Angel Sepulveda completed a brace with a goal on either side of halftime and Cruz Azul romped to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps to win the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup final on Sunday night in Mexico City.
Sepulveda’s eighth and ninth goals of the tournament made him comfortably the competition’s top scorer, four ahead of Vancouver’s Brian White.
Ignacio Rivero, Lorenzo Faravelli and Mateusz Bogusz also scored before halftime for Cruz Azul, which won CONCACAF’s top club honor for the seventh time in its history and the first since 2013-14.
The triumph guarantees the Mexico City club a spot in the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. It came two weeks after manager Vicente Sanchez’s squad lost a tight playoff semifinal series against Club America to close their 2025 Liga MX Clausura campaign.
Vancouver had earned draws in Mexico against CF Monterrey in the round of 16 and Pumas UNAM in the quarterfinals to continue its path to a first continental final.
But those were part of a two-leg, total-goals series. The Whitecaps entered Sunday knowing they needed to win the match outright or force 120 minutes and penalties to capture the trophy as heavy underdogs.
Perhaps that extra burden weighed heavy as Cruz Azul ran rampant and by halftime had guaranteed Vancouver would be the seventh MLS club out of eight finalists in the modern era to finish on the losing end.
Rivero opened the scoring in the eighth minute. Carlos Rotondi’s tackle turned Andres Cubas’ poorly weighted pass backward into a break opportunity for Rivero, and the Uruguayan made no mistake with a clean finish inside the far post past Yohei Takaoka.
Faravelli doubled the advantage 20 minutes later with some sensational individual play, forcing a turnover himself before hammering a half volley from about 24 yards that caught the inside of the left post on its way past Takaoka.
Sepulveda had his first goal on a tap-in of Rotondi’s cross in the 37th minute, and Bogusz’s heavily deflected strike also found the inside of the woodwork at 45 minutes to complete Cruz Azul’s dream first half.
Vancouver’s nightmare had one more chapter, with Sepulveda adding the final tally in the 50th minute, paving the way for an ovation upon his 77th-minute exit.
–Field Level Media
