Report and Reaction: Halbouni header gives Whitecaps all to play in second leg showdown with Monterrey

Belal Halbouni was the Whitecaps hero at BC Place on Wednesday evening, heading home a crucial late leveler against Liga MX powerhouse CF Monterrey to set up an all-to-play-for second leg showdown in Mexico next week in their CONCACAF Champions Cup match-up.

It was no less than Vancouver deserved. The home side dominated much of the match, carving out chance after chance, but the final finish was seemingly deserting them until the Canadian centre back grabbed his first ever goal as a Whitecap in a 1-1 first leg draw.

The ‘Caps had the better of the first half, but it was Monterrey that got the breakthrough first, when Roberto De La Rosa timed his run to perfection to stay onside and race in on goal, giving the Mexican side a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute and a crucial away goal.

Vancouver fought back and dominated the second half, eventually getting the equaliser their play deserved in the 86th minute to set up a very intriguing second leg in a week’s time.

Jesper Sorensen made seven changes to the team that saw off Saprissa a week ago, with Isaac Boehmer getting his first start of the season in goa l and Halbouni his in the backline.

The ‘Caps started lively, but were forced to reshuffle early when Jayden Nelson was forced off with an injury, replaced by Ali Ahmed. It’s being deemed precautionary just now after he felt a tight hamstring, and the hope will be he will be good to go for the second leg, if not this weekend’s league match with Montreal.

Sebastian Berhalter was played in by a neat Ryan Gauld backheel pass in the 16th minute, but before he could pull the trigger, a superb last ditch tackle from Antonio Leone cleared the danger.

Two minutes later, Gauld was played in himself, but this time Esteban Andrada was quickly off his line to smother the danger.

It had been an enjoyable end-to-end match. Monterrey had been lively but hadn’t tested Boehmer, but their pace looked like it could cause the ‘Caps some issues and that was the case in the 25th minute when Erick Aguirre played a lovely through ball to De La Rosa, who stayed onside to race in on goal and tuck it away past Boehmer into the far corner.

¡Roberto De La Rosa abre el marcador para Rayados! 🤠#ConcaChampions pic.twitter.com/PWuUzCNpaA

— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) March 6, 2025

Vancouver responded well, forcing a couple of chances, but were unable to hit the target.

Ahmed played a cheeky little pass inside to Gauld in the 39th minute, but his outside of the foot shot was well read by Andrada and the ‘Caps headed in at the half one down.

The Whitecaps controlled the restart and should have tied things up in the 54th minute. In a break that left two Monterrey players writhing on the deck from tackles, J.C. Ngando hit the byeline and cut the ball back perfectly for Ahmed, but the Canadian international took a touch and was closed down for getting his shot off. It needed to be hit first time and another ‘Caps chance went to waste.

The ‘Caps had another chance to level things up just before the hour mark. A well-worked team move saw Ngando show some great skill to hit the byeline once again, cutting the ball back for Gauld, whose spectacular overhead effort just couldn’t connect at the right angle and flashed across the face of the goal.

Vancouver brought on Brian White and he nearly made an instant impact in the 61st minute when Gauld found him wide open, but the American was denied by a leg save from Andrada.

The chances kept coming for the Whitecaps with Gauld coming close a couple of times and Ahmed forcing a save out of Andrada. As tensions got strained on the pitch, it felt like a goal was coming, but the ‘Caps had to wait till the 85th minute to get it.

Moments after a clash between Gauld, White, and Andrada, the Whitecaps got a free kick on the left when Ahmed was sent crashing to the deck. Gauld stepped up and sent in a pinpoint delivery which was superbly met by Halbouni, who powered his header past Andrada and we were all tied up.

THERE IT IS!!! 😤

Boys were knocking on the door—Belal Halbouni smashes home his first as a ‘Cap!#VWFC | @OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/nWilKiIX3e

— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) March 6, 2025

If any team was going to go on and take a scoreboard lead into the second leg, it was going to be the Whitecaps. Unfortunately they couldn’t find another goal and instead it’s Monterrey who hold the advantage thanks to their away goal.

It was a tremendous team performance by the Whitecaps, with many standout performances. Halbouni and Ngando in particular were excellent, and the performances from them and the likes of Ocampo and debutant Tate Johnson, who came on as a halftime sub, will give Sorensen a lot to be happy about in terms of his depth pieces.

Next week’s second leg is certainly going to be an intriguing one. Monterrey are unable to play in their home stadium due to a Shakira concert. Will that factor into things? It’s certainly setting up a game not to be missed and the ‘Caps are very much still in the tie.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 1 – 1 CF Monterrey

ATT: 9,613

SCORING SUMMARY:
25’ – MTY – Roberto de la Rosa (Érick Aguirre)
86’ – VAN – Belal Halbouni (Ryan Gauld)

STATS:
Shots: VAN 21 – MTY 7
Shots on goal: VAN 6 – MTY 3
Saves: VAN 2 – MTY 5
Fouls: VAN 17 – MTY 12
Offsides: VAN 3 – MTY 0
Corners: VAN 15 – MTY 1

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
7’ – MTY – Fidel Ambriz
13’ – VAN – Mathias Laborda
37’ – MTY – Jordi Cortizo
54’ – MTY – Hector Moreno
56’ – MTY – Luis Reyes
77’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
84’ – VAN – Brian White

VANCOUVER: Isaac Boehmer; Édier Ocampo, Belal Halbouni, Ranko Veselinović, Mathías Laborda (Tate Johnson 46′); Sebastian Berhalter (Pedro Vite 77’), Ralph Priso (Andrés Cubas 77’), J.C. Ngando; Ryan Gauld, Daniel Ríos (Brian White 60’), Jayden Nelson (Ali Ahmed 5’) [Substitutes not used: Yohei Takaoka, Max Anchor, Damir Kreilach, Giuseppe Bovalina, Tristan Blackmon, Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau, Jeevan Badwal]

MONTERREY: Esteban Andrada; Érick Aguirre (Ricardo Chávez 60’), Hector Moreno, Luis Reyes, Antonio Leone; Fidel Ambriz, Nelson Deossa; Óliver Torres (Iker Fimbres 72’), Jordi Cortizo (Luis Basulto 60’), Roberto De La Rosa (Lucas Ocampos 72’); Alfonso Alvarado (Germán Beterame 85’) [Substitutes not used: Luis Cárdenas, Cesar Ramos, Gerardo Arteaga, Sergio Canales, Jorge Rodriguez, Stefan Medina, Aldahir Valenzuela]

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the team performance:

“Yes, of course I’m happy with most of what I saw from the players today. We made a mistake in the first half and they profited from it. Apart from that, I think the flow in the game and the pace we could play with the ball, and the positions we held, the structure we played with, even though we had changed a little bit in the lineup, I think, was quite impressive, and looking good for the future. Of course, in a two-legged tie like this, we have not room for many mistakes, but I would say that I would rather sit here after a very, very good performance and talk about 1-1 instead of talking about a bad performance and getting lucky getting 1-1.”

On Belal Halbouni:

“Of course, if a player hasn’t played for a while, it’s just natural – he needs to get in and find the rhythm with the other guys in the team. I think Belal did excellent. He hasn’t been playing for a while, and I think he did a very good job.”

On Jayden Nelson’s early injury:

“I think it’s day by day, we have to see that it wasn’t an injury. It was more preventative.”

On giving Tate Johnson his debut ahead of possibly playing against Montreal on Saturday:

“Mattias got a yellow card in the first half, and we know that we have Eddie out for Saturday. We know Sam’s out. So of course, next in line could be Tate, and we needed to see him on the pitch to see if that was something that we should go forward with. I think that he did very, very well. He was playing like he played many games for us, blended in well, and and I think that he will come to the forefront of the situations he was in. He played against a very good player as well. We saw that in the first half. I was also quite impressed with the way he just came in and immediately fitted in, because it can be difficult first time getting in. That’s also why I wanted him in at the break, because then it’s sometimes easier to to get the rhythm with the with the rest of the group. So I think that he found it fast and I think it was pretty impressive.”

What it says about the Whitecaps when they take the game to a Mexican powerhouse, who sat back:

“Yeah, first of all, that’s really what I can talk about, my own team, because I know that we’re up against a very good opponent with a great history. And I know that this competition is very important also to Monterrey and maybe they were also playing maybe not as aggressive as we’re going to see them next week when they play at home. But I was quite happy with the amount of chances we created, because we really had the flow and and you could see they had difficulties, and they were struggling in great parts of the game. So I was quite happy with that. Yeah, I was not that surprised that we could play a good game at home. I have that belief in me, but also because of what I’ve seen in the beginning of the season here. But you never know really about the opponents when you don’t meet them that much and what do they bring on and I’m sure it’s going to be completely different a week from now, also the way the game is going.”

Thoughts on the Champions Cup:

“It’s a great competition> it’s funny, as a coach you have this where you play two legs. You need some strategies and see how you do it. And, yeah, I think it’s great. It’s a good competition. I really like competitions like this. They’re exciting. They can have surprises. That could be things you don’t expect. All the unexpected things come into this, where there’s only two games to decide things.”

CENTRE BACK BELAL HALBOUNI

On his performance:

“The first five or ten minutes was getting the jitters out, being comfortable. After that, I said to myself, you’re here for a reason, and that reason is you’re here to play football. I know my capabilities, and thankfully with god on my side, my teammates supporting me, my family supporting me. At the end of the day, I’m grateful to have that awesome goal. We’re excited to go next week to Mexico and obviously try to finish the job.”

CF MONTERREY

HEAD COACH MARTIN DEMICHELIS

On if he was surprised by the way Vancouver controlled the game:

“It didn’t surprise us. We made a lot of changes in reference to the last game and this game served us to see some players that hadn’t been playing lately. I think we take a good result from this game. Now, we’ll go to Cruz Azul and hope to get a result there and then focus on the second leg in Mexico.”