Football
2019 Major League Soccer, Regular Season
ORL 
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FT
 MTL
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Reuters 5y

Piatti brace leads Montreal Impact past winless Orlando City

Ignacio Piatti scored twice to lead the visiting Montreal Impact to a 3-1 victory over Orlando City SC on Saturday.

Piatti, who already has three goals this season for Montreal (2-1-0, 6 points), has 10 in 10 career MLS matches against Orlando City. His first goal of the day came as the Impact scored twice in roughly 90 seconds in the first half.

Orji Okwonkwo recorded his first MLS goal in the 14th minute with a cross-body effort to open the scoring. Just one minute later, Piatti increased Montreal's advantage with a score off a careless back pass to Orlando keeper Brian Rowe that was broken up by teammate Max Urruti, leaving an empty net.

Piatti put things out of reach in the 80th minute, when he scored on a counter-strike following a Orlando City miss. The Impact, amid their season-opening, six-game road stretch, have won four in a row over Orlando City (0-1-2) -- which has now gone winless in its first three matches for a second consecutive season.

Though the Impact held an 11-2 advantage in shots on target, Orlando City had its chances while Rowe kept things from getting out of hand.

In the seventh minute, Dom Dwyer went well high of the goal from the center of the box. Impact keeper Evan Bush then made a straight-on save off a direct header from Dwyer in the 35th minute.

Play remained relatively wide open in the second half and even got chippy at times. Players from both squads got into a shoving match in the 56th minute following a questionable foul by Orlando City's Danilo Acosta.

Dwyer, who missed over the bar during a one-on-one with Bush on 58 minutes, finally broke through in the first minute of second-half stoppage time on a feed from Santiago Patino.

Montreal defender Zakaria Diallo drew a red card for a push to the head as things again got heated between the sides near the conclusion of the match.

Orlando City midfielder Will Johnson came off in the 16th minute and was reportedly placed into concussion protocol.

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