Will Vancouver's Whitecaps shine like in '79? Fans hope for historic win in Sunday's CONCACAF final

The Vancouver Whitecaps are set to play one of the biggest matches in franchise history as they take on Mexican team Cruz Azul in the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup on Sunday in Mexico.

It's a game with huge implications for the Major League Soccer (MLS) club, with the winner of the final set to play in the expanded FIFA Club World Cup.

"This is a special game and if it's not a special game, then special games don't exist," said Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sorenson.

A victory would be the club's biggest since the Whitecaps' 1979 North American Soccer League (NASL) championship win that galvanized the city. It would also come with benefits, said Samuel Rowan, who is managing editor of The Third Sub, a website that focuses on Canadian soccer.

"If you win this trophy, the amount of money you're able to bring into the club, the fact you're able to go play in a club World Cup ... It's a huge opportunity to showcase MLS, to showcase Canadian soccer on a global stage," Rowan said.

The Whitecaps will face Cruz Azul in the Liga MX club's home stadium of Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City, which sits more than 2,200 metres above sea level. And as the 'Caps take on one of Mexico's top teams, they'll be doing so without top player Sebastian Berhalter, who will miss the championship due to yellow card accumulation.

Peter Czimmermann, president of the Southsiders supporters' club, says he'll be among the 700 or so Whitecaps fans expected to make the trip to the Mexican capital to sing and chant their team to victory.

"Experiencing a cup final like this, it's going to be something I don't think I'm prepared for ...This is going to be something else and I'm really here for it," Czimmermann said.

Vancouver restaurants and bars are getting ready to host watch parties and the Whitecaps will also host an outdoor watch party at Terry Fox Plaza on Sunday, with kickoff set for 6 p.m. PT.

The Whitecaps head into the match with an unbeaten streak that stands at 15 games (7-0-8) across all competitions. A third of the way through the MLS campaign, Vancouver sits atop the Western Conference standings with a 9-1-5 record.

The 'Caps have also stunned giants in CONCACAF Champions Cup play this year, ousting five-time champions CF Monterrey from the round of 16 and besting Lionel Messi's Inter Miami twice in the semifinals.

The CONCACAF Champions Cup features the best teams from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean to crown a regional champion.

Carl Valentine, a former Whitecaps player and current club ambassador, sees parallels between the current squad and his Whitecaps team that won the NASL championship in 1979 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

The Whitecaps' 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the Soccer Bowl marked the peak of the team's popularity with tens of thousands pouring into the streets back home in Vancouver for a victory parade.

"This is a team, not a collection of stars. A team," Whitecaps midfielder Alan Ball — a World Cup champion and MVP of the 1979 playoffs — told Province newspaper columnist Jim Taylor after the win.

Valentine said he sees a similar ethos with the current 'Caps team, a group of hard-working players who defeated Messi's Inter Miami on the way to the cup final, just like the 1979 team, which defeated an L.A. Aztecs club featuring Dutch legend Johan Cruyff and a star-studded New York Cosmos team on their way to the NASL title.

"We had marquee players on the field, but it was a collective," Valentine said. "When we went up against the New York Cosmos, money was no object for them. They just had stars, ex-World Cup winners all over. They didn't like to play us."

A report from The Canadian Press at the time said an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 fans lined the streets of Vancouver to celebrate the team's victory.

Valentine recalls that on the plane ride home, some questioned the plans for a parade.

"Some of the players were like, 'Well, this is going to be embarrassing. I hope some people show up,'" he said. "And of course when we got to the airport, it was mobbed, it was packed."

The Canadian Press reported that fans ignored "normal airport procedure, pushed past barriers and climbed onto luggage carousels, pressing against the door through which the team was to enter."

The 1979 win sparked a wave of interest in soccer in the region, Valentine said. He hopes a win Sunday will inspire a new generation of fans.

"This team's catching fire and catching everyone's attention, [we're] seeing a lot of kids at the stadium," he said. "You've got to build that next generation, but I also think it's brought back some of the old Whitecaps fans that used to come out and support us back in the day."