ANALYSIS + HIGHLIGHTS: Whitecaps stunned late as Saprissa battle back in Concacaf Champions Cup Leg 1

C.D. Saprissa found some late heroics at the perfect time, as they defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in Leg 1 of their first-round 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup tie on Thursday thanks to a 95th-minute goal from Ariel Rodríguez. 

Before the dramatic ending, the Whitecaps looked to be in control, as it didn’t take long for them to find a pivotal away goal, having done well to survive an early Saprissa push. After some nice play in midfield, J.C. Ngando found Ali Ahmed in space, and the CanMNT winger did well to seek out the back post run of Ryan Gauld, who did the rest with an excellent right-footed finish into the bottom corner to give his team the lead. 

To Saprissa’s credit, however, they found a way to respond to that early in the second half. After doing well to find space in the middle, Mariano Torres decided to fire a shot from distance, and he struck it perfectly, finding the bottom left corner with a beautiful strike to tie the game at 1-1. 

From there, that paved the way for some late heroics from Saprissa in the 95th minute. After a nice throw-in routine, the ball fell to Rodríguez in the box, and he did well to turn and fire a powerful strike into the top corner to give his team the late victory. 

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