Vancouver Whitecaps made it a 12 point June with an uninspiring but important 1-0 victory at lowly DC United.
It wasn't a performance to strike the fear into the rest of the West but the Caps did what they needed to do and came away with all three points thanks to a Camilo Sanvezzo penalty at the start of the second half.
Although Vancouver have looked better in their last two games on the road, their overall away form and style of play is still a concern. Things wouldn't come much easier than a game at the home of a team who have only scored eight goals all season, the lowest in the league, and conceded the second greatest number.
In the end, there wasn't too much to trouble Vancouver but they didn't exactly shine themselves.
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Coming off ten days rest and back to back home wins, Vancouver made only one change to the starting line up that took on Chivas. Young-Pyo Lee was left at home to enjoy the weekend Canada Day celebrations and Nigel Reo-Coker dropped back to fill his spot, with Jun Marques Davidson returning to the DM role.
If the Caps thought that the goal shy home side weren't going to be an attacking threat, they got a warning just two minutes in when Dwayne De Rosario hit a Kyle Porter corner inches past the right hand post.
DC had another great chance in the 7th minute when Porter found space at the back, picking up a cross and forcing Knighton to be tall and block his shot on goal from point blank range.
The Caps had their first chance of the game when the ball hit off the shoulder of Daniel Woolard into the path of Russell Teibert, and the young Canadian crashed it off the near post from the tightest of angles.
Chris Korb found himself in acres of room on the right side midway through the half but Chris Pontius hit a weak effort wide left under good pressure from Carlyle Mitchell.
The action soon deteriorated, with neither side posing too much of a goal threat. The closest anyone came was when Sainey Nyassi drilled a low shot into the side netting seven minutes from the break.
Martin Rennie seemed keen to give his team a half time kick up the butt and it worked just over a minute into the half.
Matt Watson did well to get on the end of a brilliant long ball from Kenny Miller into the box and as he tried to round United keeper Bill Hamid, he was sent tumbling and the referee pointed to the spot.
DC were furious as they felt Hamid had nudged the ball away, which he did, but his trailing arms and momentum also brought the Cap down.
Up stepped Camilo and he drilled the penalty right down the middle to give the Caps an unexpected lead. It was the Brazilian's 12th goal of the season, nine of them coming in MLS.
DC tried to push forward for an equaliser but the Caps defence were looking more solid than they have of late and there was not much of an end product.
Daigo Kobayashi came within inches of doubling Vancouver's lead as the hour mark approached, after picking up a neat pass from Miller from a short corner, firing narrowly wide right.
Hamid made some amends for his earlier penalty giveaway when he produced two fine saves within seconds of each in the 64th minute to keep his side in the game.
Miller, who seemed to be everywhere on the pitch. played a shot ball inside to Jordan Harvey and the defender hit a fierce shot which Hamid parried. The Caps kept the pressure on from the rebound and the keeper produced an even better stop to keep out a Teibert curler from the edge of the box.
The game again fell in to a bit of a lull, with both teams having half chances but nothing much of note, despite their rash of substitutions.
Even Hamid causing some stoppage time problems in the Caps box couldn't bring the woeful home side back in to it.
It wasn't a pretty performance from the Whitecaps. It wasn't a statement to the rest of the West. But it was a rare road win, a vital three points and made it three wins on the bounce.
Sporting KC are the next challenge this coming Wednesday. They will prove to be a much tougher opposition for the Whitecaps than DC and they will need to raise their game accordingly if they are to take anything from that one.
FINAL SCORE: DC United 0 - 1 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 13,122
DC: Bill Hamid; Alain Rochat, Daniel Woolard, Ethan White, Chris Korb; Sainey Nyassi (Carlos Ruiz 71), Perry Kitchen, John Thorrington, Kyle Porter (Casey Townsend 60); Dwayne De Rosario (Lionard Pajoy 69), Chris Pontius [subs Not Used: Joe Willis, James Riley, Conor Shanosky, Taylor Kemp]
VANCOUVER: Brad Knighton; Nigel Reo-Coker, Carlyle Mitchell, Johnny Leveron, Jordan Harvey; Daigo Kobayashi (Gershon Koffie 68), Jun-Marques Davidson, Matt Watson (Brad Rusin 86); Russell Teibert, Camilo Sanvezzo (Darren Mattocks 77), Kenny Miller [subs Not Used: Joe Cannon, Greg Klazura, Kekuta Manneh, Tommy Heinemann]
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