Match preview: Atlético San Luis vs. Santos Laguna

Game: Club Atlético de San Luis vs. Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V.

Date: Saturday, September 21st

Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Central, 3:00 p.m. Pacific, 10:00 p.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Alfonso Lastras (San Luis Potosí, S.L.P.)

Referees: REF: Roberto García Orozco, AR1: Michel Alejandro Morales Morales, AR2: Alejandro Ayala Valderrama, 4TH: Erick Yair Miranda Galindo

Television: United States - None; Mexico - ESPN2 Norte; Canada - OneSoccer

Streaming: OneSoccer (Free trial + monthly subscription)

All-time record: This will be the first time that Atlético San Luis and Santos meet in Liga MX play. They have met four times before in Copa MX play, with each team winning once and the teams drawing twice.

Photo by Jaime Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Upstart Atlético San Luis (4W 2D 2L) is unbeaten in their last five matches and currently sit in seventh place in the Liguilla Table. They’ll host Santos Laguna (5W 2D 1L), who are playing some of their best soccer in recent memory.

San Luis is making the most of their brief time in Liga MX, having won promotion at the end of the 2019 Clausura from the Ascenso MX. Perhaps predictably, Atleti play a very conservative, defensive style of play, having only given up nine goals in their eight games while scoring just ten. They have a three way-tie for leading goalscorer between Germán Berterame, Juan David Castro, and Nicolás Ibáñez, with each player scoring twice so far this season.

Their record may be making them out to be a bit better than they are however. They’ve only won once at home, a Week 2 win against Monterrey (4W 0D 5L), and their road wins were against Veracruz (0W 2D 6L), Pachuca (2W 3D 4L), and Puebla (1W 3D 4L). The only results they’ve gotten against teams currently in a Liguilla position were a pair of draws at home against Tigres (3W 5D 1L) and Morelia (4W 1D 4L).

Photo by Armando Marin/Jam Media/Getty Images

Santos meanwhile is coming off of a hard-fought draw at Estadio Corona TSM on Sunday, coming back from down two goals to Pachuca. Santos’ two goals came from Julio Furch, whose seven goals make him the leading Liga MX goalscorer going into Week 10. He’s three ahead of teammate Brian Lozano, and five up Eryc “La Culebra” Castillo. All told, Santos has scored 18 goals while only allowing 10 so far this season.

Their offense is predicated however on a strong counterattack, which may prove problematic against Atlético San Luis. Santos is smart enough to get a result however, as shown by their draw against Pachuca where they were able to adjust in the game to Pachuca’s style.

Much like last week, Santos can not take Atleti for granted. They’ll need to play a smart game and take advantage of any openings they get. Atleti needs to feed off of their home crowd and follow Necaxa’s template. If they can get an early goal off of a mistake or set piece, they’ll be able to bunker and force Santos out of their comfort zone.