Ryan Johnson and Julian de Guzman scored in the first half and Toronto FC held on for a 2-1 win over Panama's Tauro FC in CONCACAF Champions League group stage action Thursday.

Toronto is tied with fellow Major League Soccer team FC Dallas atop Group C at 1-0-0. Both teams have a goal differential of plus-1.

TFC took a 1-0 lead an the 21st minute when Johnson took advantage of poor Tauro defending, beating two defenders to get clear in the box and putting a left-footed shot past Tauro goalkeeper Alvaro Anzola.

Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the 24th minute as de Guzman's attempt from well outside the penalty area fooled Anzola, deflecting off the goalkeeper and into the net.

"It's a moment as a midfielder where you find space in-front of you and it's important that you attack it," de Guzman said. "When you have the right range and the right feeling to take a shot and especially get it on goal, it's a great risk to take for any midfielder because anything can happen, like a rebound or even better a goal."

Tauro had a chance in the 37th minute, but defender Richard Eckersley headed the ball off the line after a Tauro lob beat TFC keeper Milos Kocic.

Toronto almost went up 3-0 in the 68th minute when Johnson headed a Danleigh Borman free kick past Anzola, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside call.

Tauro cut the lead to 2-1 when Lucho Moreno was awarded a penalty in the 76th minute after being brought down in the box by de Guzman. Moreno easily beat Kocic with his penalty kick.

"In the second half they came out full pressure and won a penalty kick in their favour," de Guzman said. "After the penalty we knew from our part we would be able to counter attack which we did, we had a lot of opportunities to score a goal and we had one called back off a free kick.

"We just had to fight to the end of the game and that's exactly what we did."

TFC was missing captain Torsten Frings, who was suspended after accumulating two many yellow cards, and midfielder Eric Avila, who is unavailable after playing in the tournament's preliminary round for Dallas. De Guzman served as captain for Thursday's game.

"It was an experience playing away from home in that environment," Kocic said. "We came up big and won away which doesn't happen that often in CONCACAF, so it's a huge boost for us to get three points."