Whitecaps beat San Diego 4-1, White hits 100th MLS goal

VANCOUVER – Brian White scored his 100th Major League Soccer goal as the Vancouver Whitecaps beat San Diego FC 4-1 on Wednesday night, tightening their grip on first place in the Western Conference with two regular-season games left.

Midfielder Aleksa Cvetkovic opened the scoring in the 24th minute with his first goal for the club. White made it 2-0 with a header just before halftime, ending a five-game scoring drought. Ryan Gauld scored in the 66th minute and also had an assist, and forward Bruno Caicedo added a fourth in the 76th.

Onni Valakari pulled one back for San Diego with a header in the 83rd minute. A crowd of 21,718 was at BC Place.

White, 30, has 98 goals for Vancouver in all competitions since joining in a 2021 trade from Red Bull New York, and 19 this season. He was proud of the milestone but pointed to the bigger goal. “These things are nice, but we want to win the MLS Cup,” White said.

Head coach Jesper Sorensen liked what he saw. “We were aggressive and played fast,” Sorensen said, adding that his team was on the front foot from the start.

Cvetkovic joined the Whitecaps in August after three seasons in the Serbian SuperLiga. “It’s always great to see a young man come in and score his first goal,” Sorensen said.

Vancouver leads the West with 58 points. The cushion grew earlier in the day, when FC Dallas lost 2-0 to the Columbus Crew and fell four points back.

San Diego was eliminated from the playoff race by the loss and extended its winless streak to 10 games.

The Whitecaps finished second in the West last year and lost the MLS Cup final to Miami. Sorensen said he is more concerned with how his team is playing heading into the playoffs than with its final seeding.

Vancouver is one of three Canadian clubs in MLS. In the East, Toronto FC hosted D.C. United with its playoff hopes on the line the same night, while CF Montréal was shut out by Nashville last weekend. Across the country, Cavalry FC won the Canadian Premier League Shield over Vancouver FC.

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Via The Canadian Press and ESPN match data. Original report.