Bongi Hlongwane scored the game-winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time and Teemu Pukki scored a brace to lead visiting Minnesota United to a 3-2 victory over Orlando City on Saturday.
Tani Oluwaseyi set up the winning score, threading a pass between a pair of Orlando defenders to Hlongwane breaking down the left side of the box. Hlongwane then fired a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner of the net for his first goal of the season.
Pukki scored his first two goals of the season and Dayne St. Clair made six saves for Minnesota (2-0-1, 7 points), which moved into a tie with the Portland Timbers for first place in the Western Conference.
Duncan McGuire scored just 13 seconds into the game and had a brace for Orlando City (0-2-1, 1 point). Pedro Gallese finished with two saves.
McGuire gave the Lions, who hadn’t scored in their first two games, a 1-0 lead with the fastest goal to start a game in club history. Rafael Santos set up the score after intercepting a Hassani Dotson outlet pass near midfield and then hitting McGuire streaking into the box, where he booted a left-footed shot inside the left post.
Minnesota tied it at the four-minute mark when Pukki blocked an outlet pass by Gallese at the edge of the box, retrieved the loose ball by the goal line then tapped a right-footed shot into an empty net.
Pukki got his brace in the 38th minute with a spinning right-footed shot from outside the box inside the left post. It was his second goal of the season and 12th in 17 games with the Loons since signing as a free transfer from Norwich City of the EFL Championship last June.
Pukki nearly had a hat trick in the first half but his right-footed try from the center of box in the 43rd minute went just over the crossbar.
Gallese made up with his earlier gaffe in the 79th minute when he made a kick save on a Hlongwane right-footed shot from the left edge of the six-yard box to keep it a one-goal game.
McGuire, who was expected to transfer to the Blackburn Rovers in the EFL Championship in the offseason only for the deal to fall through, then tied it in the 83rd minute with a right-footed shot from outside the right side of the box into the far left corner.
–Field Level Media