Amid chaotic build-up to CCC final, the Vancouver Whitecaps have kept their eye on the prize: "This is everything we've worked for""
For a team about to play in arguably the biggest game in their club’s history, the Vancouver Whitecaps' build-up to the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup final has shockingly been quite…normal.
Despite being days away from facing Liga MX giants Cruz Azul in that one-off final on June 1st, the Whitecaps have had their focus on navigating a busy stretch of games, with an MLS match against Minnesota United at BC Place on Wednesday being their fourth match in 11 days.
Instead of having the chance to slowly build up towards this final, as would typically be the case ahead of a match of this magnitude, it popped up on their schedule like a typical midseason MLS game, with a feeling of ‘oh yeah, that’s happening’ about it.
“It's been difficult,” Whitecaps striker Brian White explained on Thursday. “(The final) is always kind in the back of your mind, but you have to focus on the games at hand, because the MLS season is important, we want to finish in first, that's always the goal, and we're in a good position right now, so you got to take every game seriously.”
“But yeah, I’m glad to get through those games, so now we can put all the focus on the final.”
STUNNER BY VITE! 💥
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) May 25, 2025
📺 https://t.co/KDfGTKtKZn #VWFC | #RSLvVAN pic.twitter.com/eeR9M7wFMQ
For context, that has not been the case for the other MLS teams who have reached the Champions Cup final in recent years. Last year, the Columbus Crew had only two games in the 14 days leading up to their 2024 final vs. Pachuca, while LAFC had an eight-day break before leg one of the 2023 final vs. Club Léon, and no game to deal with in between that match and leg two a week later.
Then, when the Seattle Sounders won the tournament in 2022, becoming just the third MLS team to ever lift the trophy and the first in the modern era (since 2008), they had a similar schedule to LAFC - four days between their last game and leg one, and then no games between leg one and two, allowing them to fully focus on the final.
Of course, the Whitecaps face a much different reality to LAFC and Seattle, for example, who had to deal with the final being two legs, whereas the Whitecaps have to navigate only 90 minutes if they’re to become champions, but most teams would take that trade-off given the schedule the Whitecaps have had.
Yet, that hasn’t bothered the Whitecaps, who continue to take care of business. With their 0-0 draw against Minnesota, they’ve extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 games, while extending their lead atop the Western Conference to five points (with a game in hand on most below them), and cutting the deficit behind first place Philadelphia Union in the Supporters Shield race to one point (also sitting with a game in hand on them).
With the final this weekend postponing the MLS game they previously had scheduled against the Portland Timbers, they could make up more ground in both of those races while not even playing, too, as they gain another match in hand due that postponement, giving them plenty to play for once they shift their attention back to MLS.
Before then, however, they’ve got a pretty important matter to attend to in this final, of course. Even if it may have snuck on them, they have been planning for this game for a while now, as head coach Jesper Sørensen coyly mentioned this week.
“We have not been talking much about that game, we can do it now, but everybody knows that it's been there,” he said after the match vs. Minnesota.
“It’s a special game, because if that’s not a special game, then special games do not exist.”
Speaking of that fixture congestion over the last few weeks, however, it may have potentially cost the team some results, as they’ve drawn four of their last five games, but it’s also given them a chance to audition several players for that final, while helping work some key names back to fitness.
Unfortunately, one of those names won’t be Ryan Gauld, who remains sidelined with a knee injury sustained back on March 8th, but given how the Whitecaps have fared without him, they’ll feel ready to take on this game with him sidelined, even if they’ll miss his quality in key moments. For all of the success the Whitecaps have had this year, earning deserved plaudits due to their attractive style of play, their ability to weather moments of adversity and tough injuries might be their most impressive skill, as they’ve done that without ever wavering from their game model.
No doubt, however, that their game model is stronger when they have their best available squad, so while they’ll bemoan Gauld’s absence, having Sam Adekugbe and Mathías Laborda back fit is a plus, as that pair have also missed significant time this season.
On the flip side, Gauld won’t be the only piece they’re missing - Sebastian Berhalter will also be unavailable for the final due to yellow card accumulation, as he picked up yellow cards in each of the Whitecaps' two legs of their semi-final vs. Inter Miami. Given that he’s stepped up in a big way in Gauld’s absence, putting in four consecutive player of the match performances for the Whitecaps in the Champions Cup between their quarter-final tie vs. Pumas UNAM and in that semi-final vs. Miami, scoring three goals and adding two assists, that’ll be another big hole to fill.
For a team that has had 18 different players accumulate 500 or more minutes in all competitions, however, including 17 players who have played at least 180 minutes in this competition, they know that they have players ready to step up.
Yet, that’s why this team will feel so confident heading into this final, despite all of the adversity they’ve dealt with over the past few months. That’s been the story of this run, one that has been so unpredictable, on so many fronts, making it feel like a culmination of several years of hard work up until this point.
“It’s been quite the journey,” White reflected, having joined the club in 2021. “When I came in, the team wasn't in a great spot, even the year after, we didn't do too well, either. But each year, we've played better, we've performed better. We ended in the same fashion each year, but the product was better and better, and this year has been the culmination of years of hard work on and off the field to make everything come together.”
Every chapter led to this.
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) May 29, 2025
The Concacaf @TheChampions Cup Final goes down this Sunday. 🏆 #VWFC | #ConcaChampions pic.twitter.com/li9Ec6Ihhl
When peeling back the curtain and looking at what’s been so special about this journey, however, several things stand out. First, there’s the reality that the Whitecaps have truly come out of nowhere, as there was nothing to suggest they were capable of making a deep run when compared to the past MLS teams that have gone deep in this competition.
When looking at the last five MLS teams to reach the final, which include the Columbus Crew (2024), LAFC (2023, 2020), Seattle Sounders (2022), and Toronto FC (2018), each of those teams had a history of success within MLS in the years leading up to their final appearance. The Crew won two MLS Cups in the four years before their final appearance last year (2020, 2023), LAFC did an MLS Cup and Supporters Shield double in 2022 before reaching the 2023 final, Seattle won MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019 ahead of their 2022 win, while Toronto FC won a treble (Supporters Shield, Canadian Championship, MLS Cup) in 2017 before falling short in the final in 2018.
Meanwhile, since their arrival to MLS in 2011, the Whitecaps have never reached the conference finals of the MLS Cup playoffs, sitting with just two series wins and four overall wins in their playoff history, and other than a 3rd place Supporters Shield finish in 2015, they’ve never finished higher than eighth in the regular season, either.
They have won trophies, sitting with four Canadian Championship wins, including three straight from 2022 to 2024, but they’ve even underperformed in that competition historically, given that just three to five teams were participating in the 2010s, which was dominated by Toronto FC and CF Montréal.
Because of that, it would show how unprecedented it’d be for them to lift this trophy, as there have been MLS teams with much better resumes that have fallen short in this tournament, even beyond the four who have made the final in the past decade.
Speaking of that, however, what’s been so special about this team has been how good they’ve been in MLS, as they’ve been near the top of the Supporters Shield all year long (and remain first in points per game). Usually, teams who make deep runs have had to sacrifice success in league play - there’s no better example of that than the 2022 Sounders, who missed the playoffs for the only time in their history after expending a lot of energy on winning the Champions Cup, while 2018 Toronto FC missed the playoffs by 14 points despite winning that treble the year prior.
What all of that drives home, however, is how good the Whitecaps' depth has been. In recent years, making deep CCC runs hasn’t hurt teams as much as before - LAFC still made the MLS Cup final in 2023, while the Columbus Crew still finished second in the Supporters Shield race last year - but both teams did that off the back of their strong depth, showing why many see them among the best MLS have ever seen.
After long struggling in that area, the Whitecaps now have similar depth, doing a great job of maximizing all of the roster-building avenues available to them, and that’s what’s allowing them to navigate this busy stretch of games without any worry, vaulting them into the conversation with teams like LA and Columbus.
“We had to build this step by step,” Whitecaps CEO and Sporting Director, Axel Schuster, said ahead of the final. “We wanted to build sustainably, but that’s why I have to say thank you to our ownership group, because they were good with this, they gave us the time, they were always convinced that we were on the right path.”
“It takes time to build, because in MLS, you cannot change things quickly because of the roster rules that you have, you have to get draft picks, you have to find the right player under the cap, you need the right domestic players. That takes time, because every team needs a good basis of good domestic players to be successful, and you cannot change that overnight. Building in MLS takes a little bit longer, but we are feeling good about where we are right now, and I can tell you already, we are already thinking about the next step.”
Fittingly, on that last point, that all leads to the final thing that has made this Whitecaps team so impressive - they’ve been unafraid of the moment, even as the stages have gotten grander.
That started in round one, where they took on CD Saprissa, falling 2-1 in leg one in Jesper Sørensen’s first-ever match after joining the club this offseason. That result could’ve sunk them, but they rose with a 2-0 leg two victory at BC Place, and they’ve had wings since then, as they showed when they eliminated CF Monterrey in the Round of 16 and Pumas in the quarter-finals, doing both on away goals after gritty second leg road draws, having previously never eliminated a Mexican opponent in any knockout game in their MLS era.
Then, for good measure, they didn’t just beat Inter Miami in the semi-finals - they demolished the tournament favourites, led by the best player to ever play this game and some of his talented friends, doing so on a 5-1 aggregate result.
Relive the Whitecaps' Road to the Final 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/61I6q0DzCq
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) May 27, 2025
Now, they must rise once again for the biggest match of them all, but that shouldn’t be a problem - at this point, this has been the story of their tournament, one that will stand alone as one of the best that this competition has ever seen, as they’ve gone out swinging in every game that they’ve played.
“(Jesper Sørensen) tells us to enjoy all of this success, and every moment of this journey.” Ali Ahmed explained. “This is everything we've been working for the past two years, and we’ve talked about it as a group in locker room and on flights, we’ve been building to hit another level, and now we’re right there in terms of winning trophies, so we’re talking about it, how we’ve got to enjoy it.”
GOAL 🏔️🏔️
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) April 10, 2025
THE WHITECAPS SCORE AGAIN! 🤯
Tristan Blackmon finds the in-game equalizer, the 3-3 aggregate AND the away goals advantage and #VWFC have minutes to go before clinching a semi-final berth in #ConcaChampions 🏆 pic.twitter.com/bfDTvI6XDl
Long seen as a good but not great team who weren’t capable of getting over that hump, they’ve done an excellent job of shedding that label, all thanks to a renewed mentality that has started with Sørensen since his arrival. All of a sudden, what has long been thought to be impossible has become very possible, as this team now dreams of lifting every trophy available to them, starting with this Champions Cup.
Circling back to the beginning of this piece, however, that’s why it’s made this lead-up so fitting. Before, this final might’ve been too big of a mental hurdle, one that thinking about would’ve caused them to trip up in their other matches, perhaps putting them on the back foot for this final.
Instead, this team let the final linger on the horizon, knowing that when it came down to it, they’d be ready, but knowing that preparation shouldn’t otherwise get in the way of their other goals they have as a team. Ultimately, that’s what distinguishes the top teams from the rest - they relish big games, but still know how to get up for the other matches a season will throw at them.
Let’s not get it twisted, however - now that the final is here, however, the Whitecaps are ready to do whatever it takes to beat Cruz Azul at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario on Sunday, June 1st.
It won’t be easy, as it can be tough to get results down in Mexico, although it’ll help the Whitecaps confidence to know they’ve already gotten results down there on their last two visits to the country, including their last visit to the Estadio Olímpico Universitario for the tie against Pumas (in which they escaped elimination to advance on a dramatic stoppage time winner), and are armed with players who have played tough away games in the country before.
For those who are unfamiliar with the heat, altitude and rowdy fans, an away match against a team like Cruz Azul can be a tough beast, so it helps to know what to expect.
“CONCACAF is a different and difficult region, and every game presents a unique challenge,” said Adekugbe, who has played in Mexico with the CanMNT in the past. “Mexico is a very difficult place to play, I've experienced that with the national team, but it’ll be an intense game with a lot of quality, and obviously, the altitude is a big factor, as well, but all we can do is just focus on what got us there and take control of that.”
At the same time, while they know it’s a big game, they’ll treat it like any other they’ve had this season - they will go out and play their attractive, possession-based brand of soccer, doing their best to maximize their strengths while limiting what their opponents can do, doing what they can to exert control on the match and give themselves the best chance of winning with strong play on both sides of the ball. Ideally, they’ll hold a lot of possession, create some big chances for themselves, and keep Cruz Azul out of their box, much like they did against Miami, for example.
“They’re an experienced team,” Sørensen said. “We're up against very experienced players with a lot of quality, they’re the best team we’re up against so far, there's a reason why they’re in the final, beating very strong opponents on the way.”
From there, a lot will be out of their control - they are playing away, at altitude, against a historic giant of Mexican football and within Concacaf. Despite that, they know that if they play the way they’ve done so far in 2025, that won’t matter - certainly, it hasn’t mattered on the journey here.
In the end, it’s just like any other game. Only this time, a chance to make history beckons, which will be a more than fair reward for what this team has done to get to this point.
“We know there’s a lot made about the heat, altitude, but still, we have an opportunity to win, we know how we have to play to make the most of that opportunity, and we have players that can make the difference,” Sørensen offered.
“So it’s all about the football, managing moments, and seeing how well you can play the game as a team. Then, from there, you can try to profit from the right moments in the game, and make the right decisions.”
