Jamaican-born Jeff Cunningham became the MLS all-time leading goal scorer when he scored a penalty for Columbus Crew in a 6-2 loss to hosts Seattle Sounders (13-5-9) last Saturday night in Seattle.
Cunningham, with his 134th career goal, eclipsed former DC United star Jaime Moreno’s record in the 59th minute. The Jamaican-born player who represented the U.S. national team, is also the all-time leading goal scorer for the Columbus Crew (11-8-7) with 64 goals.
“I’m going to keep this ball for the rest of my life,’’ Cunningham said. “I’m very humbled of Jaime Moreno, Brian McBride, Landon Donovan, and all of those guys. The list goes on, and I’m just honored to be grouped with those guys.’’
Cunningham’s historical goal was the only bright spot for the Crew as Seattle racked up six goals, instigated by Lamar Neagle’s hat trick (4th, 21st, 70th).
Seattle’s six goals is a team record for the most goals in a game, and when Mauro Rosales tallied in the 16th minute, the three goals scored with 17 minutes was the fastest scored by Seattle in the franchise’s three years in existence. When Mike Fucito (40th ) scored to make it 4-0 at the half, it became a another record for Seattle, which for the first time scored four goals in a 45-minute period.
“We haven’t had a game like this where we’ve gotten off to a good start in a while. Usually, it’s the other way around where we have to kind of dig ourselves out of a hole,’’ Neagle said. “It was nice that we were connecting at the beginning and throughout the whole game. We were all on the same page offensively and defensively for the most part, except toward the end.’’
Crew defender Josh Gardner scored in the 73rd minute, but a minute later, the defender made a grave mistake when he attempted to clear the ball from the goal line, instead, scored into his own goal to give Seattle the sixth goal to complete the rout.
In other MLS games last Saturday night, Alvaro Saborio’s goal in the 10th minute gave Real Salt Lake a 1-0 win over Chivas USA. Bobby Warshaw’s goal in the second minute of stoppage time help FC Dallas to wipe out a 2-0 deficit to beat Sporting Kansas City 3-2 on Saturday night.
Toronto FC and San Jose Earthquakes played to a 1-1 draw; Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Houston Dynamo, 1-0; and Chicago Fire topped Colorado Rapids, 2-0. Meanwhile, game between the New York Red Bulls and Los Angeles Galaxy, New England Revolution and Philadelphia and DC versus Portland were all postponed.
Champions League
Omar Gonzalez (38th) headed in a David Beckham corner and Chris Barrett (77th) tapped in a Sean Franklyn cross to lead Los Angeles to a 2-0 win over Alajuelense of Costa Rica. Also in Group A, Morelia of Mexico beat Honduran team Motagua, 4-0, and moved into second place, level on three points with Alajuelense.
In Group C games, first-place Dallas beat Toronto 1-0, while Panamanian side Tauro and Mexican champions Pumas UNAM tied goalless.
AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Joel Hawksley
