30 yards out from goal and elected to take another flyer, fizzing a low drive just past the left post. The early going soon began to resemble a D.C. shooting drill when Chris Pontius raced forward to uncork another bid that beat Burse, only to skip inches wide of the woodwork.Dallas striker Kenny Cooper was cutting a lonely figure up top and Pablo Ricchetti looked to feed the big man on a rare attacking foray. But the Black-and-Red quickly broke out on a counterattack and Moreno soon took possession near the FCD six-yard box after overlapping Emilio, juking past Blake Wagner and pinging a low shot off the base of the far post. A late-arriving Clyde Simms met the rebound with a first-time shot, only to see it deflected over the crossbar by a crucial intervention from Ricchetti.United's stranglehold on possession still had not manifested itself on the scoreboard and they had only themselves to blame when Dallas snatched the lead against the run of play in the 28th minute.Dave van den Bergh served an inswinging corner kick to the near post and Andre Rocha won his individual battle with Rodney Wallace, beating the rookie winger to the ball and slipping a seeing-eye header through traffic and past Kocic to hand the Hoops a surprising 1-0 advantage.D.C. quickly tried to respond as Olsen shot saw a shot blocked deep inside the box before a diving Emilio came agonizingly close to connecting with Quaranta's cross-shot to the far post. But the visitors came closer to scoring when van den Bergh tested Kocic with a low daisy-cutter that almost squirted away from the netminder on the wet turf, forcing him to reach out and glove the ball just before Cooper arrived on the scene.Cooper was finding little joy up to this point and he betrayed his frustration with a petulant foul on Olsen just before halftime, grabbing the D.C. midfielder and throwing him to the turf after he'd nipped in to steal possession, earning Cooper a yellow card from referee Ricardo Salazar.The second half began much like the first, with United pressing forward assertively. Barely a minute in, Moreno's excellent left-footed cross set up his strike partner Luciano Emilio inside the six-yard box, but the Brazilian saw his goalbound header denied by a sharp reflex save from Burse.D.C.'s long-awaited breakthrough finally arrived in the 56th minute, however, as Bryan Namoff's angled long ball found Moreno at the top of the Dallas box with nary a defender in sight. The Bolivian took down the pass and maneuvered a low shot past Burse, who got a touch to the effort but could not keep it from rippling the net to level matters at 1-1.Emilio should have pushed his team into the lead just moments after the equalizer when he beat the Dallas offside trap and dribbled in on Burse alone -- but his touch past the advancing 'keeper was too heavy and when he recovered enough to clip an angled effort towards the net, Daniel Torres cleared it off the line.Cooper finally found some time and space to measure up a shot at the other end, but he blasted his effort right at Kocic and the Serbian saved with little trouble.Soehn elected to replaced the tiring Olsen with Christian Gomez just shy of the hour mark, sending Quaranta out wide as Pontius dropped into a deeper midfield role alongside Simms. The Argentinean playmaker's arrival soon paid dividends as he combined with his old friend Moreno for a delightful tally to push United ahead.Gomez thrives in the hole between opponents' midfields and back lines and he found just such an opening in the 66th minute, spotting Moreno's well-timed run and feeding the Bolivian with a perceptive through ball that left Burse exposed. Moreno waited for the FCD netminder to commit, then lofted a savvy chip over him and into the twine to run the score to 2-1.The RFK faithful roared at the sight of the pivotal brace from their longtime hero, who had provided a much-needed finishing touch after more than an hour of quality play from the Black-and-Red, running his MLS-best career goalscoring tally to 124.Though momentum had swung back in D.C.'s direction, Kocic was looking a bit uneven on high balls, prompting the visitors to serve a steady diet of crosses into the box as time wound down. One such effort nearly paid off four minutes from full time when the United 'keeper couldn't reach van den Bergh's swerving left-wing cross through a crowd of bodies, but when the ball popped loose, Wagner could not keep his overhead kick on target.Kocic's handling made for an interesting conclusion but with substitutes Andrew Jacobson and Greg Janicki on to help defend the lead, United saw out the final minutes to notch their third victory of the season.
FC Dallas (1-5-1) vs. D.C. United (3-1-3) May 02, 2009 -- RFK Stadium
Scoring Summary:
DAL -- Andre Rocha 1 (Dave van den Bergh 2) 28DC -- Jaime Moreno 1 (Bryan Namoff 3) 56DC -- Jaime Moreno 2 (Christian Gomez 1) 66
FC Dallas
-- Ray Burse, Marcelo Saragosa, Drew Moor, Daniel Torres (Steve Purdy 67), Blake Wagner, Andre Rocha (Eric Avila 79), Dax McCarty, Pablo Ricchetti (Peri Marosevic 75), Dave van den Bergh, Kenny Cooper, David Ferreira,Substitutes Not Used: Kyle Davies, Bruno Guarda, Josh Lambo, Alvaro Sanchez
D.C. United
-- Milos Kocic, Bryan Namoff, Dejan Jakovic, Marc Burch, Chris Pontius, Ben Olsen (Christian Gomez 58), Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Rodney Wallace, Luciano Emilio (Greg Janicki 84), Jaime Moreno (Andrew Jacobson 74),Substitutes Not Used: Louis Crayton, Thabiso Khumalo, Devon McTavish, Ange N'Silu
Misconduct Summary:
DAL -- Kenny Cooper (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 45DC -- Dejan Jakovic (caution; Reckless Tackle) 62Referee: Ricardo SalazarReferee's Assistants: Adam Wienckowski; Steven Taylor4th official: Hilario GrajedaTime of game: 1:49Attendance: 14,225Weather: Cloudy -and- 65 degrees
