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

Mexico’s CF Monterrey showed that before the competition permanently moved to the east coast for the forthcoming knockout round that it was happy to cover long distances.

Three first-half goals, highlighted by 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 over the scrappy but outgunned Urawa Red Diamonds from Saitama, Japan.

To advance out of the Group E, Monterrey, which played each 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 goalless 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 as teams from the region that successfully moved on to 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 the Los Angeles Football Club and Seattle Sounders from Major League Soccer 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.

— Josh Gross

LATE WEDNESDAY

Inter Milan 2, River Plate 0: In Seattle, Francesco Pio Esposito scored in the 72nd minute and Alessandro Bastoni added an insurance goal in the 93rd minute as Inter Milan finished atop Group E with seven points.

Esposito’s goal came just six minutes after River Plate’s Lucas Martínez Quarta was shown a red card after taking out the legs of Henrikh Mkhitaryan on a breakaway and preventing a clean shot on goal.

EARLY THURSDAY

Manchester City 5, Juventus 2: In Orlando, Man City went ahead 2-1 on an own goal in the 26th minute when defender Pierre Kalulu, attempting to intercept a pass at close range, sent the ball into the net.

The rout was on from there. Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Savinho scored in the second half to make it 5-1.

Al Ain 2, Wydad 1: In Washington, Kaku scored early in the second half for Al Ain in the final match for both clubs. Cassius Mailula scored early for Wydad and Kodjo Laba converted a penalty just before halftime to pull Al Ain even.

MLS

Rapids 2, Galaxy 0: Djordje Mihailovic and Calvin Harris scored four-minutes apart in the first half on Wednesday night in a game delayed two hours due to weather in Commerce City, Colo.

Colorado (7-8-4) snapped a three-game losing streak. Galaxy (1-13-5) lost to the Rapids for the first time since May 6, 2023.

Mihailovic headed in Sam Vines’ cross for his eighth goal of the season to end Colorado’s a 261-minute goal drought. Harris, in his first start of the season, scored his second goal in 12 appearances.

Rookie Nico Hansen recorded his third clean sheet in just seven starts.

SDFC 5, Whitecaps 2: Milan Iloski scored a club-record four goals, Anders Dreyer had three assists and San Diego FC moved into first place in the Western Conference with the win Wednesday night in Vancouver.

Iloski is the third player this season (Vancouver’s Brian White and Nashville’s Sam Surridge) and the 20th in MLS history to score at least four goals in a game.

San Diego (11-5-3), which has won seven of nine with just one loss in that span, has 36 points, four behind Philadelphia — the points leaders in all of MLS — and one ahead of Vancouver (10-3-5).