June 2 – Mexican clubs maintained their vice-like grip on the Concacaf Champions Cup on Sunday with Cruz Azul emphatically beating Canada’s Vancouver Whitecaps 5-0 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City.
The win was the seventh time Cruz Azul have won Concacaf’s top tier club competition, putting them level as the all-time leader in Champions Cup history with cross-town rivals Club América. Club América lost their play-in for the 2025 Club World Cup on Saturday 1-0 against LAFC – a rare win for a US club side in international club competition.
Cruz Azul’s win qualifies them for the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the 2029 Club World Cup.
Mexican clubs have now won 19 out of the last 20 Concacaf Champions Cup. The Seattle Sounders are the only club to break the chain of Mexican dominance with their 2022 win over Tigres UNAL. In the last five finals MLS teams have ended up as runners-up.
Cruz Azul made relatively short work of stamping their authority over Vancouver who had beaten Pumas UNAM in the semi-finals and Monterrey in the quarter finals.
With four goals in the first half from Ignacio Rivero (8′), Lorenzo Faravelli (28′), Ángel Sepúlveda (37’) and Mateusz Bogusz (45′), Vancouver’s Mexican run of success was pretty much over. Sepúlveda added a fifth goal five minutes into the second half in case there was any doubt.
Sepúlveda ended the Champions Cup campaign as the competition’s top scorer with nine goals.
Cruz Azul have won the competition in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1996, and 1997, with their last win being in 2013–14. Head coach Vicente Sánchez won the first trophy of his managerial career. The Uruguayan previously lifted the Champions Cup as a player in 2003 with Toluca.
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