VANCOUVER \u2014 The Vancouver Whitecaps are through to the second round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup after beating Costa Rica\u2019s C.S. Cartagines 2-0 on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The Major League Soccer club dominated play through much of the game, but struggled to break through until Kenji Cabrera booted a shot in the 58th minute. <\/p>\n
Sebastian Berhalter gave the \u2018Caps some breathing room with a goal in the 80th minute. <\/p>\n
Vancouver won the opening round series 2-0 on aggregate after the two sides battled to a 0-0 draw in Cartago, Costa Rica, last Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The \u2018Caps will now face their regional rivals the Seattle Sounders in the round of 16. <\/p>\n
Vancouver will host the first game on March 12 and the second game will go in Spokane, Wash., on March 18.<\/p>\n
The Whitecaps\u2019 domination started early on Wednesday, but the team struggled to finish its chances.<\/p>\n
Homegrown midfielder Jeevan Badwal had a great chance in the 10th minute, blasting a shot off from the edge of the penalty area, only to see Cartagines defender Fernan Faeron get a leg on it inside the six-yard box, sending the ball over the net. <\/p>\n
Striker Brian White came close in the 24th minute, too, but his right-footed attempt from in tight was blocked on the goal line by Carlos Barahona. <\/p>\n
Cartagines goalkeeper Kevin Brinceno kept the score at 0-0 in the 36th minute, diving to make a last-second stop on a rocket from the foot of Emmanuel Sabbi. <\/p>\n
Sabbi was cut down inside the penalty area three minutes later and referee Marco Ortiz pointed at the spot to signal a penalty kick. <\/p>\n
A pack of Cartagines players appealed to him at the side of the area, but the official held fast. <\/p>\n
White lined up for the kick and sent a rolling shot along the turf as Brinceno dove and got a touch on the ball, sending it just wide of the post. <\/p>\n
Vancouver outshot the visitors 9-5 across the first half and held a 3-0 advantage in on-target shots. <\/p>\n
The Whitecaps continued to press in the second half, bringing on Thomas Muller to add another offensive spark. <\/p>\n
The German soccer legend came within inches in the 51st minute, jumping up inside the six-yard box for a header that hit the post.<\/p>\n
The home side finally broke through in the 58th minute following a corner kick. <\/p>\n
Berhalter swung the ball in and defender Tristan Blackmon jumped up to get a head on it, sending the ball toward the back post, where Cabrera booted it in to give the \u2018Caps a 1-0 lead. <\/p>\n
Cartagines nearly levelled the score in the 74th minute.<\/p>\n
Whitecaps midfielder Edier Ocampo chopped down Suhander Zuniga at the corner of the penalty area, giving Cartagines an opportune free kick. Barahona chipped a ball up and over Vancouver\u2019s wall and \u2018Caps \u2018keeper Yohei Takaoka came off his line to poke it away. <\/p>\n
Berhalter doubled the lead in the 80th minute, but it took him two tries. <\/p>\n
First, the American midfielder sent a blast sailing from the top of the penalty area, but the shot was blocked. Berhalter ran in after his own rebound and sent a second-chance shot in past Brinceno to give the \u2018Caps a 2-0 cushion. <\/p>\n
The Whitecaps will return to action on Saturday when they host Toronto FC in MLS play. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 The Vancouver Whitecaps are through to the second round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup after beating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-500068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}