ORLANDO, Fla. – Facundo Torres scored twice in the second half, the second on a penalty kick in stoppage time, and Orlando City escaped with a 2-1 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night, upping its unbeaten streak to 10.
Neither team scored until Torres found the net three minutes into the second half for Orlando City (12-6-7). Dagur Thórhallsson picked up an assist on the goal.
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Rasmus Alm, who subbed into the match in the 78th minute for St. Louis City (14-9-2), notched his third goal of the campaign when he used an assist from Nökkvi Thórisson to score in the 79th and knot the score at 1-1.
Torres' PK winner came in the first minute of extra time. It was his 10th goal of the season.
“All I was thinking about was, ‘score the goal’. When I stepped up, I knew this was the opportunity for us to put the game away, get the victory, obviously thinking a little bit about the goal that they scored that didn’t get taken back so thinking about that and just trying to bury it and secure the three points for us,” Torres said.
Roman Bürki turned away two shots for St. Louis City. Pedro Gallese had one save for Orlando City.
Orlando City improves to 6-0-4 in its last 10 home matches in all competitions and 6-2-0 in its last eight at home against expansion teams. The club's only longer unbeaten streak at home was a 15-match run spanning the 2015-16 seasons.
““First, very happy with the victory not just the three points, which are very important for us, but the way they gained those points. I thought it was a really good game,” Orlando head coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “Our fans today were fantastic, they brought us that energy and I am grateful for them, and we felt that energy over the weekend. Keep bringing people to our place and we respond with soccer like that today.”
St. Louis City was coming off a 6-3 victory over Austin FC. Atlanta United, which did it twice, is the only other team to score six goals in one match in its first season of play.
St. Louis City returns home to host FC Dallas on Wednesday. Orlando City travels to play Charlotte FC on Wednesday.
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