ANALYSIS + HIGHLIGHTS: Vancouver FC 🇨🇦 suffer defeat to Cruz Azul 🇲🇽 in Concacaf Champions Cup, Leg 1
Vancouver FC spread their wings for the first time in the Concacaf Champions Cup on Wednesday night, but quickly learned how challenging it is to fly at that altitude.
Still, playing against a Cruz Azul side that, less than a year ago, were crowned tournament champions, Vancouver FC showed tremendous fight in a 3-0 first-leg loss at a sold-out Willoughby Stadium.
Cruz Azul began their title defence with a statement of intent from the moment the lineups were released. They made just two changes from this past Friday's 4-3 victory over Juarez in Liga MX action. Emmanuel Ochoa, who was making his first professional start, replaced Andres Gudiño in net and Amaury Morales in for Omar Campos.
Vancouver FC, in contrast, featured six players making their club debuts: Morey Doner, Damiano Pacile, Luis Toomey, Mohamed Amissi, Marcello Polisi and Tom Field.
The Eagles set up in a compact 4-4-2, with Toomey and Amissi both playing incredibly central up top in order to deny the central channels.
The hosts had a half chance in the seventh minute, winning a free kick along the byline to the right of the Cruz Azul box. Toomey's delivery connected with Polisi, but he headed the ball wide.
As anticipated, Cruz Azul dictated the rest of the early exchanges and had a great chance to open the scoring in the 14th minute. Their danger man, Gabriel Férnandez, connected on a header from close range, but Callum Irving flashed across his net to push the ball off his own post and away from danger.
Férnandez continued to be Cruz Azul's primary threat. They consistently looked to target his aerial presence with crosses into the box. In the 24th minute, a blocked shot from Tom Field fell right into his path in the box. His strike deflected off teammate José Paradela and into an open net to make it 1-0.
The Eagles kept their nerve and continued to prove difficult for Cruz Azul to break down. The club they call 'La Máquina (The Machine) perhaps lacked characteristic sharpness in their final move, as they failed to make Vancouver pay on a few half-chances.
Just before the half, however, Cruz Azul delivered a gut punch. A bouncing strike from distance from Férnandez, his fifth shot of the half, was spilled by Irving. Morales was the first on hand, and the 20-year-old Cruz Azul wing-back doubled La Máquina's lead.
Cruz Azul wisely removed their lone potential liability at the half, bringing off the cautioned Gonzalo Piovi.
Vancouver FC stayed in the fight to begin the second half, and created perhaps their best chance of the match around the hour mark when Thierno Bah got himself in behind down the left flank. His shot from a tight angle, however, hit the outside of the net.
But the quality of Cruz Azul couldn't be denied, as an intricate three-pass move in the 65th minute played Agustin Palavecino into the box. He calmly slotted a low strike past Irving, adding a third for the visitors.
Five minutes later, shortly after coming onto the pitch, another Eagles debutant nearly got the visitors on the board. On the second phase of a free kick, the ball fell to the young attacker with Ochoa down and out, but he hit Amissi with his attempt, and it trickled wide.
Minutes later, David Norman Jr. took flight and forced a great save from Ochoa on an incredibly well-executed bicycle kick. The momentum had undoubtedly been turned, and looked like the Eagles would have a golden opportunity to get on the board when Bah was brought down in the box in the 76th minute. But after a VAR check, it was determined that Morales had made contact with the ball first -- and the penalty originally awarded was cancelled.
Cruz Azul saw out the remainder of the 90. But many in the new white kits of Vancouver FC gave a good account of themselves on Wednesday, including debutants Amissi and Polisi.
An emotional 90 minutes spilled over into some spicy stoppage time, which included a few coming togethers from both side, a yellow card shown to each team, perhaps providing something to watch for in the second leg.
The Eagles will be largely playing for pride when they travel down to Estadio Cuauhtémoc next Thursday. But they showed enough on Wednesday night to suggest they might be able to create a few memorable moments down in Mexico as well.
BOX SCORE
Lineups
Vancouver FC: Irving; Gee, Campagna, Field, Crawford (Norman Jr. 68'); Doner, Polisi (Ouattara 83'), Pecile (Proctor 67'), Bah; Toomey (Mezquida 67'), Amissi
Cruz Azul: Ochoa; Ditta, Lira, Piovi (Barragan 46'); Morales, Palavecino (Valdez 66'), Rodríguez (Levy 83'), Márquez; Paradela (Romero 83'), Rotondi (Campos 66'), Fernández
Goals
24' -- José Paradela (Cruz Azul)
44' -- Amaury Morales (Cruz Azul)
65' -- Agustín Palavecino (Cruz Azul)
Discipline
2' — Yellow: Damiano Pecile (Vancouver FC)
30' -- Yellow: Gonzalo Piovi (Cruz Azul)
82' -- Yellow: José Paradela (Cruz Azul)
90+1' -- Yellow: Nicolás Mezquida (Vancouver FC)
90+5' -- Yellow: Willer Ditta (Cruz Azul)
