Monterrey, the CONCACAF region’s last hope in the Club World Cup, was knocked out of the tournament by Borussia Dortmund, 2-1, on Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The tournament started with five teams from CONCACAF, the region composed of teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Only Miami from MLS and Monterrey, from Mexico’s LIGA MX, advanced out of the group stage. Miami was KO’d by Paris Saint-Germain, 4-0, in Atlanta last week.
Monterrey was undone by another European power on Tuesday. Specifically, by Serhous Guirassy, who scored two goals, and Karim Adeyemi, who assisted on both.
Monterrey’s German Berterame scored in the second half to provide suspense, but Rayados couldn’t find the goal to send the match into extra time.
Despite brutal thunderstorms before the match and a 9 p.m. start time, the announced attendance was 31,442, bringing the total attendance for Atlanta’s five matches to 191,328. The city’s last match will be a quarterfinal on Saturday between two more European heavies, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
Of the tournament’s remaining eight teams, two are from Brazil (Palmeiras and Fluminense), FIFA’s CONMEBOL region of South America. Two are from Germany (Dortmund and Munich), one is from Spain (Real Madrid), one from England (Chelsea) and another is from France (PSG), which are in the UEFA region. The eighth is from Saudi Arabia (Al Hilal) in the AFC region. Three regions remain out of six that had at least one team.
Dortmund’s starting lineup was composed of Gregor Kobel in goal, Waldemar Anton, Ramy Bensebaini, Daniel Svensson, Niklas Suele and Julian Ryerson across the back, Felix Nmecha, Pascal Gross and Jude Bellingham in the midfield, and Guirassy and Adeyemi as forwards.
Monterrey’s was composed of Esteban Andrada in goal, Sergio Ramos, Gerardo Arteaga, Erick Aguirre and Stefan Medina across the back, Nelson Deossa, Oliver Torres, Sergio Canales, Jesus Corona and Jorge Rodriguez in the midfield, and German Berterame as the striker.
Dortmund took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Guirassy, who completed a quick 1-2 pass with Adeyemi at the top of the 18-yard box that created the space for him to get around Rodriguez and to shoot into the near corner from 14 yards. It was Dortmund’s first shot.
Corona was played through by Torres in the 20th minute, but Kobel rushed out of his goal to block the shot with his chest.
Guirassy scored his second in the 24th minute, again from Adeyemi, to give Dortmund a 2-0 lead. The sequence started with a tough, full-bodied tackle by Ryerson on Arteaga. Ryerson quickly passed the ball 50 yards up the field and into space for Adeyemi to run onto. He held up the ball enough for Guirassy to catch up to the play, receive the pass and slot a shot into the right corner. It was his third goal in the tournament.
Kobel dove to his left to stop a low, hard shot by Deossa in the 28th minute. It was the second time Kobel saved a good shot by Deossa.
Guirassy twice missed completing his hat trick. The first time his sliding shot rolled just wide right. The second time Andrada was able to block the shot. Both efforts came from 6 yards as Dortmund consistently unlocked a Monterrey defense that had allowed just one goal in the tournament before Tuesday.
Monterrey put together some pretty passing but Dortmund dominated the half, finishing with 1.46 expected goals on four shots compared to Monterrey’s 0.23 from six shots.
Monterrey cut Dortmund’s lead to 2-1 on a header by Berterame in the 48th minute. It was his third goal in the tournament. Aguirre was created with the assist, a header back across the goal. The shot fired up Monterrey’s supporters throughout the stadium who again began chanting, waving their blue and white flags and playing their drums.
Kobel stopped Corona in another one-on-one in the 59th minute as Monterrey began to find seams in Dortmund’s defensive lines.
Sensing the momentum staying with Monterrey, Dortmund began focusing on keeping possession and making its opponents work to win it back for the next few minutes.
When Monterrey won it back, a long pass over three Dortmund lines found Corona, who hammered a right-footed shot just over the crossbar in the 64th minute.
A second Berterame goal was called back for offside against him in the 65th minute.
Couto Yan and Julian Brandt replaced Adeyemi and Nmecha in the 71st minute as Dortmund looked for fresh legs to again try to slow down Monterrey.
An announcement was broadcast in stoppage time that the match may be suspended if a certain discriminatory chant, done by Monterrey supporters, continued. It was heard numerous times throughout the match, usually whenever Dortmund’s goalkeeper took a free kick. FIFA has made an effort for years to stop the chant.
It was heard again less than a minute later. The referee stopped the match, which was out of time.
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