Monday, December 6

Brilliant Finish for Monterrey

The Mexican Primera’s Apertura came to a close with the second leg of the championship series Sunday evening with host Monterrey and its fans celebrating a much-deserved title, rallying from a 3-2 deficit from the first leg on the road against Santos Laguna with a dominant 3-0 victory at home.

The club dropped three of its last four games of the season, but still finished second in the league courtesy of being unbeaten to that point. It was not that great of a letdown as they trailed Cruz Azul most of the way due to the high number of lost points from draws, but the club was clearly deserving of winning the championship considering at the same time as it went on its 13-game unbeaten start to the Apertura, it also went unbeaten in its six Group Phase matches in the CONCACAF Champions League in a difficult group that included the Seattle Sounders, who went on to win its second consecutive US Open Cup, and two proven Central American powers in Saprissa and Marathon. In fact, they won five of the six with a 2-2 result against Saprissa on the road, finishing with the highest point total across the entire CCL field as they were the only team not to suffer a loss.