Cruz Azul cruises past Vancouver Whitecaps to win Concacaf Champions League in style

Cruz Azul took advantage of the Witecaps of Vancouver and was able to win their Seventh Concacaf Champions Cup title in club history in a 5-0 triumph. It took only eight minutes for Ignacio Riviero to open the score after a turnover from Vancouver, and the goals continued to flow from there. Cruz Azul had a number of excellent finishes, but they scored four goals of four shots on goal to continue in the first half.

With that seventeenth Champions Cup title, Cruz Azul has now matched Club America for 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, causing him to bring nine total goals, but the feel-good story of the Vancouver WhiteCaps came to a screaming Halt like most MLS stories in recent years.

This is the fourth consecutive time that an MLS side and a League MX -side have confronted in a Champions Cup -Final, and three of those times the Liga MX side continued to collect the championship. With the dominance of Cruz Azul, Vancouver never took a chance in the game and could not perform their game.

Not having Sebastian Berhalter for the final was a big loss because the 23-year-old yielded during this Vancouver tournament, but because of the accumulation of the yellow card he missed the final. Berhalter was a player who performed in the absence of the injured Ryan Gauld to pace the caps. Without both this team was a shadow of itself, which has been a common face for MLS sides in this final.

It can be difficult to keep calmness in a moment of this size, especially with the competition participating in Mexico, but given how prepared Jesper Sorensen has had his team for everything that has come on their side, falls so far as a surprise. On the way to this final, Vancouver gave a draw in Monterrey and also went away to Pumas, but a third trip to Mexico turned out to be too much.

Now Vancouver will have to ensure that this disappointment does not derail an excellent regular season where they are on top of the Western Conference. The schedules remain between MLS and Liga MX and games such as these tones see how far MLS should go to regularly go toe with Mexican teams. Vancouver will not have much time to rest because they go back to League Play organizing the Seattle Sounders on 8 June.