Sounders fall to Monterrey 2-1 in the Champions League Group finale. Finish 2nd in Group D.

By Money Mike



The Seattle Sounders fell to Monterrey 2-1 in the final Group match of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League, however the Sounders have already qualified for the Champions League quarterfinal after their 2-2 draw at Comunicaciones a couple of weeks ago. With the result, not only do Monterrey qualify for the Quarterfinals, they also clinch the top spot in Group D which would guarantee home field advantage in the second leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal. Seattle is three points ahead of Comunicaciones who play host to Herediano tomorrow night. Because of the fact that Seattle holds the first tiebreaker (the greater number of points earned in matches between the teams), no matter what happens in their match, Comunicaciones are eliminated from the Champions League.

Rookie Bryan Meredith made his professional debut on goal and right away in the third minute, some miscommunication resulted in an opening goal for Monterrey. Humberto Suazo sent a perfectly timmed long ball forward for Abraham Dario Carreno who was kept onside by defender Jeff Parke. Carreno tapped the ball easily past Meredith to put the visitors in front.

In the 42nd minute, the Sounders struck right back and tied the match up. Fredy Montero, after drawing a foul six yards away from the penalty area, stepped up to take the free kick. Montero snuck the ball inside the post from 25 yards away for his 18th goal this season in all compititions.

In the 61st minute, Monterrey re-took the lead. Humberto Suazo operated a give-and-go with Carreno before having his shot blocked. The ball redirected to Cesar Delgado who thumped one past Bryan Meredith to put Monterrey up for good as they clinch Group D.

Now that the U.S. Open Cup is out of the way and qualifying for the Champions League quarterfinal is out of the way, it's time now to turn our focus to the MLS Cup. The Sounders close out regular season play saturday in Los Angeles as they take on Chivas USA. Following that they will head to Salt Lake or Dallas for the first leg of the MLS Cup Quarterfinals.


Scoring summary:

Monterrey - Abraham Dario Carreno (Humberto Suazo) 3'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero (unassisted) 42'

Monterrey - Cesar Delgado (unassisted) 61'


Misconduct summary:

Monterrey - Luiz Perez (caution; Reckless foul) 41'

Seattle Sounders FC - Zach Scott (caution; Reckless foul) 58'

Monterrey - Severo Meza (caution; Delaying a restart) 75'

Monterrey - Humberto Suazo (caution; Delaying a restart) 82'

Monterrey - Miguel Morales (caution; Delaying a restart) 94'+


Lineups:

Monterrey - Jonathan Orozco (Juan de Dios Ibarra 73'); Severo Meza, Ricardo Osorio, Miguel Morales, Jose Basanta; Luiz Perez, Cesar Delgado (Neri Cardozo 80'), Sergio Perez; Abraham Dario Carreno, Sergio Santana, Humberto Suazo

Seattle Sounders FC - Bryan Meredith; James Riley, Jeff Parke (Patrick Ianni 67'), Zach Scott, Tyson Wahl; David Estrada (Lamar Neagle 79'), Osvaldo Alonso, Erik Friberg, Roger Levesque; Sammy Ochoa (Mike Fucito 74'), Fredy Montero

Seattle Sounders FC preview vs Monterrey

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders close out CONCACAF Champions League Group play Tuesday night at CenturyLink Field as they will play host to Mexican club C.F. Monterrey. Last time these two met down at Estadio Tecnologico in Monterrey, the Sounders pulled off a huge upset against the CONCACAF Champions. Alvaro Fernandez's 38th minute goal prooved to be the difference as Seattle came away with a 1-0 win. I've said this so many times now, it's been a crazy ride for the Seattle Sounders in MLS, the U.S. Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League, I'm already looking forward to watching them in the playoffs and also looking forward to watching them in the Champions League Quarterfinal in early March. Monterrey need at least a draw to secure a spot in the Quarterfinal. A win would also clinch first place in the group and home field advantage in the 2nd leg of the Quarterfinal round. If they don't want to suffer a loss that would put them in danger of elimination, every single player on that team, including Aldo de Nigris, Humberto Suazo and Neri Cardozo is gonna have to play perfect almost all game.


What to look out for in this game:

- We won't have a giant crowd like we did Saturday night so don't even try to get your hopes up on that part.

- Lately since Terry Boss suffered that concussion I've been keeping an eye on the goalkeeping situation with the Sounders, and that's what I'm going to do again for this match. Wondering if it will be Kasey Keller, if it will be Josh Ford, or if it will be Bryan Meredith getting the start in goal for the Sounders.

- I, as a matter of fact, will be keeping an eye on the entire lineup for this game and for Saturdays final regular season game against Chivas USA because you want your best team out there in the playoffs if you want to win the big prize. I'm not expecting this, but I'm hoping we see the young players like Michael Tetteh, David Estrada, Amadou Sanyang and Servando Carrasco out on the pitch.

- A win or a draw by the Seattle Sounders and they will clinch the top spot in Group D and get home field advantage in the second leg of the Champions League Quarterfinals.

- If Monterrey wins, they will get the top spot in Group D. A draw would clinch them second place (Unless Comunicaciones defeat Herediano by at least 8). If they lose, but Comunicaciones fail to defeat Herediano, Monterrey will still clinch a spot in the Quarterfinals. However, if they lose and Comunicaciones defeats Herediano, Comunicaciones will clinch a spot in the Champions League Quarterfinals and Monterrey would be eliminated.

Sounders hold on for a historic win at Monterrey in the Champions League.

By Money Mike









The Seattle Sounders became the second MLS team to beat a Mexican team on Mexican soil in over a week. The Sounders upset defending CONCACAF Champions, Monterrey 1-0 to move into first place in the Group Stage. There were a couple of nervous moments in the second half when Monterrey came right at them, but the Sounders were able to hang on and get the full 3 points. People need to start taking this tournament seriously, especially with the Sounders off to a 2-0 start in Group play. I mean, winning the Champions League is as big as winning the MLS Cup. Even out of all of that, America is just too freakin stupid to understand that. If this wasn't a big win, I don't know what the hell is. Sigi Schmid left Kasey Keller, Mauro Rosales and Fredy Montero out of the 18 man squad and partnered Nate Jaqua up front with Pat Noonan. Terry Boss, as expected, got the start in goal. Josh Ford was on the squad as a backup goalkeeper behind Boss. And also, Amadou Sanyang made his Sounders debut, coming on in the 84th minute of the match.



The Sounders ceded most of the possession early opted to play counter attacking football and in the 38th minute, Seattle was on the move as Pat Noonan fed Alvaro Fernandez with a pinpoint ball. Flacco split defenders Darvin Chavez and Miguel Morales and calmly roofed the ball past Goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco to give Seattle a 1-0 lead.



In the second half, Monterrey came out strong. In the 66th minute, the Sounders dodged a huge bullet. Terry Boss lost the ball to Aldo de Nigris as he was trying to clear it. He then nearly took him down which would've resulted in a penalty and possibly a straight red card. de Nigris laid the ball back to Humberto Suazo who ripped the ball wide of goal. That would've been a disastrous moment for Terry Boss and the Seattle Sounders. Despite Monterrey finishing with 11 shots on goal, it was Seattle who came away with a full three points over the CONCACAF Champions.



The Sounders return home to Seattle as they get set to host the Columbus Crew on Saturday at CenturyLink Field. Then they host FC Dallas in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup next Tuesday at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.





Scoring summary:



Seattle Sounders FC - Alvaro Fernandez (Pat Noonan) 38'





Misconduct summary:



Seattle Sounders FC - Nate Jaqua (caution; Reckless tackle) 48'





Lineups:



Seattle Sounders FC - Terry Boss; James Riley, Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Tyson Wahl; Roger Levesque (Amadou Sanyang 84'), Brad Evans, Servando Carrasco, Alvaro Fernandez (Leonardo Gonzalez 76'); Nate Jaqua (Osvaldo Alonso 65'), Pat Noonan



Monterrey - Jonathan Orozco; Darvin Chavez, Hiram Mier, Severo Meza (Ricardo Osorio 83'); Jesus Manuel Corona (Abraham Carreno 73'), Neri Cardozo, Luis Ernesto Perez, Hector Morales (Walter Ayovi 62'); Aldo de Nigris, Jesus Eduardo Zavala, Humberto Suazo





Now here's a look at the highlights:

Seattle Sounders FC vs Monterrey preview

By Money Mike







Following their big win over FC Dallas in league play, the Seattle Sounders head south of the border to Mexico for Champions League play as they take on Monterrey tonight at 5pm. The match will of course be televised live on Fox Soccer Channel and also streamed live on concacaf.com. Last year, these two sides faced each other in Group play, the first match was at CenturyLink Field where Monterrey came away with a 2-0 win on goals by Nery Cardozo and Aldo de Nigres. In their second meeting down in Mexico, the Sounders took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. In the second half Monterrey stormed back with 3 goals in a string of 10 minutes to win 3-2. Both teams are coming off impressive wins in their first match of this years group stage.





Who are C.F. Monterrey?



Monterrey were founded just after World War II ended. June 28, 1945, was the year the team was formed. A group of industrial businessmen led by Ramon Cardenas Coronado, Enrique Ayala Medina, Paul C. Probert, Rogelio Cantu Gomez and Miguel Margain Zozaya, decided to create the Club de Futbol Monterrey (That's the real name of the club).



They played their first professional game on August 19, 1945 against San Sebastian de Leon and came away with a 1-0 win. That joy quickly came to an end when Monterrey lost 6-0 to Montezuma, and then having the club's traveling bus involved in a tragic accident in the San Juan de los Lagos roads that would take the life's of many of the clubs players and would have a big impact on the surviving players. Some of the Mexican clubs loaned their players to Monterrey in order for them to continue on with their history, but the club struggled, losing 21 games in a row, conceding 121 goals and finishing dead last in the league. In 1946, after only one season, the club decided to fold in honor to the players passing.



It was until 1952 when the club resumed action thanks to Dr. Carlos Conseco. Monterrey enrolled in the second division four years later and would earn promotion in the top division. However, the joy was short lived when Monterrey finished dead last and were relegated into the second division. It didn't seem to bother them because they once again earn promotion to the top flight for the 1959-60 season which they have holed till date.



The club started the 1960s in bad shape, just avoiding relegation with 3 more points than Club Celaya. But a lot of people can tell they were getting better after finishing with a record 7 wins, 12 losses and 7 draws for a total of 21 points (I don't know what the point scale was, normally that record would equal 28 points on the current point scale). The next four seasons, Monterrey finished in the top 3, the top 5 but the rest of the way in the 60's they struggled again.



I wasn't until 1986 when Monterrey won their first league title in their history. Defeating Tampico-Madero on aggregate 3-2. They would add 3 more titles to their history later on. Winning the Clausura in 2003 and the Apatura in 2009 and 2010. And oh by the way, they're the defending CONCACAF Champions. Remember? They were able to get past Real Salt Lake in last years Champions League final. So while they're trying to defend their Apatura crown, they're also looking to defend their Champions League title.





What to look out for in this game:



- Due to the red card in the Sounders home match against Comunicaciones, Lamar Neagle will not play in tonight's match. Osvaldo Alonso is eligible to return though after serving a suspension in the first group stage match.



- With a lot of matches in these late stages of the season, fatigue will be a major factor for the Sounders. Expect Sigi to make a lot of changes in tonight's lineup. I'm hoping Kasey Keller gets the start tonight, but I think Sigi will go with backup goalkeeper Terry Boss. We'll see who he puts out there. Mike Fucito will definitely get the start tonight up front.



- I would also keep an eye on the field conditions. Most of the time the Sounders have been south of the border, the weather has been absolutely shitty and the field conditions have been god awful. Mexico gets a lot of warm weather. Lately about 100 degrees. But the weather and the conditions are always a big focus for me. Today the weather channel is saying 98 degrees with a chance of isolated thunder storms, so I think the Sounders will be dealing with more bad weather.