Monterrey advances to knockout rounds at the Club World Cup with 4-0 victory over Urawa

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Monterrey scored three goals in a 10-minute span of the first half and went on to defeat the Urawa Red Diamonds 4-0 on Wednesday night and advance to the knockout rounds in the Club World Cup.

Monterrey finished second in Group E behind Inter Milan, which defeated River Plate 2-0 in a simultaneous game in Seattle. Monterrey plays Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday at Atlanta in the round of 16.

The match drew just 14,312 to the 89,702-capacity Rose Bowl.

Nelson Deossa ripped the ball from 35 yards out that Urawa goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa got a hand on but couldn’t stop in the 30th minute to put Monterrey up 1-0.

After a cooling break, Germán Berterame tucked the ball into the bottom right corner of the net to make it 2-0. Jesús Corona added another goal from distance that lofted up and dropped into the goal in the 39th.

Berterame added a second goal in stoppage time.

The Red Diamonds had been eliminated after losses to River Plate and Inter Milan.

Liga MX’s Monterrey was scrappy from the start. Alphonso Alvarado had a header in the opening minutes that hit the crossbar.

Key Moment

Sergio Ramos had scored the only goal for Monterrey in its first two matches before the team unleashed their three goals in the first half, sending the throngs of Rayados fans at the Rose Bowl into a frenzy. Monterrey, which started the day in third in the standings, needed to score because goals mattered in the group standings.

Takeaways

With a commanding lead, Monterrey eased up in the waning minutes out of caution because four players were handed yellow cards in the previous match against River Plate. If any of the four were carded again, they would be unavailable for the round of 16 match.

What They Said

“We do not know how we are going to improve on this, but each of us felt lessons and learned lessons individually. So I think we can use this going forward,” — Urawa captain Takahiro Sekine through a translator.

“We got a win, that is what we were looking for. There was a lot of sacrifice in the match. It was a tough start, from the very first match until now, they were all tough. So we did grind our teeth and go for it,” — Berterame, selected man of the match.

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