Robbie Hill of the Chattanooga Football Club moves the ball up the field in Chattanooga’s final game of the season against the Under-23 squad from D.C. United of Major League Soccer. D.C. United went on to win 2-1.The best soccer player inside Finley Stadium on Saturday night wasn’t in uniform. Instead, he was seated on the D.C. United under-23 team’s bench wearing blue jeans and a white button-down shirt.
Jaime Moreno, a 37-year-old Bolivian who retired in 2010 after playing 15 seasons for United, is the U-23 squad’s coach. He’s Major League Soccer’s all-time leading scorer and likely one of the two best players in MLS history – the other being Landon Donovan.
Before Moreno’s team’s 2-1 exhibition win over the Chattanooga Football Club in front of a crowd of 1,603, CFC officials tried to get the man with 134 career goals and three MLS Cup titles to join in the fun on the field.
“I was talking about it early on, but I haven’t done anything for six months, so I don’t want to pull any muscles,” Moreno said, laughing.
A year ago, CFC traveled to Washington, D.C., to face United’s U-20 squad at RFK Stadium. Both CFC and United have Volkswagen as a primary sponsor, and VW that helped make that trip possible.