A valiant performance in Mexico was not enough to see Vancouver Whitecaps through in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, as they fell to Tigres 3-0 to end their continental hopes.

Vancouver couldn’t capitalize on a bright start to the match and the second half brought a more dominant Tigres side, who scored two goals to get the job done, even though the scoreline obscured another solid performance from the Caps.

The Caps largely went with the same lineup they rolled with a week ago, with a couple changes. The most welcome development was the return of Andres Cubas to the starting XI, joined by Sebastian Berhalter, playing as a modified right wingback. Tigres, meanwhile, made four changes to strengthen their lineup at El Volcan.

The Caps nearly caught Tigres asleep playing out of the back just minutes into the game, when Nahuel Guzman misplayed a pass and it was scooped up by Ryan Gauld, who set up Damir Kreilach. But the forward totally whiffed on the one-time shot, denying the Caps a dream start to the evening.

Vancouver was not as inclined to retreat into a defensive shell early, as one might have expected. Instead, they kept the pressure on early, winning the ball in the Tigres defensive third and winning lots of set pieces. Mathias Laborda put a free header off a corner kick wide in the second real missed opportunity early.

Tigres began to amp up the temperature, helped by a couple of Caps turnovers in unfortunate spots. It began to settle into more of a situation where the Caps looked to win second balls coming out of a failed Tigres attack and spring a counter. The home side was pretty deft at using tactical fouls and good counter pressure to neutralize this threat.

The Caps held their own in the first half with relatively minimal involvement from Brian White and not many looks for Ryan Gauld in the attacking third.

But the away side opened the second half firmly on the back foot, however, with Takaoka called on to make his first save of the night just minutes into the second 45 minutes. Indeed, the Caps were pinned firmly on the back foot and, when a team like Tigres delivers that level of pressure, something has to give.

Ozziel Herrera left a nice cutback for Fernando Gorriaran, whose header hit the crossbar, only to fall to Luis Quinones, who slotted into the open net and capitalized on the dominant start to the half and effectively put the tie away.

Vancouver kept fighting, with Brian White finally getting involved, played in 1v1 with Guzman but instead of hitting a shot, tried to square it twice for an onrushing attacker. It was an understandable, if ill-guided, decision but it continued the thread of Vancouver being unable to do anything with a positive spell of play.

Fafa Picault’s introduction into the match helped give the Caps a much needed burst, as well as the first shot on target for Vancouver. Picault’s interplay with Kreilach (the first time the two have played together) and his pace and energy brought a new dynamic that took advantage of the more generous space in the midfield and attacking third.

Tigres killed off any hope shortly before second half stoppage time, with Herrera polishing off a lifted cross with a well timed back post run that left Takaoka helpless and sending the Mexican side through to the round of 16.

To really epitomize the night, Brian White whiffed on a sitter consolation goal in the final minutes, leaving the Caps empty handed, and Nicolas Ibanez was able to grab a late goal to put the exclamation point on the tie.

Stray Thoughts

• His inopportune yellow card early notwithstanding, Andres Cubas’ return to the starting lineup was everything you could have asked for and more. When things were cooking for Vancouver in the first half and Tigres could scarcely make it out of their own half, it was largely due to the energy and ball winning efforts of Cubas.
• I’m not sure if it was an intentional attempt to throw the visitors off but I don’t think I’ve seen a field that causes as much slips as the Estadio Universario did on Wednesday. The banana peel that Kreilach slipped on probably cost them a goal.
• Getting thrown into a new role against Tigres isn’t ideal but Sebastian Berhalter never really looked comfortable in the right wingback role. The position should in theory play into one of his stronger suits (passing) but even that was off today and Berhalter lacked the physicality and pace to hang in there. He still has a role to play for this team, of course, but this might heighten the urgency to find a new right back.
• Similarly, let us never repeat the Ryan Gauld at left back experiment ever again. A strange choice from Sartini to do so at a decisive point in the second half.
• Ultimately this was one that boils down to the Caps being unable to take their chances, whether due to rust, bad luck or less talent, and Tigres taking theirs. This was hardly a toothless performance and Vanni Sartini and his side should always be commended for playing fairly open in one of the most difficult away tests in CONCACAF. But when the Caps didn’t get their early goal, you could tell which way it was ultimately going to go.

Man of the Match

Cubas is the choice here, as the attacking options wound up being unspectacular for one reason or another. I thought each member of the backline was quite good against a stiff test and I give Picault credit for shining in a sub appearance that probably started 10 minutes too late.