Report and Reaction: History makers and record breakers – Vancouver Whitecaps and a Canadian Championship fourpeat

Vancouver Whitecaps’ Canadian Championship fourpeat felt inevitable. Having easily disposed of the Canadian Premier League leaders Forge in the semi-final, their final match-up with the league’s bottom side seemed to be a foregone conclusion. In the end it was, but full credit needs to be given to the Langley-based Vancouver FC, who were on the verge of being completely destroyed in the opening 20 minutes before regrouping and finding a foothold in the game, making it a respectable 4-2 scoreline in the end.

Ali Ahmed had the ‘Caps up and running just five minutes in, then was brought down for a penalty which Thomas Müller converted five minutes later. A goal that set up a victory that saw him claim a record 35th trophy for a German player, moving ahead of Toni Kroos. Elage Bah shocked the Whitecaps by pulling one back for VFC in the 35th minute, very much against the run of play, but any hopes of a stunning revival were extinguished less than two minutes later when Ahmed restored the ‘Caps two-goal lead.

The second half was far less exciting as the Whitecaps just looked to see things out, but there was a special moment in the 83rd minute when captain Ryan Gauld returned from injury to score a fourth. While those celebrations were still going on, VFC went up the field and pulled one back again, this time from former Vancouver MLS player Nicolas Mezquida, to round off the scoring.

The Whitecaps dominance in the tournament continues apace. The fourpeat is the second in the tournament’s history, but the first in the new expanded tournament format. For a club that only had one Voyageurs Cup to their name up until 2022, it’s a remarkable achievement. The draw maybe favoured them quite heavily this year, throwing up just CPL opposition, but you still have to beat the team in front of you and the Whitecaps did that very well and were worthy winners once again, booking their berth in next season’s CONCACAF Champions Cup in the process.

The Whitecaps went with a very strong starting line-up, giving Vancouver FC full respect and taking nothing for granted. Belal Halbouni was back from injury, Müller was in the 10 role, and Gauld was back on the bench for the first time since March. This felt like a line-up that would not be taking the match lightly and the ‘Caps scored a couple early to basically put the match to bed by the 10th minute.

With just five minutes on the clock Müller found Ahmed in the box and the Canadian international showed some nice footwork to make room for the shot and drill the ball past Callum Irving to the far post, and the ‘Caps led 1-0.

Five minutes later and it was two.

The ‘Caps continued to pile forward and VFC’s defence was all at sea. Ahmed’s quick movement was causing big problems and he was brought down in the box, giving Drew Fisher the easy decision to point to the spot.

Up stepped Müller and he struck a superb penalty to the top corner to double the Whitecaps lead, grabbing the German’s 300th goal for club and country.

The danger now was that this could be an absolute rout. If VFC park the pass, it wasn’t going to be much of a spectacular. Open up to get back into it and they were cooked.

The Whitecaps ran rampant. Emmanuel Sabbi played a lovely one-two with Müller, but his shot was superbly turned away by Irving. Keeping the pressure on from the corner, Sabbi saw a shot crash off the right post, quickly followed by Sebastian Berhalter cracking one off the left one.

The woodwork kept the ‘Caps at bay again, this time with Müller being denied after being played in by Sabbi.

Credit to the Langley side, they held firm defensively and didn’t allow any further breaches, but it was all Whitecaps.

Then the CPL side got their cup final moment and fittingly it was a former Whitecap that got them on the scoresheet with their first shot of the match.

Mezquida, who had been kept quiet to this point, played a perfect through ball which seemed to wrong foot Halbouni causing a stumble and allowing Bah to race in and tuck the ball under Isaac Boehmer, sparking jubilant scenes from the visiting supporters.

Would this spark a comeback or would it just fire up the Whitecaps?

It only took less than two minutes to find out as the ‘Caps went up the pitch and restored their two-goal lead.

Irving punched away a Berhalter cross in from the right, but couldn’t get it too far and Ahmed was on hand to fire home the loose ball.

A fierce free kick from Vasco Fry was punched away by Boehmer near the end of the half, but as the teams headed in, VFC could take a lot of positives and pride from only heading in two down.

The second half started in the same vein as the first had played out. The Whitecaps dominated possession, had a couple of looks on goal, but weren’t able to to add to their tally.

On paper, the match was still in the balance. In reality, VFC were struggling to get any attack going.

It wasn’t a full-blooded offense from the Whitecaps either mind you, with the best chance they had coming in the 72nd minute when Müller played in Sabbi, but Irving smothered the danger.

Then came the moment that many feared we might not see in 2025, the return of Gauld!

The ‘Caps captain came on in the 78th minute and five minutes later, he found the back of the net, playing a nice one-two with Jayden Nelson and tucking it away into the bottom left corner.

BC Place was still in full celebratory mode that many didn’t notice VFC posting an immediate response, with possibly the best goal of the night.

Bah got the ball on the left, hit the byeline, then cut it back for Mezquida, whose sweet finish placed it perfectly past Boehmer.

That rounded off the scoring, and while the Whitecaps could and should have had more than the four goals they did, they won’t grumble too much. VFC can hold their heads up high, there’s a lot for them to build on, but the Whitecaps are easily the best team in Canada right now.

So that’s one trophy down, but there’s still more to play for in the coming weeks. Let’s hope the ‘Caps are going to need to build an extension for their trophy cabinet by the end of it.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 4 – 2 Vancouver FC of Langley

ATT: 18,372

VANCOUVER: 32.Isaac Boehmer; 18.Édier Ocampo (27.Giuseppe Bovalina 85′), 12.Belal Halbouni, 2.Mathías Laborda, 28.Tate Johnson; 16.Sebastian Berhalter (6.Ralph Priso 86′), 20.Andrés Cubas; 11.Emmanuel Sabbi, 13.Thomas Müller (25.Ryan Gauld 79′), 22.Ali Ahmed (7.Jayden Nelson 79′); 75.Rayan Elloumi (17.Kenji Cabrera 68′) [Substitutes not used: 1.Yohei Takaoka, 26.J.C. Ngando, 53.Mark O’Neill, 59.Jeevan Badwal]

VFC OF LANGLEY: 1.Callum Irving; 3.Kunle Dada-Luke (12.Tyler Crawford 46′), 5.Matteo Campagna, 15.Aidan O’Connor, 2.Paris Gee; 16.Michel Da Silva (17.Emrick Fotsing 68′), 6.Vasco Fry (13.David Norman Jr 68′); 14.Terran Campbell (25.Pathé Ndiaye 57′), 20.Nicolás Mezquida (4.Allan Enyou 87′), 7.Thierno ‘Elage’ Bah; 9.Hugo Mbongue [Substitutes not used: 31.Jacob Frank, 18.Thomas Powell, 23.Abdoulaye Ouattara, 29.Kevin Podgorni]

SCORING SUMMARY:
5’ – VAN – Ali Ahmed (Thomas Müller)
10’ – VAN – Thomas Müller (penalty kick)
35’ – VFC – Thierno Bah (Nicolás Mezquida)
37’ – VAN – Ali Ahmed
83’ – VAN – Ryan Gauld (Jayden Nelson)
85’ – VFC – Nicolás Mezquida (Thierno Bah)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 74% – VFC 26%
Shots: VAN 20 – VFC 5
Shots on Goal: VAN 8 – VFC 3
Saves: VAN 1 – VFC 4
Fouls: VAN 18 – VFC 7
Offsides: VAN 0 – VFC 1
Corners: VAN 4 – VFC 1

CARDS:
16’ – VFC – Kunle Dada-Luke
39’ – VFC – Michel Da Silva
48’ – VFC – Thierno Bah
72’ – VFC – Pathé Ndiaye

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the four-peat:

“It feels great. Of course it’s for me my first, and I haven’t been part of the first three, but a lot of players have been and a lot of members of the staff, and I want to congratulate them because it’s not easy. It’s a big feat for the club, and it’s going down in history as the first team [in the modern era] to do it, so congratulations to be everyone who has been here and also the guys who are not here anymore who have done an amazing job to get the club to where the club is now. We can talk about a lot of stuff, that we should win a game like this against Vancouver FC, and of course we were huge favourites, but it’s never easy, no matter how much you talk about it you have to do it.”

On what he saw in the first 10 minutes:

“I saw a very aggressive, well-playing, very confident, but also a team that really wanted to make sure that we used all the minutes to secure that we didn’t miss out on anything in this game. I think it’s very important that when we play a game like this to use all the minutes you have to try and be better, and hopefully over time over the course of the game, we will be, and I think that we showed that from the start.”

On the return of captain Ryan Gauld:

“It was really a great moment to see him score. For me, it was great from the supporters when he came on the pitch, because it’s been such a tough year for Ryan, he hasn’t played for seven months. Sometimes you know that you have an injury where you know you have a timeline where you can say it’s going to take this amount of time, then you rehab and build up towards this, but we haven’t really been able to do this with the injury Ryan has had. Ever since he came [back], he has lifted the level of the team and also [he has] helped the club get to where it is now. So I’m just so happy for him and for everybody, and I am very happy for the supporters because he really deserves to be celebrated with all he’s done, and it’s so nice to have him back on the pitch.”

MIDFIELDER THOMAS MULLER

On his 35th major trophy:

“Today I feel more a part of winning the Canadian Championship and not my personal collection of trophies. It’s a nice number, but in the end it’s the feeling with the boys and the crowd that I’m looking for. It was enjoyable for me. Today is a good day for us, we won a final. I know we were the clear favourites for this game, but we took it serious from the beginning and I think in the end a well deserved win. As I told you before the game, it’s more about our process and it was another good step in a decisive game.”

On if qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup played a factor in coming:

“It was not in my horizon, I was looking more forward for the future and how good this team is to compete for the playoffs and for MLS Cup, and for what’s upcoming… I’m happy that I am able to join this competition next year.”

On winning the Canadian Championship:

“I think it’s very good to get this winning feeling to confirm that we are able to sustain in tough moments. I know that maybe the Canadian Championship – we have won it now four years in a row – but you still have to finish the job, and that is always a good feeling if you confirm that for yourself and with your teammates, and I hope that gives us in this last chapter of this season this feeling together to also get something bigger.”