Botafogo hold on to beat Seattle in Club World Cup

SEATTLE (AP) — Jair Cunha and Igor Jesus scored in the first half and Botafogo beat the Seattle Sounders 2-1 at the Club World Cup on Sunday night.

Botafogo opened the scoring 28 minutes into the game as Cunha headed in a pass from Alex Telles. It came after a contentious yellow card to Nouhou Tolo gave the visitors a direct free kick just beyond the corner of the penalty box. Sounders players felt the call was unfair as there had been some unobserved jostling between Tolo and Artur before Tolo shoved his opponent to the ground.

Botafogo doubled the lead in the first half’s final minutes with another headed goal. Vitinho connected with his 24-year-old star teammate Igor Jesus, who sent a powerful header to the bottom corner.

The Sounders played better in the second half, buoyed by their energetic subs. Four minutes after coming into the match, Paul Rothrock provided the assist for Christian Roldan’s header in the 75th minute that deflected off Jesus.

Key Moment

The Sounders had two shots on target in a row in the final 30 seconds of stoppage time to try to tie the score, but the first was well blocked by a defender before Botafogo goalkeeper John smothered Rothrock’s attempt.

Takeaways

Seattle will now have to try to win points off the perceived titans of Group B, Atlético Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain to avoid going out in the group stage. Botafogo played good defense to hold onto its lead and is second in Group B on goal difference.

What they said

“Obviously, they’re a great team, and they put us under pressure in moments, but we matched them. The difference in the first half was just quality and a couple of key moments… I think if you looked at the statistics, you would say that Sounders were in a good spot, but obviously everything is the score line, and we couldn’t find that second goal.” — Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer.

“The second half, in terms of our defense, it was not good. We didn’t take possession and … Seattle scored a goal with some luck, but it was deserved.” — Botafogo head coach Renato Paiva.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer