VANCOUVER \u2014 Reaching the 100-goal plateau is an achievement Brian White is proud of, but the Vancouver Whitecaps striker has higher peaks he wants to reach.<\/p>\n
White scored his 100th Major League Soccer goal while Ryan Gauld added a goal and an assist as the Whitecaps defeated San Diego FC 4-1 Wednesday night to strengthen their hold on first place in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice achievement, something I\u2019ve always wanted and had my eyes on, if I\u2019m being honest,\u201d said White, who has 98 goals as a Whitecap across all competitions since joining Vancouver in a 2021 trade from Red Bull New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are nice, but we want to win the MLS Cup. I want to win the MLS Cup. That\u2019s first and foremost on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
White collected his 19th goal of the season across all competitions when he directed in a header off a shot from midfielder Oliver Larraz in the 42nd minute. It ended a five-game scoring drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to break a little bit of a dry spell, especially at home,\u201d said the 30-year-old. \u201cBut more important are the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midfielder Aleksa Cvetkovic, with his first goal as a Whitecap, and forward Bruno Caicedo also scored for Vancouver before a crowd of 21,718 at BC Place Stadium.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jesper Sorensen liked the effort his team showed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were aggressive and played fast,\u201d said Sorensen. \u201cI think the team was on the front foot from the start. We played optimistic and I was happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midfielder Onni Valakari scored on a header in the 83rd minute for San Diego (8-13-11), who were eliminated from the playoff race by the loss. The visitors had their winless streak stretched to 10 games (0-5-5).<\/p>\n
The Whitecaps (17-8-7) lead the Western Conference with 58 points. With two regular-season games left, Vancouver gained some breathing room in the standings when earlier in the day FC Dallas lost 2-0 to the Columbus Crew to drop four points behind the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n
Sorensen said he\u2019s more focused on how his team is playing heading into the playoffs than where they finish in the standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just have a good feeling about how we played,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more important we play with the right intensions, the right force and quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday what I saw on the pitch was good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vancouver finished second in the West last year and went on to lose to Maimi in the MLS final.<\/p>\n
White said momentum is important heading into the playoffs, but so is the team playing to its potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we go on the field we want to win the game,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s focusing on what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cvetkovic, who joined the Whitecaps in August after three seasons in the Serbian SuperLiga, opened the scoring in the 24th minute. Defender Mathias Laborda sent a ball into the centre of the box that Cvetkovic directed into net with his left foot.<\/p>\n
Sorensen likes what Cvetkovic has shown in his short time with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAleksa has a great engine,\u201d Sorensen said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who can cover a lot of distance on the pitch. He needs to settle into the way we play.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks more and more comfortable. It\u2019s always great to see a young man come in and score his first goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
White has also been impressed with Cvetkovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a guy who\u2019s (been) waiting for his time to get some minutes,\u201d said White. \u201cHe a guy that we see in training every day, the quality he has.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy for him to get on the scoresheet. I thought he played a great game and hopefully that continues into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauld gave Vancouver a 3-0 lead in the 66th minute, heading in a ball shot by forward Rayan Elloumi. He also earned an assist on Cvetkovic\u2019s opening goal.<\/p>\n
Caicedo scored in the 76th minute, sprinting down the field and firing a right-footed shot from the centre of the box.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the half, Laborda made a big play around his own net.<\/p>\n
San Diego forward Cedric Bakambu had two good chances in the 14th minute. He sprinted down the field and fired a shot that Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped. Bakambu collected the rebound and took a left-footed shot that Laborda headed away on the goal line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Reaching the 100-goal plateau is an achievement Brian White is proud of, but the Vancouver Whitecaps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-950492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}