Facundo Torres and Orlando City SC have gotten hot at the right time.
Torres scored for the third straight game Wednesday night as the Lions beat Charlotte FC, 2-0, at Inter&Co Stadium to secure their third victory in a row.
“Very happy today,” the Uruguayan international said through a translator after the game. “The team came into today on a really good run of form and in a good moment, so thankfully we continued that tonight.”
Playoff push
Orlando have corrected an early season slide and now sit fourth in the Eastern Conference, which offers home-field advantage in Round One of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. Led by a blossoming attack, they’ve won seven of their past nine league games.
“We’re finding the rhythm up front and the boys are scoring goals,” manager Oscar Pareja said.
Torres provided the spark against Charlotte, breaking open a scoreless game in the 52nd minute. He’s now up to 12 goals on the season, four of which have come in the past three games.
Duncan McGuire then got into the act off the bench, doubling the lead late in the game to reach 9g/3a on the season.
Lions on a roll
With Wednesday's result, Orlando have won their past three matches by a combined score of 8-0.
“We have been consistent in the way we play,” Pareja said. “The individual performances have been better and better."
Dagur Thorhallsson went even further in his assessment of the Lions.
“I think we can play even better,” the Icelandic right back said. “But this year, this is the best soccer we’ve played… we’re keeping a clean sheet and we’re scoring a lot of goals.”
It’s a well-timed run of good form, as Orlando battle for playoff positioning in a tight Eastern Conference. They put five points of distance between themselves and seventh-place Charlotte with their victory on Wednesday.
Champs await
With matches coming fast down the stretch, more challenges await. They travel to Lower.com Field on Saturday to face defending MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew, a big test against a conference favorite (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
“They're a really difficult team,” Torres said of the Crew, who earned a 2-0 win at Toronto FC in midweek Matchday 33 action. “They're the reigning champs of the league and we're gonna go there and try to take three points from their field.”
Orlando’s latest results have shown that they could be a threat in the conference.
“These results are deserved by how we've continued to work hard this year and we'll continue to push,” Torres said.
