Match preview: Santos Laguna vs. Veracruz

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

Date: Wednesday, September 25th

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

Venue: Estadio Corona TSM (Torreón, Coah.)

Referees: REF: Diego Montaño Robles, AR1: Enríque Isaac Bustos Díaz, AR2: MiguMiguel Angel Chua Ortiz, 4TH: Edgar Ulises Rangel Araujo

Television: United States - Fox Sports 2, FOX Deportes Network; Mexico - Fox Sports 2 Cono Norte

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling TV (Free trial + monthly subscription), FOX Sports GO

All-time record: Across all competitions, Santos holds the edge with 17 wins to Veracruz’ 15, with 12 draws between the sides. The clubs have met outside of Liga MX play only twice, both times in the 2016 Apertura Copa MX. Veracruz won the match in Veracruz 4-1 while the clubs drew 1-1 at Estadio Corona. The last time these clubs met was back on March 8 at the Estadio Pirata Fuente and the clubs played to a 2-2 draw. Bryan Carrasco and Diego Chávez scored for Veracruz while Julio Furch and Javier Correa tallied for Santos. The last time they met in Torreón they played to a 1-1 draw back on September 23, 2018. Jonathan “Cabecita” Rodríguez scored for Santos in the 48th minute while Cristian “Polaco” Menéndez equalized for Veracruz in the 71st.

Photo by Alfredo Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Superlider Santos Laguna (6W 2D 1L) hosts Veracruz (0W 2D 7L) on Wednesday evening in Torreón, where they have lost twice in league play since January 2018. Veracruz on the other hand has won twice since the start of the 2018 Apertura, their last win coming on August 25 against Tijuana. Santos has leading goalscorer Julio Furch, while Veracruz has conceded the most goals in the league (22) while scoring the fewest (5).

Everything points to this being a rout, which is exactly why Santos must approach this game with the right mentality. They can not afford to look past Veracruz to their Sunday afternoon match against Pumas (4W 2D 4L) because that is exactly how upsets happen.

Photo by Jaime Lopez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Veracruz on the other hand has to come into this looking to prove to everyone that they are capable of putting together a competent performance. They haven’t scored a goal in 405 minutes and on Sunday lost to Juárez, a team that effectively bought their way out of the Ascenso MX and into Liga MX.

Veracruz will most likely be without one of their better offensive players, as Colin Kazim-Richards has missed over a month due to a groin injury suffered while taking a penalty against in the Week 4 match against Atlas. One of the lone bright spots for Veracruz has been goalkeeper Sebastián Jurado who has managed to earn a call-up to Mexico’s U22 squad during the last international break.