A look at RSL's previous big wins:

Date Opponent Score

July 23, 2005 vs. FC Dallas 3-0

May 13, 2006 vs. Los Angeles 3-0

August 9, 2006 at Colorado 4-1

April 12, 2008 vs. D.C. United 4-0

* IN SHORT: Real Salt Lake enjoys the biggest victory in its history, blasting D.C. United 4-0 for its first win of the season.

* KEY STAT: RSL outshoots United 11-6, and allows only three shots on goal.

* KEY MOMENT: Striker Fabian Espindola settles a long, high pass while holding off United's Gonzalo Peralta on the run in the 19th minute, then fires a low, left-footed shot past goalkeeper Jose Carvallo for a 2-0 lead that puts RSL in control.

Even though they had yet to win, coaches and players had been insisting that Real Salt Lake had started the season doing everything right - pressuring defenses and creating scoring opportunities - and that soon enough, the results would come.

Like an avalanche, evidently.

Staked two goals before the sun had even dipped behind Rice-Eccles Stadium, RSL roared to its first victory of the young season by pummeling D.C. United 4-0 in front of 13,193 fans on Saturday night - its biggest win ever, and its third straight at home against the winningest team in Major League Soccer history.

"We all felt like we were bound to erupt, eventually," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "And it came tonight. It was good that it happened early in the season, because we were getting a bit frustrated with playing some good soccer but not getting rewarded for it."

Beckerman scored twice, while strikers Fabian Espindola and Robbie Findley each added a goal as RSL handed United its worst loss in nearly four years, and its first 4-0 defeat in nearly seven.

Beckerman and Espindola both scored within the first 20 minutes - both off beautiful passes from midfielder Dema Kovalenko - putting the United challenge to bed early.

Of course, it didn't hurt that United chose to essentially play shorthanded.

Three days after playing a CONCACAF Champions Cup game at home, coach Tom Soehn rested star midfielder Marcelo Gallardo, defender Gonzalo Martinez and goalkeeper Zach Wells, and did not use forward Santino Quaranta until the second half.

Nevertheless, except for a short lull after taking its 2-0 lead, RSL dictated play from the start, manufacturing chance after chance and scarcely letting United so much as threaten.

The defense - with Nathan Sturgis making his first start of the season in the defensive midfield - rendered high-scoring strikers Luciano Emilio and Jaime Moreno all but invisible.

"I would never have predicted a 4-0 scoreline against D.C. United," coach Jason Kreis said.

Yet Kreis was careful not to paint too glorious a picture of the game, saying he felt as if "the soccer probably wasn't quite as good as I thought it had been in the last two games. . . . Scoring the goals obviously makes things look brighter."

And how.

RSL jumped on backup goalkeeper Jose Carvallo early, when Beckerman took a perfect give-and-go pass from Kovalenko on the right side in the 12th minute, and fired a left-footed blast from the top of the box between Carvallo and the right post.

Just seven minutes later, Espindola brilliantly settled a long, high pass from Kovalenko while holding off United's Gonzalo Peralta on the run down the left side, and fired a low, left-footed shot past Carvallo for a 2-0 lead that all but buried United.

"We all knew it was going to come," Findley said.

Having scored twice against United in his RSL debut last season, Findley assisted Beckerman's second goal in the 77th minute with a wonderful back-pass that the charging Beckerman blasted home from near the top of the box.

He also scored in the 87th minute, heading a high-bouncing ball over Carvello, who had wandered far off his line.

"That's what we've been lacking the first two games," Beckerman said. "We've been putting teams on the ropes, but we haven't been putting them out. Tonight, we did that."

mcl@sltrib.com