FIFA Club World Cup: Monterrey routs Urawa at Rose Bowl to advance

PASADENA — The last 2025 FIFA Club World Cup contest west of the Mississippi River concluded the intercontinental tournament’s six-match run at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night.

Mexico’s CF Monterrey showed that before the competition permanently moved to the East Coast for the conclusion of the group stage and forthcoming knockout rounds that it was happy to cover long distances.

Three first-half goals in a 10-minute span, including bangers from 36 and 24 yards out by midfielders Nelson Deossa and Jesus Corona, respectively, pushed the Liga MX powerhouse into the Round of 16 with a 4-0 domination of the scrappy but outgunned Urawa Red Diamonds from Saitama, Japan.

To advance out of the Group E, Monterrey, which played all three of its matches at the Rose Bowl, had to defeat the already eliminated Urawa, which arrived in the L.A. area stuck at the bottom of the group without a point after two matches.

Monterrey also needed to await the outcome of the match between Argentina’s River Plate and Italy’s Inter Milan in Seattle. With a win over Urawa and a loss from either side at Lumen Field or a scoreless draw, Monterrey would secure a trip to the knockout stage, and Milan obliged, winning 2-0.

“Up until minute 80 I didn’t know anything about that game,” Monterrey manager Domènec Torrent said through an interpreter. “We needed to control the things we can control.”

One of five CONCACAF teams participating in the 32-club event, Monterrey entered as the most successful side from the confederation ahead of its sixth Club World Cup appearance, including third-place runs in 2012 and 2019. Los Rayados, the striped ones, improved to 7-4-4 all-time with a win and two draws in Group E.

Monterrey joins Inter Miami CF of MLS as teams from the region that successfully moved onto the Round of 16.

“The players have won the game and I told them you have to showcase what you want to do,” said Torrent, who took over as head coach five weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Mexican side Pachuca as well as LAFC and the Seattle Sounders from MLS failed to advance from the CONCACAF contingent.

“This goes for all the fans and Mexican football in general because we represent them as well,” Torrent said.

At the half-hour mark, Deossa unleashed a left-footed knuckler from 36 yards out that confounded Nishikawa as it swerved to the left and cut back to the right.

Four minutes later, inside the box this time, forward Germán Berterame coolly slotted in his low shot inside the far post.

Capping the decisive three-goal sequence in the 38th minute, Corona controlled the ball at midfield, charged down the pitch without a defender in sight and struck a shot with his right foot from 24 yards out that was corralled by the side netting.

Monterrey added a fourth goal deep into second-half stoppage time when Berterame connected on a tap-in for his second goal.

“They were all tough [games in the group] so we did grind our teeth,” Berterame said through an interpreter. “We did go for it. We were here to win but it was a dream night. It was very enthralling. I leave being very happy with what the team did.

“I think that the Club World Cup has given us very many surprises. From the very first game until the very last, we went out to the pitch to bring out our ‘A’ game. We faced very difficult opponents. We owe great respect to the opponents that we faced. We came here to do our jobs. To do what the new coaching staff wants us to do and today we showed it and this is why we progressed.”

At the close of Group E, Milan advanced as the winners to meet Brazil’s Fluminense on Monday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Runner-up Monterrey faces the German Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The expanded Club World Cup, with its $1 billion prize pool, brought 269,326 fans for the half-dozen games at the Rose Bowl, according to FIFA.

The opener, Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-0 victory against Atlético Madrid, drew a high of 80,619.

Wednesday’s finishing act yielded the lowest attendance of the six, with an announced crowd of 14,312 at the 89,702-seat venue, including an estimated 600 Red Diamonds diehards who lived up to their reputation by cheering and chanting from the moment their players warmed up through the final whistle.

“Of course I would say we are completely shattered,” Urawa’s Polish head coach Marciej Skorza said through an interpreter, “but we had good moments and I want to remember those moments and remind the team of those moments. That we can construct a game, we can create those situations. So this is a small optimistic accent for the future.”

Monterrey supporters, on the other hand, got more than their money’s worth with the 80th anniversary of the club’s founding coming Saturday.