Cruz Azul Secures Seventh Concacaf Champions Cup Title with 5-0 Win Over Vancouver Whitecaps
Capitalizing on mistakes from the Vancouver Whitecaps, Cruz Azul were able to win their seventh Concacaf Champions Cup title in club history in a 5-0 triumph. It only took eight minutes for Ignacio Riviero to open the scoring after a Vancouver turnover, and the goals continued to flow from there. Cruz Azul had some excellent finishes, but they scored four goals from four shots on target to go ahead in the first half.
With that seventeenth Champions Cup title, Cruz Azul has now matched Club America for the most titles in club history, and they had quite a performance to get there. Forward Angel Sepulveda was able to secure the Golden Boot of the tournament with a brace in the final, bringing him to nine total goals, but the feel-good story of the Vancouver Whitecaps came to a screeching halt like most MLS stories in past years.
This is the fourth consecutive time that an MLS side and a Liga MX side have faced off in a Champions Cup final, and three of those times, the Liga MX side has gone on to lift the championship. With Cruz Azul’s dominance, Vancouver never took a shot in the match and was unable to execute their game.
Not having Sebastian Berhalter for the final was a big loss as the 23-year-old has paced Vancouver’s midfield during this tournament but due to yellow card accumulation, he missed the final. Berhalter was a player who stepped up in the absence of the injured Ryan Gauld to pace the Caps. Without both, this team was a shadow of themselves, which has been a common sight for MLS sides in these finals.
It can be tough to keep composure in a moment of this magnitude, especially with the match taking part in Mexico but considering how prepared Jesper Sorensen has had his team for everything that has come their way, falling to this degree comes as a surprise. En route to this final, Vancouver secured a draw in Monterrey and also drew away to Pumas but a third trip to Mexico proved to be too much to overcome.
Now, Vancouver will have to ensure that this disappointment doesn’t derail an excellent regular season where they sit atop the Western Conference. The roster differences remain between MLS and Liga MX and games like this one show just how far MLS has to go in order to regularly go toe to toe with Mexican teams. Vancouver won’t have much time to rest as they’ll get back to league play hosting the Seattle Sounders on June 8. The Importance of Regular Exercise for Overall Health
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