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Brian White tallied twice and Ryan Gauld had a goal and two assists as the host Vancouver Whitecaps celebrated their second consecutive Western Conference title with a 5-1 rout of the Cascadia Cup rival Seattle Sounders on Sunday afternoon.
Mathias Laborda and Aleksa Cvetkovic also scored and Edier Ocampo and Bruno Caicedo had two assists apiece for the Whitecaps (18-8-7, 61 points), who clinched the conference crown a day earlier when second-place FC Dallas played to a 1-1 draw with cellar-dwelling Sporting Kansas City.
Goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka made four saves as the Whitecaps swept the season series with both Seattle and Portland, the first team to accomplish that feat in the annual three-team Cascadia competition.
Jordan Morris scored for the Sounders (11-12-10, 43 points), who are winless in their past five matches (0-3-2) and remained in the West’s ninth and final playoff spot heading into Decision Day next weekend. Seattle has failed to make the postseason only once since joining MLS in 2009.
The Whitecaps opened the scoring just 58 seconds into the match as Caicedo took a pass from Gauld and drove down the left wing before lofting a cross to White, whose header from the top of the 6-yard box found the upper right corner of the net.
Gauld made it 2-0 just inside the 10-minute mark. Ocampo beat Sounders defender Nouhou Tolo down the right wing and sent a low cross to Gauld, whose left-footed shot from 12 yards out went just inside the right post.
The Whitecaps extended their lead in the 43rd minute, as Gauld’s cross from the right wing found a wide-open Laborda outside the far post and he scored on a header from 4 yards out to make it 3-0 at the half.
White scored again in the 53rd minute on a left-footed shot from 6 yards after a pass from Caicedo. It was White’s franchise-record 100th career goal in all competitions for the Whitecaps.
Morris made sure the Sounders avoided the shutout with a blast from just inside the top of the 18-yard box in the 62nd minute.
Vancouver capped the scoring on Cvetkovic’s 6-yarder in the 69th minute.
–Field Level Media
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