Cruz Azul put five past Vancouver FC to end CPL club’s first Champions Cup foray

(Photo Courtesy: concacaf.com)

The second match of Vancouver FC’s first foray into continental competition found the British Columbian side traveling to Mexico. The rematch versus Cruz Azul took place at the CONCACAF Champions Cup record holder’s current temporary home, the Estadio Cuauhtémoc in Puebla – 2 hours south of Mexico City. The visitors, massive underdogs before the opening game, came in down 3-0 and had an uphill battle larger than the ascent of the Great Pyramid of Chulola.

For the home match, Vancouver dressed all 23 players available for the tournament. This allowed many younger players, including a few from the U19s, to be a part of the historic occasion at Willoughby Community Park. For the away fixture they traveled with only 18, and Head Coach Martin Nash chose to make only one alteration to his starting XI. Kian Proctor, who impressed in his substitute appearance in the first leg, replaced Tyler Crawford on the left side of a five-man back line.

The Eagles started this one similar to how they finished the contest last Wednesday – with roughly a 5-4-1. The shape and flexibility of the midfield would morph based on the state of play.

The 3-0 advantage for the Mexican side, meant that Nicolás Larcamón was able to make multiple changes to the players that would make up his 3-4-3 (or more specifically 3-4-2-1). Emmanuel Ochoa returned to his place in goal but saw Amaury Garcia and Jorge Rodarte replace Érik Lira and Gonzalo Piovi in the back three, alongside Willer Ditta. Homegrown winger, and scorer of the second goal last week, Amaury Morales retained his spot on the right side of the midfield. On the left however, Omar Campos came in for Carlos Rotondi. In the middle of the park Jeremy Márquez was partnered with Luka Romero instead of the influential Augustín Palavecino. In attack, two assist man Gabriel Fernández was once again supported by José Paradela plus Andrés Montaño, who took the spot of Carlos Rodríguez.

As the match kicked off, in front of an extremely sparse crowd, things picked up where they left off from the match in the township of Langley. The Mexican club dominating possession and VFC doing all they could to get players behind the ball and prevent clear cut chances. The first half was relatively uneventful for over half an hour.

There was a caution for Cruz Azul captain Willer Ditta 10 minutes in, as he took out Mo Amissi who was breaking forward through the middle with Thierno Bah flying down the left wing. Ten minutes later, the dozen or so traveling Fraser Valley Fanatics had a brief moment of hope for a goal when Luis Toomey almost stole a back pass before it was cleared by the sliding leg of the charging Ochoa.

Vancouver captain Callum Irving made arguably his best save of the night in the 36th minute, on a left footed freekick from Romero. It was a sign of things to come from the 21-year-old Argentine attacker.

Romero joined Cruz Azul last January for a fee of 3.2 million Euros. Only a minute later he would score his first on the night. Paradela received the ball just inside the Eagles half before going past the on-rushing Damiano Pecile and making a nifty move to skip by Marcello Polisi. He laid the ball off to Márquez, who played a quality through ball to Romero whose simple run wasn’t followed by Proctor. Irving was quick off his line, but his anticipatory dive to his right meant that Romero’s slightly chipped effort as he went to ground, found its way into the visitor’s goal.

Vancouver’s best excursion into the final third of the hosts’ half came five minutes before half time. Tom Field played a ball forward centrally that found the head of Toomey. The Kiwi’s header into space on the left flank was raced onto by Proctor and his cross into the box found an on-rushing Bah, who simultaneously couldn’t bring the pass under control and was clattered by Rodarte. The ball fell to Amissi but his effort was directly into the hands of Ochoa.

The Machine, Cruz Azul’s most fitting of nicknames, were relentless in their desire to find the back of the net at least one more time before the break. Márquez had a header from a corner hit the post before Romero would go one better.

In the first minute of time added on at the end of the half, Paris Gee’s challenge for a loose ball rolled toward the sideline. Campos tracked it down and made space to get in a cross past Pecile. Danger man Romero had made a run into space between Gee and Matteo Campagna and didn’t even have to jump to nod home his second.

Larcamón would make a triple sub at the break with Lira replacing Ditta and taking the captain’s armband to lead from the back. Márquez was replaced by Rodríguez and Paradela came off for Nicolás Ibáñez. This was countered by Nash in the 55th minute with his own triplet of subs. David Norman was brought on for Toomey, Abdoulaye Ouattara replaced Pecile, and Crawford reclaimed his place from Proctor. At the same time the home side made their fourth sub with Diego Valdez relieving Campos.

Seven minutes later, Romero was claiming his hattrick.

If his first two goals were set up well by teammates, this one showed his individual talent in one-vs-one situations. Following some good link up play on the right, he made his way into the box. Crawford thought he had thwarted him with a sliding tackle, but Romero collected the ball and his strike was deflected into the back of the Eagles’ goal.

Nash reacted by bringing on his most experienced player, Uruguayan Nicolás Mezquida for Polisi. It didn’t have quite the same effect as it did in the first leg and Cruz Azul made it four in the 68th minute when Rodarte scored a back post header, following some good passing from a short corner.

Both coaches made their final roll of the dice, substitute wise, in the 70th minute. Larcamón took off Montaño for Nigerian Christian Ebere and Nash brought on third all-time leading scorer in the CPL, Terran Campbell for Bah. Only four minutes later the locals would be asking the seemingly inevitable question, “¿Qué hora es?”

It was probably the most disheartening, and avoidable, goals of the night. Morey Doner cut out a cross from the right but inexplicably took an extra touch right in front of his own goal. Ibáñez seized the opportunity and smashed the fifth goal home.

Nash received a yellow card after the play after he felt Ouattara was fouled up the field when Cruz Azul won possession and eight minutes later Norman would be booked for pulling Ebere back, off the ball.

The speedster winger thought he had his revenge scoring a sixth in the dying embers of the match, but it was ruled out for offside.

The final whistle signalled a comprehensive victory for the Mexican giants on the evening and on aggregate. They once again dominated all the stats, and both matches on the whole and now advance to the round of 16 where they’ll face fellow Liga MX club Monterrey.

Post match, Nash spoke of the meaningful experience this was for his players and the club as a whole, mentioning how returning to the competition can be a source of motivation for his squad this year in CPL.

Vancouver FC will now have a week off before they regroup and begin focused preparations on the League season and their first round match up with Langley United in the Canadian Championship for The Voyageurs Cup. It is the competition that qualified them for the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2026 after the final versus crosstown MLS club Vancouver Whitecaps. The two clubs, who don’t have a ton in common, now at least share one thing – they both know what it is like to lose 5-0 to Cruz Azul in Mexico.