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, pushed the Liga MX powerhouse into the Round of 16 with a 4-0 victory over the scrappy but out-gunned Urawa Red Diamonds from Saitama, Japan.
To advance out of 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.
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 joined Inter Miami CF of MLS as teams from the region that successfully moved onto the Round of 16.
Meanwhile, Mexican side Pachuca as well as the Los Angeles Football Club and Seattle Sounders from MLS failed to move on.
The expanded Club World Cup, with its $1 billion prize pool, featured a total of 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 supporters who lived up to their reputation by cheering and chanting from the moment their players warmed up through the conclusion of the match.
Monterrey fans, on the other hand, got more than their money’s worth.
At the half-hour mark midfielder Nelson Deossa unleashed a left-footed knuckler from 36 yards out that confounded Urawa goalkeeper Shusaku 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, midfielder Jesus Corona controlled the ball at midfield, charged down the field 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 in stoppage time of the second half when Berterame connected on his second goal with a tap-in.
At the close of Group E, Milan advanced as the winners to meet Brazil’s Fluminense on Monday at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C. Runners-up Monterrey faces the German Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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