PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Monterrey scored three goals in a 10-minute span of the first half and went on to defeat the Urawa Red Diamonds 4-0 on Wednesday night and advance to the knockout rounds in the Club World Cup.
Monterrey finished second in Group E behind Inter Milan, which defeated River Plate 2-0 in a simultaneous game in Seattle. Monterrey plays Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday at Atlanta in the round of 16.
The match drew just 14,312 to the 89,702-capacity Rose Bowl.
Nelson Deossa ripped the ball from 35 yards out that Urawa goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa got a hand on but couldn’t stop in the 30th minute to put Monterrey up 1-0.
After a cooling break, Germán Berterame tucked the ball into the bottom right corner of the net to make it 2-0. Jesús Corona added another goal from distance that lofted up and dropped into the goal in the 39th.
Berterame added a second goal in stoppage time.
The Red Diamonds had been eliminated after losses to River Plate and Inter Milan.
Liga MX's Monterrey was scrappy from the start. Alphonso Alvarado had a header in the opening minutes that hit the crossbar.
Sergio Ramos had scored the only goal for Monterrey in its first two matches before the team unleashed their three goals in the first half, sending the throngs of Rayados fans at the Rose Bowl into a frenzy. Monterrey, which started the day in third in the standings, needed to score because goals mattered in the group standings.
With a commanding lead, Monterrey eased up in the waning minutes out of caution because four players were handed yellow cards in the previous match against River Plate. If any of the four were carded again, they would be unavailable for the round of 16 match.
“We do not know how we are going to improve on this, but each of us felt lessons and learned lessons individually. So I think we can use this going forward," — Urawa captain Takahiro Sekine through a translator.
“We got a win, that is what we were looking for. There was a lot of sacrifice in the match. It was a tough start, from the very first match until now, they were all tough. So we did grind our teeth and go for it,” — Berterame, selected man of the match.
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Urawa Red Diamonds' players react after a goal of Monterrey's Jesus Manuel Corona uring the Club World Cup Group E soccer match between Urawa Red Diamonds and CF Monterrey in Pasadena, Calif., Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)
Monterrey's German Berterame celebrates after scoring his side's second goal against Urawa Red Diamonds during the Club World Cup Group E soccer match between Urawa Red Diamonds and CF Monterrey in Pasadena, Calif., Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)
Monterrey's Jesus Manuel Corona celebrates after scoring with Nelson Deossa during the Club World Cup Group E soccer match between Urawa Red Diamonds and CF Monterrey in Pasadena, Calif., Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
