Report and Reaction: Cruz Azul destroy Vancouver Whitecaps to win their seventh CONCACAF crown

Vancouver Whitecaps’ Cinderella-style run in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup came to an abrupt and hugely disappointing end at Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City on Sunday evening after a 5-0 drubbing by Cruz Azul in the final.

The Liga MX powerhouse were simply magnificent from first kick to last, putting the final to bed early on following a four-goal blitz in the first half. Aggressive from the off, Ignacio Rivero opening the scoring for Cruz Azul just eight minutes in and after that there was no looking back. Lorenzo Faravelli, Ángel Sepúlveda, and Mateusz Bogusz added further goals before half time and an out-of-sorts Whitecaps side were left shellshocked.

When Sepúlveda added a fifth five minutes after the restart, you were just wondering how out of hand this was going to get. A (very) small positive for the ‘Caps was that that was it and Cruz Azul were crowned CONCACAF champions for a seventh time, with the largest margin of victory in a final since 1990.

For the Whitecaps, it was a sad ending to a wonderful cup run that captured people’s imagination across Canada and the US and galvanised the fanbase here in Vancouver. It’s hard to not feel down by how it all ended, that’s why I wanted to wait about 24 hours before putting this report together.

This was a team that wasn’t meant to be here, but had played in such a way and knocked out some huge names in the process that they had many fully believing they would win. That’s why the lopsided scoreline feels like a gut punch, but in the cold light of day, it shouldn’t cloudy the memories and achievements the run to the final created in the first place. It does however leave a horrible stain on what went before. Recency bias and all that.

The fact of the matter is the Whitecaps were simply outplayed on the night and struggled to get any foothold in the game, when they arguably did a little in the second half, it was long after it was game over. The normal Whitecaps playing style was not able to even be remotely executed. You can blame the build up of games, the lack of rest, the playing surface, altitude, a somewhat naive gameplan in trying to play out of the back against a team pressing so aggressively hard and turning the ball over time and time again as a result. And they all did play a part in the defeat, but the main reason the ‘Caps lost so heavily is that Cruz Azul were tremendous, a side packed full of quality, and deserved winners. The gulf was huge.

Jesper Sorensen went with probably what many would have considered his strongest line-up of players available, with Ryan Gauld still injured and Sebastian Berhalter suspended. You could maybe have made a case for the full backs and the third midfielder among others, but on paper, this felt a strong team. Sadly the game was not played on paper.

Cruz Azul took the game to Vancouver from the off and when they had an early look on goal, it was a worrying sign of things to come.

The Mexicans got their breakthrough just eight minutes in and it was the first of several costly turnovers from the ‘Caps. Edier Ocampo played a ball to Andres Cubas, but his immediate return pass under pressure was knocked away from the Colombian by Carlos Rotondi, playing in Rivero, who made no mistake in firing low past Yohei Takaoka. Could Tristan Blackmon have slid in to try and put off or block the shot? Should Takaoka have got down better? Perhaps.

A bad start, but the Whitecaps had been down in Mexico before and came back and they’ve been making a habit of it in MLS of late. The worrying thing though was that Cruz Azul were handling the conditions and the slippy pitch far better and Vancouver simply couldn’t get the ball and play their dominant game.

Cruz Azul were dominating play and Carlos Rodríguez didn’t miss by much when he got onto a cross into the box in the 21st minute and fired narrowly wide.

With Vancouver failing to get any foothold or rhythm, Cruz Azul doubled their lead in the 28th minute and once again it was Cubas who was caught out. Cruz Azul’s aggression wasn’t allowing the quick, neat, short passes that have become the Whitecaps M.O., yet they still tried them and Cubas was intercepted by Faravelli, who held off the Paraguayan to bring the ball forward and rifle on in off the left post from just outside the box and it was 2-0 to the home side.

The ‘Caps were now in a hole of their own digging, but we’ve seen a couple of comebacks from two goals down in recent weeks. Unfortunately this time, they were facing much better opposition. Still, it felt that the next goal was huge. If the ‘Caps got it, it’s game very much back on. If it goes the way of Cruz Azul, it’s goodnight.

And we all know the outcome of that nine minutes later.

Rotondi tore up the left wing and whipped an invited cross in, which Sepúlveda stretched to get on to and direct it past Takaoda. He certainly looked offside when he met it and had come back from an offside position as the play started, but the goal stood and Cruz Azul had the 3-0 lead.

Offside or not, it wouldn’t have really mattered as Vancouver were just not at the races and didn’t even look like pulling one back never mind two or three.

It was almost four for Cruz Azul in the 42nd minute when some hesitation between Blackmon and Takaoka nearly allowed Rivero to nip in, but the ‘Caps keeper smothered the danger.

That was just mere respite and three minutes later the Liga MX side got their fourth on a lovely passing move on a six-on-five transition.

The move ended with Cubas cutting out a cross, but the rebound fell to Bogusz who drilled the ball to the far corner from the edge of the box with Takaoka rooted.

What the half time team talk in the Whitecaps dressing room was, I dread to think, but they made a couple of subs to try and stop the damage. It didn’t work.

Cruz Azul went nap five minutes after the restart. The Whitecaps had actually started the second half well, pushing forward and finally pressing, but they were undone again when a long ball forward saw Cubas slip at the halfway line and a run and two passes later and Sepúlveda was heading home from Jorge Sanchez.

The good news for the ‘Caps was that this was the end of the scoring, but they rode their luck to keep it at five.

Ranko Veselinovic headed a Giorgos Giakoumakis effort off the line in the 70th minute after Takaoka was dispossessed by Sepulveda, after what can only be described as pissing about with the ball at the edge of the box. The Greek forward turned away thinking he had scored, so small victories!

And Giakoumakis looked on in anguish again with six minutes remaining when he ran onto a long back forward but pulled his shot wide of the left post.

Moments later Takaoka came up with the save of the match, flying across his goal to turn away a Jesús Orozco header off a corner, but that was all she wrote and Cruz Azul had a dominant seventh CONCACAF crown.

For the Whitecaps not to even muster a shot, never mind one on target, is mind boggling. The closest they came were two balls in for Brian White in the second half that were too far ahead of him, one from Pedro Vite and one from Emmanuel Sabbi

Was this just a juggernaut of a side that got their gameplan spot on and ran over the Whitecaps or a sign of more concern that the number of games have caught up to them?

We’ll find out soon, but there was a huge difference between two teams coming off nearly two weeks rest and the other four days. Questions need to be asked about the preparation for the match. Football is a game of what ifs – what if some of our best players didn’t have a night to forget, what if that third goal had been given offside, what if we had a plan B when the first one wasn’t working?

All the Whitecaps can do is learn from this, put the disappointment and hurt aside, and come back and show everybody that this was an off night and the team we’ve seen go 15 games unbeaten are still there and still a force to be reckoned with. Let’s see how we feel at the end of July.

FINAL SCORE: Cruz Azul 5 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps

ATT: 33,046

SCORING SUMMARY:
8’ – CAZ – Ignacio Rivero
28’ – CAZ – Lorenzo Faravelli
37’ – CAZ – Ángel Sepúlveda (Carlos Rotondi)
45’ – CAZ – Mateusz Bogusz
50’ – CAZ – Ángel Sepúlveda (Jorge Sánchez)

STATS:
Possession: CAZ 67% – VAN 33%
Shots: CAZ 16 – VAN 0
Shots on Goal: CAZ 4 – VAN 0
Saves: CAZ 0 – VAN 2
Fouls: CAZ 11 – VAN 13
Offsides: CAZ 2 – VAN 1
Corners: CAZ 10 – VAN 1

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
65’ – VAN – Ranko Veselinović

CRUZ AZUL: 23.Kevin Mier; 4.Willer Ditta, 6.Érik Lira, 33.Gonzalo Piovi; 2.Jorge Sánchez, 15.Ignacio Rivero (5.Jesús Orozco 67’), 8.Lorenzo Faravelli (18.Luka Romero 77’), 19.Carlos Rodríguez (14.Alexis Gutiérrez 86’), 29.Carlos Rotondi; 7.Mateusz Bogusz (11.Giorgos Giakoumakis 67’), 9.Ángel Sepúlveda (31.Amaury Morales 77’) [Substitutes not used: 1.Andrés Gudiño, 30.Emmanuel Ochoa, 3.Omar Campos, 17.Amaury García, 21.Gabriel Fernández, 26.Carlos Vargas, 32.Cristian Jiménez]

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo (2.Mathías Laborda 46′), 4.Ranko Veselinović © (15.Bjørn Inge Utvik 86’), 33.Tristan Blackmon, 3.Sam Adekugbe; 45.Pedro Vite (13.Ralph Priso 63’), 20.Andrés Cubas, 26.J.C. Ngando (14.Daniel Ríos 80’); 22.Ali Ahmed, 24.Brian White, 7.Jayden Nelson (11.Emmanuel Sabbi 46′) [Substitutes not used: 30.Adrían Zendejas, 32.Isaac Boehmer, 12.Belal Halbouni, 19.Damir Kreilach, 27.Giuseppe Bovalina, 28.Tate Johnson, 59.Jeevan Badwal]

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On bringing excitement to the city of Vancouver:

“Of course, we will do everything to be back in this tournament. It’s been great for us. We know how to get here, we can only get here through the Canadian Cup or the MLS, so it’s very important that we perform well in those two competitions. I would say that we hope that we would go away with the trophy in our hands. But it wasn’t to be today. The opposition was too good for us today. Having said that, I’m happy that we created some excitement. We also how many fans came to cheer us on. And I’m very grateful for all the fans coming here, and I think that’s some of the excitement we have been creating not only ourselves, but also together with our fans and I hope that we are starting to build something, even though tonight was very, very tough for everyone.”

On bouncing back in MLS play:

“Contrary to other teams playing a game like this, we are mid-season and not at the end of the season, so we have a huge task ahead of us because we have to pick ourselves up after a huge disappointment. But we have to do that. One thing is to be champions in football, another thing is to be champions of life. That’s about your behaviour and it’s about how you react when you meet adversity, and it’s about how you show resilience when things are tough. So up until now, I’ve only seen those things from the players and that’s what we have to do again. It’s going to be tough, no doubt about that, it’s going to be tough because this is a huge disappointment. But we are mid-season. We are not at the end of the season, so we have a long season ahead of us and hopefully also more big games ahead of us again.”