Match recap: Santos Laguna 3, Club León 0

On their 35th anniversary, Club Santos put on a dominant performance, defeating Club León 3-0. The hosts had too much going forward, and was ultimately able to capitalize on León’s inability to convert their chances.

Ayrton Preciado got the start over midfielder Osvaldo Martínez, who was withheld from the lineup as a precaution due to an aggravation of his left knee.

Neither team was able to get much of anything going early on, as play consisted of a lot of back-passing and hopeful balls forward that were usually well intercepted by the defensive backs. It could have been due to the similarity between the teams’ uniforms, with both playing in green and white. León successfully argued that they didn’t have an alternate jersey, forcing Santos to change out of their 35th anniversary jerseys and into their standard green and black hoops during the hydration break.

It would be a mistake in the 37th by León goalkeeper Rodolfo Cota that would lead to Santos’ goal. Cota attempted to clear the ball but instead threw it directly to Preciado. The young Ecuadoran headed it over to Jonathan Rodríguez, who would turn, dribble, and fire past Cota to give Santos the lead.

León had a fantastic opportunity to tie in the 61st minute, but a re-directed cross went off of the post and was gathered easily by goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco.

In the 63rd minute, Julio Furch would have the ball come to him in the box. In traffic, Furch was able to turn and fire a shot past Cota to give the hosts the 2-0 lead.

In the 85th minute, there was a bit of vontroversy as Gerardo Arteaga drove down into the León box. He appeared to get tangled up with Alexander Mejia, and the penalty was whistled. Arteaga and Mejia got into a shouting/shoving match, resulting in both players seeing a yellow card. Julio Furch would step up to the spot and bury the kick to give Santos the 3-0 victory.

Santos Laguna: Jonathan Orozco; Jesús Angulo, Matheus Doría, Hugo Nervo, José Abella; Brian Lozano (Gerardo Arteaga, 79’), José Juan Vázquez, Ayrton Preciado (Ulises Rivas, 60’), Jesús Isijara (Carlos Orrantia, 90’); Julio Furch, Jonathan Rodríguez

Club León: Rodolfo Cota; Juan Cornejo (Omar Mireles, 74’), William Tesillo, Andrés Mosquera, Fernando Navarro; José Rodríguez, Alexander Mejia; Yairo Moreno (Jean Menenses, 74’), Luis Montes, Héctor Mascorro (Maximiliano Cerrato, 53’); Mauro Boselli

Scoring: Santos Laguna - Jonathan Rodríguez (37’), Julio Furch (63’, 86’ - penalty); Club León - None

Disciplinary: Santos Laguna - Brian Lozano (Yellow - 36’), Gerardo Arteaga (Yellow - 86’); Club León - William Tesillo (Yellow - 65’), Alexander Mejia (Yellow - 86’)