Ramiro Enrique’s brace in the first 22 minutes Wednesday night staked visiting Orlando City to a 3-0 lead on its way to a 4-2 win over St. Louis City SC.
Marco Pasalic also notched a brace for Orlando (9-4-6, 33 points), including a marker in the 82nd minute that helped sew up three points for the Lions. Simon Becher and Joao Klauss scored late in the first half for St. Louis (3-10-6, 15 points), which has won just one of its last 15 matches.
Orlando came out of the gates much sharper than St. Louis, taking advantage of a spate of ghastly defensive errors. Enrique initiated scoring in the seventh minute, running unfettered down the middle of the pitch to take a cross from Martin Ojeda and slot it into the right side of the net.
Just two minutes later, Pasalic got the first of his two goals. Allowed plenty of space and time as he ran down the pitch’s middle, Pasalic boomed a shot by Roman Burki for his fifth goal of the year.
It became 3-0 in the 22nd minute via a brutal giveaway by St. Louis in its end. Eduard Atuesta collected the ball and fed Enrique, who converted from the right post past a helpless Burki.
But St. Louis activated its fan base with a pair of goals that gave it all the momentum going into halftime. Serviced expertly via a long pass from Tomas Totland, Becher collected the ball, dribbled left and curled a shot past Pedro Gallese, just inside the right post.
A poor clearing attempt by Orlando teed up Klauss for his sixth goal in the third minute of stoppage time before the half. Klauss got time and space to wire a right-footed shot by Gallese for his fourth tally in two games.
It was the second straight win for Orlando, which finished with a 24-16 advantage in shots and put 12 shots on frame to St. Louis’ five.
–Field Level Media
