ORLANDO, Fla. – Jonathan Osorio has scored some nice goals in his career, and after his latest solo-individual effort saw him lead Toronto FC to a 2-0 victory over Orlando City SC on Saturday, he would rank that goal amongst his personal best.
“It’s up there for sure,” said Osorio on his wonder goal that opened deadlock for TFC. “I’m just glad it helped the team, it helped us get ahead and I wish I could have stayed to the end to help the team, but they did a great job and it’s a big win for us.”
It was in the 65th minute when the Brampton native received the ball on his left and made a run at goal, beating Orlando’s Lamine Sane and Oriol Rosell in the process before ripping a shot toward the back post past Brian Rowe.
For Osorio, though, when asked about his goal, it was all about spacing and timing.
“I remember I got the ball with space, so I tried to take it with a little speed, and I took Sane,” said Osorio. “I kind of waited for him to see what he’s going to give me, and he dove in, so he gave me the left side, I went to the left side, and I had space, but I seen Ruan catching up, so I just faked it as if I was going to shoot and cut-back into my right foot.”
Head coach Greg Vanney said he’s not surprised by Osorio’s efforts, adding there’s a reason why he scored 17 goals in all competitions for the Reds last year.
“Fantastic individual effort when we got the ball over to Jonathan on his side, I thought he was aggressive,” said Vanney. “He’s shifty and was able to unbalance [Lamine] Sane, get to the inside and unbalance the next defender… and get enough to have a look at the back post and get the shot. It’s something that he’s good at.”
Goalkeeper Quentin Westberg, who earned a clean sheet for Toronto, said Osorio’s goal came at the right time especially playing under the humid conditions at Orlando City Stadium.
“It changed the dynamic obviously because he scored at the moment where we’re starting to doubt maybe a little bit,” said Westberg. “We had a couple of chances, we were starting to be dangerous, but sometimes at 0-0 you felt the game can both ways, so it’s great when one of the guys pulls out something special to make a difference.”
