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Monterrey pull off stunning comeback to win third straight CONCACAF Champions League title

Monterrey wins CONCACAF

By IVES GALARCEP

When Panamanian defender Felipe Baloy headed home Santos Laguna’s second goal of the night in Wednesday night’s CONCACAF Champions League second leg, Monterrey looked finished.

The defending champions were far from finished though. They were just getting started.

Monterrey rattled off four unanswered goals, including a title-clinching header from Aldo DeNigris, to earn a 4-2 aggregate victory and secure the team’s third straight CONCACAF title.

DeNigris keyed the comeback, scoring Monterrey’s first goal in the 60th minute to spark the turnaround. Santos Laguna looked like they might hold on but they surrendered three goals in the final seven minutes to lose their second straight final.

Neri Cardozo tied the score at 2-2 in the 83rd minute, but Monterrey needed one more goal because of the away-goals rule, and it was DeNigris who delivered it, skying over the Santos defense to head home a perfect Humberto Suazo pass into the penalty area.

Suazo provided an insurance goal in stoppage time to complete the comeback and make Monterrey the first team since Cruz Azul more than 40 years ago (1969-1971) to win three straight CONCACAF Champions League titles.

The victory secures a return trip to the Club World Cup for Monterrey while it leaves Herculez Gomez and Santos Laguna wondering just how it all went wrong.

What did you think of the match? Amazed by Monterrey’s comeback? See them making noise in the Club World Cup? Hoping the loss makes it easier for Herculez Gomez to leave Santos Laguna and return to MLS?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Wow! I missed the game last night, but it looked like an epic Santos collapse / epic Monterrey rally. El threepeat por Los Rayados. Oy.

    Reply
  2. That was a great game to watch. For me, if you take out the 2 “against-the-run-of-play” goals for Santos, they were not Monterrey’s equal in this series by any strech of the imagination. In fact I think LA gave Monterrey much more problems and matched up with them waaaaay better.

    It sucks that there were no MLS representatives there but that was a great game to watch nonetheless.

    Congrats to Monterrey – back-to-back-to-back champions of CONCACAF. Good luck to our MLS reps this year.

    Reply
  3. Raise that 3million dollar salary cap to 5million within a decade. Get more loaned players from the Mexican league. We need more MLS teams fighting to get to the final. Heck we need more Concacaf teams like from costa rica, jamaica, belize. get off the mexican stranglehold

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  4. Gomez makes like 600-700 K a season at Santos. That money must go very far in Mexico. why would he leave? Hes 31 and not a box office name. He wouldnt get more than 400K in MLS despite probably guaranteed to score u 12 goals a season. Stay there and show that Americans can score

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    • Oh I don’t want to him to retire or come back to the MLS. I was just noting that he has a habit of KILLING MLS teams in this competition.

      Gotta love Herc.

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  5. That was a simply awesome display in the second half by Monterrey. They are just the class of the whole region. MLS did very well this year obviously, getting two teams to the semis. It is coming soon when an MLS team will win this although first that Monterrey team has to stumble and Herc has to retire.

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