Match preview: León vs. Santos Laguna

Game: Club León vs. Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V.

Date: Wednesday, August 28th

Time: 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Central, 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 12:00 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio León (León, Gto.)

Referees: REF: Luis Enrique Santander Aguirre, AR1: Jose Ibrahim Martinez Chavarria, AR2: Jimmy Acosta Montesinos, 4TH: Roberto García Orozco

Television: United States - TUDN; Mexico - TUDN

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling TV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Univision NOW, ESPN+

All-time record: León holds the all-time record across all competitions, with 18 wins to Santos’ 15 and 9 draws between the clubs. The record in Liga MX is 17 to 15 in favor of La Fiera with 8 draws. The other two results were from the 1987-88 Segunda División, where León won 5-1 in Guanjuato and the clubs drew 1-1 in Coahuila. More recently, the clubs last met on March 2 at the Nou Camp in León where the home side won 3-0 on a brace from Ángel Mena and a goal from William Tesillo.

Photo by Cesar Gomez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Two of the better sides in Liga MX meet in Guanjuato as León (3W 1D 1L) hosts Santos Laguna (5W 0D 1L). Riding their high-octane offense, León has scored four goals in their last two outings and has scored 13 goals so far this season. José Juan Macías’ five goals have him tied with Maximiliano Salas of Necaxa (3W 1D 2L) for the league lead, and 2019 Liga MX Clausura leading goalscorer Ángel Mena has three so far on the year.

León’s issue however is their defense, which has been streaky at best. After giving up just one goal total in their first two games against Pachuca (2W 1D 3L) and América (4W 2D 0L), they gave up three to Monterrey (3W 0D 3L) and three to Guadalajara (2W 1D 3L) before blanking Querétaro (4W 1D 1L) last week. They’ll need to perform much better than they have all season to keep Santos’ powerful offense in check.

Photo by Alfredo Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Santos has 14 goals on the season thanks to getting four goals each from Julio Furch and Brian Lozano. Beyond that, they’ve also gotten a goal from six other players, ranging from forwards like Eryc Castillo and Adrián Lozano to center back Matheus Dória. They’ve also given up six goals in five games, although three came in their only loss of the season to Necaxa.

Santos’ strength is in the counter attack, with players committed to winning back any loose or lost balls and then getting them out to another player to start the attack. The only game they conceded first was their loss against Necaxa, so the first goal of this match will be absolutely critical. Santos will possibly likely get center back Hugo Rodríguez back, as the 29 year old was sidelined with an injury to his left thigh prior to the match against Necaxa. Félix Torres has been starting in his place, and the 22 year old Ecuadoran has paired well with Dória on the back line.