Vancouver Whitecaps’ Champions Cup Heartbreak Must Fuel Desire for MLS Glory | OneFootball

MEXICO CITY — Lined by riot police and barely sheltered from the slow, warm downpour in their first Concacaf Champions Cup final, it was no ordinary matchday for nearly 1,000 traveling Vancouver Whitecaps supporters in Mexico City.

Yet, the 5–0 loss to Cruz Azul—a devastating result in a disheartening effort—left many feeling a familiar sense of disappointment. It was once again an opportunity that passed Vancouver by, like so many since the club last won a significant trophy in 1979.

It wasn’t much different for those on the pitch and touchline, either.

“We came here with hopes and aspiration and ambition ... now we leave with devastation,” first-year manager Jesper Sørensen said after the match. “Sports and football at this level are brutal, and when you cannot put out your best performance, when it’s needed, it’s going to be difficult.”

This time was supposed to be different.

Vancouver had enjoyed a tremendous run, eliminating Costa Rica’s Deportivo Saprissa, Liga MX’s Pumas, CF Monterrey and Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, setting them up for Sunday’s final at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario.

The run had convinced many across Vancouver and MLS that they could walk into a final in Mexico and pull out a result against an elite opponent. At every level, there was a palpable belief in what the Whitecaps could bring against Cruz Azul and the windfalls that would come from it.

Yet, it took less than 45 minutes for those hopes to wash away.

Ignacio Rivero, Lorenzo Faravelli, Angel Sepúlveda, and Mateus Bogusz led Cruz Azul to a 5–0 win after the club opened the scoring in the eighth minute. The Whitecaps, meanwhile, failed to muster a single shot or get a touch in Cruz Azul’s penalty area, offering little fight in the most important match in club history.

Even as magical and needed as their run was, all fairytales come to an end. And although the Whitecaps rekindled Vancouver’s soccer fan base, with thousands attending a watch party outside their home stadium and across the city, they missed out on their happy ending.

“Cruz Azul showed their quality, and there’s no real excuses,” defender Tristan Blackmon said. “They were the better team on the day, and we have to look at ourselves and see how we can get better, especially in a moment like this, you try to put your best foot forward, and we couldn't do that today.”

For Vancouver fans, Sunday’s loss joins the lore of the Vancouver Canucks and their 4–0 Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. It’s the latest chapter in the book of Vancouver's sporting heartbreaks, a city that has not seen a major championship in the modern era.

Still, there’s hope within the club, which has games in hand and remains atop the MLS Western Conference, while having reestablished a strong relationship with the city’s sports fans despite the current ownership’s search for new owners.

Their Concacaf journey may be over, but dreams of what a future MLS Cup run or return to the Champions Cup could look like in the near and long-term futures are already taking shape, especially with the rise in support.

“It was incredible to walk out in this stadium and feel [Whitecaps fans'] presence,” Blackmon added. “I've been in the club for four years now, I feel like the fan base is getting more and more involved, and we feel their presence every time that they show up for us.”

A Bad Day for a Bad Day

Andrés Cubas has been a key player for the Whitecaps, but struggled in the Champions Cup Final. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

While a few Whitecaps have enjoyed their best run of play since joining MLS in 2011, they chose a bad day to have their worst performance of the 2025 season.

From kickoff, Vancouver appeared nervous and tentative while working the ball out of the back, and Designated Player defensive midfielder Andrés Cubas had a rare off night, turning the ball over regularly, allowing the Cruz Azul press to toy with the Whitecaps’ defense.

In attack, they couldn’t rely on the tactics that had brought them success this season. Brian White wasn’t able to maintain possession or hold-up play, and the right-side trio of Pedro Vite, Ali Ahmed and Édier Ocampo fell short of their usual levels.

“It was our ambition to win and play our best game of the season so far, and I’d say we did the opposite,” Sørensen said. “Cruz Azul was better in every department on the pitch today.”

Deep into the second half, the over 32,000 Cruz Azul supporters jeered “olé” at their team’s moves. At the same time, Vancouver continuously adjusted, but struggled with turnovers and failed to launch any resemblance of the possession-based game that has defined them under Sørensen.

“It was a very challenging match, and they were all over us; they came out flying,” Captain and center back Ranko Vesilinović said. “They showed why they're one of the best teams in Mexico ... we couldn't do anything that we used to do all season, and that goes to them, because they're the ones who didn’t allow it.”

Keeping Hope Heading Into MLS

Blackmon came up short in the Concacaf Champions Cup final for the second time in his career. / Courtesy of Concacaf

When Blackmon stepped up to the podium after the match, he got his hands on a second Champions Cup silver medal in his career, having also lost the 2020 final with LAFC.

As much as he appreciates the runs he had and the experiences that have come with them, the glimmer of the silver medal comes nowhere close to what a major trophy, whether in Concacaf or MLS, would mean.

“That's fueling the fire, for sure,” he told reporters after the match. “I now have two runner-up medals, and it's not the best feeling when you look down and see a silver medal. You want to end up with that first-place medal. So definitely added fuel to the fire.”

The Whitecaps will have a chance to continue chasing that fire through their remaining 20 MLS regular season games, with the hope that they can translate their Champions Cup intensity and popularity into the rest of the regular season and the MLS Cup.

June, though, could be rough. Six key players are set to miss games while representing their nations at the Concacaf Gold Cup, leaving Sørensen to draw on inexperienced talent to maintain a table-topping level.

After that, they can hope to peak at the right time heading into the playoffs, with Sunday’s loss potentially teaching them the painful lesson of what it takes to win when the pressure and attention reach unparalleled levels.

“We have a huge task ahead of us because we have to pick ourselves up after a huge disappointment,” added Sørensen.

“We have to do that, it’s one thing to be champions in football, another thing to be champions of life. That’s about your behavior, and it’s about how you react when you meet adversity, and it’s about how you show resilience when things are tough.”