PRE-GAME: 3 things the Whitecaps MUST do to defeat CF Monterrey in Concacaf Champions Cup (March 12, 2025)
The Vancouver Whitecaps are looking to continue their adventure in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup this week, as they get set for the second leg of their Round of 16 tie against CF Monterrey on Wednesday.
After drawing 1-1 in leg one at BC Place last Wednesday, Monterrey carries a slight advantage thanks to the away goal, but the tie remains wide-open heading into this second matchup.
For the Whitecaps, it represents a big chance for them to do something special - not only are they looking to beat a Liga MX side for just the second time in their MLS history (and first time on Mexican soil), they’ll reach the final eight of this competition for the first time since 2017, too.
If they’re to achieve that goal of advancing, however, a tall task awaits. Not only have the Whitecaps never beaten a Liga MX side away from home, but they’ve never scored, something they need to do if they’re to win this tie, as a 0-0 draw would eliminate them.
Against a Monterrey team that has won this competition five times, doing so twice in the past six years (in 2019 and 2021), it’s not going to be easy, but it’s not impossible, something that the Whitecaps will cling to as they get set to tackle this tough challenge.
With that in mind, here’s what they’ll need to do in order to advance:
Keep control from first leg
If the Whitecaps fail to advance past this round, while it’ll be natural to look at the outcome of this game as a big reason why that was, it’s worth noting that the first leg last Wednesday was a big missed opportunity for the Whitecaps to put themselves in a stronger position ahead of the second leg.
There, the Whitecaps dominated, but failed to capitalize on one of their best performances of the last 10 years.
The numbers give an idea of how well the Whitecaps looked - they outshout Monterrey 19-7, held 66% of possession and had 3.01 xG to their guests 0.4 - yet, they weren’t able to get the victory they deserved thanks to some haphazard finishing, a defensive mistake and a Monterrey goalkeeping masterclass.
Yet, while it’ll be easy to look at that and suggest the Whitecaps might struggle to replicate that level of performance, as it’s rare a team like Monterrey gets outplayed like that on multiple occasions, the Whitecaps do have reasons to believe they can play like that again.
Off to their best-ever start in the MLS era, having won three games in a row to start an MLS season for the first time ever, that Monterrey game was just one of many examples of what’s worked well for this Whitecaps team to start 2025.
Not only are they winning matches, but they’re dictating a lot more of play - they’re averaging close to 60% possession under new head coach Jesper Sørensen, having averaged closer to 47% under old manager Vanni Sartini. Plus, they’re not just holding onto the ball to hold onto it - they’re generating three shots more a game, and more than 0.6 xG more, as they’ve been far more dangerous with the ball, too.
Of course, it’s early days in the Sørensen era, so one could chalk this run up to a new coach bounce, but there does feel like a certain level of sustainability in terms of what his team is doing, as their actual output is nearly identical to their expected output.
Despite still being at a stage where they would be expected to be still figuring out the system, they’ve done a great job of finding a balance between controlling the ball and being dangerous, which has made them hard for teams to defend.
Therefore, heading into this second leg knowing that they need to score, it’ll be imperative that they continue to find a way to control the ball. It’s never easy to do that away to a Liga MX side, much less against one like Monterrey who themselves have averaged 54% of possession in 2024-2025, but they showed in leg one that that’s a battle they’re willing to wage.
They do that, and the chances will come, as they have so far this year - from there, they’ll just hope they can finish them, something they’ve typically done a much better job of doing in other matches than they did in the first leg, a match they’ll hope is just an outlier for them at this stage.
Build on defensive growth
Another thing that will frustrate the Whitecaps from leg one isn’t just their lack of goals from the chances they generated, but the goal they conceded, which came on a broken play.
Coming on a simple long ball out of the back, the Whitecaps defensive line was oddly out of sorts, which kept Monterrey striker, Roberto de la Rosa, well onside for a breakaway.
Other than that, however, they were flawless, yet that one goal they conceded proved to be quite costly for them in terms of their ability to pick up a win.
Yet, that’s the challenge of playing Liga MX opposition - no matter how well you play, these teams can hurt you in so many ways, both in terms of how they play, and the players they can turn to.
In Monterrey’s case, they’ve certainly got no shortage of options to turn to in the attack - not only is there de la Rosa, but Germán Berterame is one of the best forwards in this region, Sergio Canales is a dangerous creator and Lucas Ocampos is a former Argentine international - and there are still probably a handful more players worth noting on top of them.
Therefore, the Whitecaps will look to replicate their overall defensive play from that first leg, but without the fatal mistake that cost them, as that’s been a theme for them to start the season.
Overall, they’ve been excellent defensively from a numbers perspective, allowing just eight shots and 0.83 xG per game on average, but they’ve kept just two clean sheets in six matches.
The good news? One of those clean sheets came in their most recent match, which was against CF Montréal in MLS play on the weekend, where they kept their guests off the scoreboard while limiting them to eight shots in a 2-0 win.
There, they finally seemed to avoid making the sort of mistakes that have hurt them on some of the goals they’ve conceded, where one or two individual mistakes have tended to snowball, tearing apart the strong team structure they’ve had.
Because of that, look for them to build on that Montréal clean sheet in this game. Especially given that they have a goal to give - conceding a goal in leg two doesn’t change the fact that they still need to score at least one goal to have a chance at advancing - the pressure isn’t on them to be perfect on Wednesday, but to be able to maintain the level of play they’ve shown as a whole, while avoiding any fatal mistakes.
Learn from 2024
Lastly, but certainly not least, it’s worth noting that one of the biggest things the Whitecaps will have to focus on isn’t tactical, but instead a past learning lesson.
Often, in matches of this magnitude, past experience can be crucial in helping give a team an edge, as it can be massive to be able to turn to past mistakes if one is to avoid making them.
Therefore, look for the Whitecaps to channel what they learned just over 13 months ago in this competition, where they faced a similar scenario in their 2024 first round tie against Monterrey’s city rivals, Tigres UANL.
In that tie, the Whitecaps also drew 1-1 in leg one, doing so despite looking like they’d be able to grab a win - in that match, they led 1-0 until the 88th minute before a free kick from André-Pierre Gignac broke their hearts late.
As a result, they headed to Mexico needing to score, but they never found the goal they needed, falling 3-0 in a game that probably flattered Tigres, but also reflected how hard the Whitecaps pushed for that goal.
Yet, while that left them heartbroken as they pondered how they failed to score despite generating 1.28 xG (a number that doesn’t reflect the quality of chances they created as there were a couple of occasions where dangerous attacks didn’t even end up in shots), they can look at that game as a key learning lesson, especially given that a lot of players on this year’s team were there for that loss.
More specifically, they can head into this game knowing that despite going up against a giant of the region on the road, they don’t have to play timidly. It won’t be easy, especially given that they’ll be without two key pieces in captain Ryan Gauld and Sam Adekugbe, but one key aspect of their strong start to the season is that they’ve been able to rely on contributions from other names in their roster when asked to step up.
Plus, there are a few factors that can help the Whitecaps, too.
Firstly, Monterrey’s struggling in Liga MX play right now, sitting in ninth in the Apertura table, so it’s not as if they’re in their usual top form right now. Secondly, they’re coming off a tough matchup on the weekend, where they drew Cruz Azul 1-1 on the road, so it’s not as if they had the chance to rest and fully focus on this tie. Lastly, this game won’t be played at Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA, but instead at Estadio Corona in Torreón, meaning that this game will have more of a neutral site feel to it, which always favours the visitors.
Because of that, look for the Whitecaps to take advantage of those factors, while also using their 2024 experience to their advantage, allowing them to create a shock result.
