3 KEY Takeaways: How the Whitecaps came up short in 5-0 loss to Cruz Azul in CCC Final
The Vancouver Whitecaps' incredible journey through the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup came to a tragic conclusion on Sunday, as they fell 5-0 to Cruz Azul in the tournament final at Estadio Olímpico Universitario.
Having entered this final coming off a magical run through the prior four rounds of the tournament, getting past CD Saprissa, CF Monterrey, Pumas UNAM and Inter Miami to reach this stage, it was expected that the Whitecaps would tackle this game with the same mentality that they had all tournament - fearlessly and bravely.
¡Llegó la 7⭐! pic.twitter.com/5gqxGnO7NP
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) June 2, 2025
Heading into the biggest game in club history, one that could’ve proven to be a defining moment for a team that has otherwise struggled to garner attention outside of Canada over the past 15 years, it was a chance for the Whitecaps to put their stamp on what had already been a very special run up until this point.
Instead, they suffered a defeat that will live on infamously, as they never even came close to getting their hands on the trophy in this game. After becoming the team that just wouldn’t go away in rounds prior, it felt like they weren’t even invited to the party in this final, and that left them to suffer a humbling defeat.
Not only that, but their suffering started early and often in this game, too.
Cruz Azul went up 1-0 in the 8th minute, as Igancio Rivero slotted home after a Whitecaps turnover in midfield, before Lorenzo Faravelli doubled his team’s lead in the 28th minute with a beautiful goal from distance after another Whitecaps turnover.
GOAL 🚂
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2025
Ignacio Rivero takes advantage of a mistake and opens the scoring for Cruz Azul.#VWFC | 🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/iAOHFBViiK
From there, that seemed to spell the end for the Whitecaps, which seemed to be officially confirmed when Cruz Azul made it 3-0 in the 37th minute after a goal from the tournament’s leading scorer, Ángel Sepúlveda, who got on the end of a nice cross into the box from Carlos Rotondi.
Then, just to add insult to injury, Cruz Azul went up 4-0 before half time, as Mateusz Bogusz scored with a shot from distance in the 45th minute.
At that point, the rest of the game turned into a training session for both teams, although Cruz Azul were able to put a bow on an excellent performance with a fifth goal in the 50th minute, which came off a great header from Sepúlveda, who also secured the tournament’s Golden Boot with the finish.
After that, however, all that was left was for Cruz Azul to celebrate their victory, as they lifted their seventh Champions Cup crown, tied for the most in the competition’s history, capping what was a magical night for the Mexican outfit who was in desperate need of a victory like this after a tough campaign for them.
On that note, here are three KEY takeaways from this match.
Magical ride ends with Whitecaps heartbreak:
It’s a reminder of how cruel this sport can be.
You can have a magical journey, one that can be a transformative moment for a club that desperately needed it, and that ride can come to an end without as much of a whimper.
The worst part for those involved, however, is that even the best stories aren’t guaranteed to yield happy endings. In the end, this sport can be so ruthless, and this game was an example of what that can look like.
When it’s meant to rain, it can pour, and a game like this can look more like a flood. Safe to say, the scriptwriters weren’t kind to a Whitecaps team who seemed ready to make history.
GOAL 🚂🚂
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2025
Lorenzo Faravelli scores a golazo and Cruz Azul double their lead.#VWFC | 🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/wDnufL6xIH
For those who are familiar with Vancouver sports, however, this is nothing new - the Vancouver Canucks losing 4-0 to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final immediately springs to mind, along with countless other moments where teams in this city have come close, but fallen short, with a history of losing big games a defining characteristic of the city.
This Whitecaps team seemed different, however.
Just their journey to this point showed that - they had a terrible record against Liga MX teams, yet got past two of them to get here. They’d never reached a final that wasn’t in the Canadian Championship since becoming an MLS team, and dismantled an Inter Miami side led by the best player in history to make it happen.
Heck, even the overarching story of this season has suggested that this Whitecaps team is visually different compared to past versions from this MLS era - typically, they’ve struggled in the regular season, and haven’t always been the most exciting team to watch. Now, they’re second in MLS’s Supporters Shield race, a feat they’ve achieved despite juggling that with this competition, and they're one of the most watchable teams in MLS.
That they’ve done all of that under a new head coach who had no prior experience in North America, all coming months after the club was put up for sale, is nothing short of remarkable.
In the end, however, all of those storylines feel secondary after a defeat like this. It’d have been one thing to go out swinging in this final, as it felt like the Whitecaps were going to do - they wouldn’t have been the first MLS side to come up short against a Mexican giant in a situation like this. Plus, with some key absences from their lineup, and this game being on the road at altitude, there were legitimate reasons why this Whitecaps team would’ve been expected to lose this game - just not like this.
The good news? They can only go up from here. Thanks to their strong start in MLS, they have a legitimate chance at winning silverware in that competition, having otherwise never really come close to doing so.
GOAL 🚂🚂🚂
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2025
Ángel Sepúlveda triples Cruz Azul's lead, and the match may be over before half-time ☹️#VWFC | 🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/NcWp1ypQod
On the flip side, it’s safe to say that pressure has ramped up on them to do that after this loss. Had they won this, they could’ve been immortalized as one of the best MLS teams in history, and anything they did the rest of the year wouldn’t have mattered. They can still be an all-time MLS great team, of course, but the only way to do that is to have some success in league play this year - and it wouldn’t hurt to get some revenge in this competition next year, either.
At the same time, it’s hard to know how they’ll bounce back from this result, as it’s such a rarity to see a team get outclassed like this in a final. For an optimist, they’ll suggest that these scars will fuel them to finish this year with a Supporters Shield or MLS Cup win (or both), but pessimists will quickly say that this is also the kind of defeat that can completely change the trajectory of a team for the worse.
The lone positive from this game for the Whitecaps is that this defeat comes early in the season, however. Usually, continental finals like this occur later in the season, where it’s often the final game a team plays in a campaign.
Inter Milan, who also suffered a 5-0 defeat in a continental final this weekend, have nothing left to play for in the next few months now (other than the Club World Cup), as their season is essentially over - with that loss perhaps sparking generational change for that team.
Now, however, the Whitecaps still have time to write the story of their season, as this isn’t the end for this team quite yet. Naturally, this defeat will carry a lot of weight for them, but it can either define their entire season positively or negatively.
It’s up to the Whitecaps now to ensure that this great story isn’t over, and that this defeat was perhaps what they needed to spark even grander things, instead of being the end of their journey. 
Whitecaps' attack sputters:
A big reason for the Whitecaps' success this year? Their success on the ball and around their opponents net, as they’ve done an excellent job of breaking down teams with their strong possession play, which has in turn allowed them to create chances and score goals by the bucketload.
That they’ve averaged 54.26% possession in 2025, generating 12.08 shots, 1.6 xG, and 1.79 goals per game shows that they’ve been extremely dangerous on the ball in every game they’ve played. Heck, even in games where they’ve drawn or lost, they’ve typically left the game feeling that they were leaving goals on the table, having done a great job of putting opponents under siege.
Yet, that’s why the result from this final will feel so surprising, as the Whitecaps have not gotten here by a fluke, which can sometimes happen in a competition like this. This wouldn’t have been the first team to make a surprise run through a tournament to finish with a thud, but there was nothing to suggest that they’d be outmatched in this final - in fact, it felt like the one guarantee, that this final would be close and hard-fought.
In the end, however, the Whitecaps never even came close, and the worst part was that their trusty offence was arguably what let them down the most.
That most of the goals came from their turnovers shows that - the Whitecaps have also been elite defensively in 2025, with a big reason being their strong possession play that keeps teams far away from their goal - but that they also struggled to threaten Cruz Azul’s goal will be what frustrates them most as that could’ve been a way for them to make up for their early mistakes.
The stats speak for themselves, however - the Whitecaps held just 33% of the ball, and were outshot 18-0 by Cruz Azul. That is indeed not a typo - the Whitecaps generated ZERO shots in this game, as they didn’t even threaten Cruz Azul’s net.
Heck, they didn’t even bother Cruz Azul’s box - the Whitecaps didn’t even have a touch in Cruz Azul’s box - that, in itself, might be the best stat to sum up the night.
Meanwhile, Cruz Azul ran rampant - along with their five goals, which came off 18 shots, 1.47 xG, four big chances and 23 touches in the box - as they did what the Whitecaps couldn’t, and got chances early and often.
GOAL 🚂🚂🚂🚂
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2025
Mateusz Bogusz all but seals the deal for Cruz Azul in the first half ⚽️#VWFC | 🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/o9LBltVzG4
That wasn’t surprising to see, granted - Cruz Azul are a good team, and were expected to put in a strong performance in this final, but the worst part about all of this loss for the Whitecaps is that they looked nothing like themselves in defeat.
Had they gone down swinging, as they’ve done all year long, that would’ve made a defeat more digestible - that’s the nature of sport, after all. When two great teams meet, there can only be one winner.
To bow out meekly, however, goes against what the Whitecaps have done all year, and their attack is just one of many areas where they came short on the day, although it was certainly the one that stood out the most.
Off night comes at the worst time for Cubas:
Sometimes, even the most reliable of players can have an off night. You can look at the list of greats that have played this sport, and each of them will have games that they want back, sometimes coming on the biggest of stages.
Unfortunately for the Whitecaps, their midfield rock, Andrés Cubas, had one of those nights on a stage where they might’ve needed him most.
Missing Sebastian Berhalter through suspension, that left the Whitecaps already thin centrally heading into this one, as they had to find a way to cope without what Berhalter brings on both sides of the ball.
Because of that, it was expected that the Whitecaps might bring in Ralph Priso to replace him, giving them a bit more defensive balance in Berhalter’s absence, but instead, they decided to go aggressive, playing J.C. Ngando and Pedro Vite with Cubas in a midfield three.
A big reason for them going more aggressive, however, had to be Cubas’s presence - when at his best, he’s strong enough defensively to let his fellow midfielders roam, so it wasn’t a shock to see them try out that midfield deployment.
In this game, however, he was unable to shoulder a task that he usually takes on with ease. In particular, he struggled on the ball, which is usually another strength of his - he’d completed 90% of his passes in 2025 before this match.
Granted, his passing remained relatively solid in this game, as he completed 89% of his 27 passes, but the ones he didn’t complete will be what haunts him.
GOAL 🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2025
Ángel Sepúlveda gets Cruz Azul's 5th 😢#VWFC | 🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/meCknuWEyh
On the first goal, in the 8th minute, he invited Cruz Azul pressure when a chance to switch the ball was there, and that led to a turnover that was in the back of the net within seconds. Then, minutes later, that mistake might’ve still been on the back of his mind when he made another sloppy turnover in a similar situation, as he once again invited pressure, and it cost him.
From there, the wheels started to come off for Vancouver. It’d have been one thing if one of their less experienced players had made those mistakes, as it would’ve been natural to see in a game of this magnitude, but for it to come from one of their leaders, one who has played in massive games at the club level and internationally, that had to be deflating for the rest of the teammates.
Naturally, Cubas struggled to recover at that point - he then had a failed clearance on Cruz Azul’s fourth goal, and then once again turned over the ball on the fifth goal, cementing a rough night at the office for the midfielder, who will not look back on this final very fondly.
In the end, it’s unfair to solely place the blame on him for this performance, as no one wearing a Whitecaps shirt covered themselves in glory. By the same token, however, Cubas’s struggles best represented the Whitecaps night, given that he was their lone Designated Player on the pitch with Ryan Gauld’s absence (another key piece the Whitecaps were without), as he would’ve hoped to be the guy leading his team to a strong final performance - instead, he had a night he'll never forget for the wrong reasons.
