Brian White continued his hot streak with a pair of first-half goals and the Vancouver Whitecaps extended their unbeaten run to five matches with a 4-1 win over host St. Louis City on Saturday.
Ryan Gauld added a pair of assists, Fafa Picault finished with a goal and an assist and Ryan Raposo also scored as Vancouver (10-7-5, 35 points) improved to 4-0-1 in its past five matches across all competitions.
St. Louis (4-9-10, 22 points) has lost two straight matches and three of its past four.
White opened the scoring in the ninth minute after a St. Louis City giveaway, with Gauld coming up with the ball and laying it off to White for the finish as the Whitecaps took a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis tied it at 1 in the 27th minute through Nokkvi Thorisson, as his near-post attempt found its way past Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka for his second goal of the season.
But White restored the Whitecaps’ lead in the 44th minute, tapping in a loose ball from close range after an initial Roman Burki save to record a brace. White now has seven goals in his past four MLS matches.
Raposo made it 3-1 in the 63rd minute, as a scramble in front of the goal ended with the Vancouver midfielder firing a shot past Burki for his third goal of the year.
Picault appeared to make it 4-1 with his fifth goal of the season in the 80th minute before the tally was disallowed after a video review showed a hand ball in the buildup. But he made good on his chance in second-half stoppage time, finding an empty net with Burki pulled well off his line to complete the scoring.
Vancouver improved to 6-4-3 on the road with the win. St. Louis dropped to 4-4-5 at home with the loss.
–Field Level Media
