Toluca Vs. Monterrey, CONCACAF Champions League: Monterrey Pulls Out 1-0 Victory

It took about 80 minutes, 70 of which were played a man up, but Monterrey has finally taken advantage with a goal to take a 1-0 lead in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Toluca. The goal came on an Osvaldo Martinez free kick from the top of the “D.”

Monterrey has been a man up since a 10th minute red card to Toluca’s Luis Arias. While they have been able to control the possession and pace of the match, they had not been able to capitalize until Martinez’s well-placed strike. Despite being a man down, Toluca has managed to create several opportunities, but never any sustained pressure.

Toluca went down a man just 10 minutes into their home leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Monterrey, but have so far been able to control the damage. They head into halftime tied 0-0.

Monterrey has been able to control possession, but has so far been unable to mount any serious challenges. Neither goalkeeper has really been tested as the two teams have not looked particularly worried about asserting their will.

It took less than 10 minutes into tonight’s CONCACAF Champions League match between Toluca and Monterrey that the quarterfinals had their fourth ejection. Toluca’s Luis Carlos Arias was shown a straight red for bringing up his elbow during an aerial challenge of a ball. That follows Real Salt Lakes Tony Beltran getting a pair of relatively soft yellows in Tuesday’s match with the Columbus Crew and Nat Borchers and Emilio Renteria both being sent off for their involvement in an incident in the same game.

All four ejections were questionable when taken by themselves. When taken together, it shows a remarkable willingness of CONCACAF referees to inject themselves into matches.