Brian White matched his MLS career high with his 16th goal and the Vancouver Whitecaps dominated while beating Real Salt Lake 3-0 on Saturday night at Sandy, Utah.
Thomas Muller and Yadaly Diaby also scored goals for the Whitecaps (15-6-4, 49 points), who lead the Western Conference by five points.
Yohei Takaoka had three saves for his 11th clean sheet of the season.
Real Salt Lake (8-12-5, 29 points) saw their MLS winless streak reach 12 matches. RSL is 0-8-4 during the streak since last winning on May 16.
Rafael Cabral made three saves for RSL, who are tied for 12th place in the West.
RSL learned earlier in the week that star midfielder Diego Luna (knee) was done for the season.
White scored in the ninth minute to match his MLS high for tallies set last year. He has scored at least 15 in four straight seasons.
Oliver Larraz fired a shot toward the net. White was running in the area and deflected the ball with his right foot and into the net.
The Whitecaps made it 2-0 in the 29th minute while on the attack. White let a pass from Edier Ocampo go through him over to Diaby to his left. Diaby then found Muller, who sent a hard right-footed shot into the top left corner of the net.
Vancouver pushed its lead to three in the 63rd minute after a RSL misplay deep in their own end.
Diaby collected the ball, dribbled forward and split two defenders as he shot a left-footer into the right corner of the net.
RSL attempted to get on the board in the 82nd minute but Jason Shokalook’s header went wide right.
The Whitecaps nearly had a fourth goal in the 85th minute but Ryan Gauld’s hard right-footed shot hit the crossbar.
Vancouver had a 20-13 edge in shots and placed six on target to RSL’s three.
–Field Level Media
