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Jamal Thiaré steals the ball from the goalkeeper and scores the winning goal for Atlanta United

Jamal Thiaré steals the ball from the goalkeeper and scores the winning goal for Atlanta United

ATLANTA (AP) — Jamal Thiare stole the ball from the goalkeeper and scored an improbable goal in the final minute of play to give Atlanta United a 2-1 victory over Toronto FC on Saturday night.

In the 97th minute, Atlanta’s Ronald Hernández’s shot was blocked by Toronto FC’s Shane O’Neill. Toronto goalie Luka Gavran covered the ball and as he prepared to put the ball in play, Thiaré comes back from behind, recovers the ball and unleashes a right-footed shot into the empty goal to score the winning goal.

Atlanta’s other goal came in first-half injury time when Thiago Almada passed the ball to Daniel Ríos, received a return pass from Ríos, then beat Gavran with a powerful right-footed pass from the left side.

Toronto equalized in the first minute of the second half when Federico Bernardeschi scored with a left-footed shot from the center of the box. He slid his shot past three defenders and beat Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan to the left post.

Guzan finished with three saves for Atlanta (6-8-6) and Gavran made four for Toronto (7-11-3), which has lost four straight.

Toronto returns home to host Orlando City on Wednesday. Atlanta United travel to face the New England Revolution on Wednesday.

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AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport