Is there any stopping Dwayne De Rosario? Not if you’re Real Salt Lake. De Rosario tore apart the Real defense on Saturday night, assisting on Andy Najar’s opener, then scoring the fastest hat trick in Major League Soccer history — all before the end of the first half — to lead the Black-and-Red to a huge 4-1 win over the Utahans.

Salt Lake, which had come into the match at RFK as winners of their last five, looked more like an mid-’80s Mike Tyson opponent than a team on a hot streak. RSL was missing five regulars — a move that some in the locker room viewed as a sign of disrespect — but the way De Rosario was playing, it probably wouldn’t have mattered if there were several masters of catenaccio on the RFK pitch. Obviously, Ben Olsen’s scathing words after a last week’s tie with Chivas USA weren’t lost on the Canadian international. But Olsen said that putting disappointment — like the penalty he missed that would have won the Chivas game — behind him is nothing new for De Rosario.

“The great thing about Dwayne is that he will forget about this [performance] and move on and try to do it again,” Olsen said. “But even for him, I’m sure it was a very memorable game.”

With the win, United gets back on track in its race for the playoffs — it currently sits only four points behind Eastern Conference leaders Houston with three games in hand, the next of which is at rival Philadelphia on Thursday.