D.C. United dismantled Real Salt Lake on Saturday evening with Wayne Rooney netting his first MLS hat-trick. Here are three things we learned.

D.C. United were at their most brilliant on Saturday night, flying past a very respectable Real Salt Lake side with five unanswered goals. Wayne Rooney and his hat-trick, the first of his MLS career, will rightly grab the headlines, but this was a complete performance from one of the best attacking units in the league.

For Salt Lake, the disaster was unfortunate. Sometimes, when things don’t go your way, it can spiral out of control. That is precisely what happened here.

Here are three things we learned from the 5-0 victory for D.C.

3. D.C. United are good. Very good.

It is obviously oversimplifying the facts to just say that D.C. United are a very good team that played very well. But for all of the tactical and statistical analysis that will be done regarding this victory, in the end, they all point to the same thing: Ben Olsen’s D.C. are one of the best teams in MLS.

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And it isn’t just Wayne Rooney and his band of attackers. Junior Moreno was phenomenal in central midfield, both Leonardo Jara and Joseph Mora dominated down either flank, and the defence kept another shutout. Through three weeks, D.C. still haven’t conceded a goal.

United are simply a very, very good team. They are creative and combative in the midfield, clinical in attack, and stifling at the back. It is a complete operation and it might just see them into an MLS Cup.