Ramiro Enrique scored his first playoff goal six minutes before halftime and Orlando City SC set a new franchise high-water mark with a 1-0 victory over visiting Atlanta United FC in Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal.
With a shutout of ninth-seeded Atlanta — which won both these teams’ regular-season meetings — No. 4 seed Orlando reached its first conference final since the club began MLS play in 2015.
The win also came one day after the Orlando Pride beat the Washington Spirit to secure their first NWSL title.
The Lions will host the seventh-seeded New York Red Bulls, who defeated New York City FC in Saturday’s East semifinal.
“First and foremost, just happy, right? Happy, happy for this team and for this club, and to be able to move on to this moment, and to have a part in that by scoring the goal,” Enrique said after the game. “I think, you know, being able to get to the conference finals, we’re just really happy. We’re happy to be there. This club is going to take it step by step to ultimately get to what our end goal is, which we all know. I’m just really happy to be able to score tonight.”
Pedro Gallese kept his third clean sheet of the postseason, this time without having to make a single save against an Atlanta side that had scored eight goals in its first four…
