How Brian White's 4-goal night stacks up in MLS, Vancouver Whitecaps history | OneFootball

Concerns absout Brian White's league form, marginal as they might have been, were still apparently deeply misguided.

As Vancouver returned to MLS play following yet another Concacaf triumph in Mexico, White scored four times for the Whitecaps in a 5-1 home win over Austin FC on Saturday to help his side continue its sensational start to the season and make history in the process.

4-timers club

White's performance marked just the 18th time an MLS player has scored four or more goals in a league match, and the first time someone playing for the Whitecaps has done it.

He's only the 16th player in MLS history to accomplish the feat. (Raul Diaz Arce and Mamadou Diallo each did it twice.) And he's only the fourth player to do it who is currently active in MLS. Amazingly, one of those is his teammate Daniel Rios, who accomplished the feat while playing for Charlotte in 2022. The others are Jordan Morris and Diego Rossi.

White's four-goal performance is the first in MLS since Teemu Pukki scored four times for Minnesota on Oct. 7 of 2023.

Golden boot hopes?

White also pulled even with Philadelphia's Tai Baribo at six goals in the 2025 MLS Golden Boot race. But history shows good and bad news on that front for White's chances at the honor.

While five of the 16 players who have contributed four-goal games in MLS play have won the MLS Golden Boot, only two did so in the same season; Jeff Cunningham in 2009 and Rossi in 2020.

Hats off

The performance also marked White's third career hat trick, all scored with Vancouver. With his fourth, he'll become only the 13th player in MLS history to score at least four hat tricks. Only two active players are currently on that list: San Jose's Josef Martinez (seven) and Nashville's Hany Mukhtar (four).

White's output Saturday equalled the output of three MLS teams for the entire season so far: New England, Montreal and St. Louis. And it also equalled the four combined goals Austin has conceded against every other player who has faced them through eight matches.