Match recap: Santos Laguna 2, Guadalajara 0

Coming into the match, both Santos Laguna and Chivas wanted to put a poor showing in their last game behind them. Santos certainly did thanks to a brace from Fernando Gorriarán, downing El Rebaño Sagrado 2-0 in Torreón. Carlos Acevedo got his first shutout of the season for Santos, making a thrilling save on a penalty at the death.

Santos started out immediately on the front foot, rushing down the pitch and winning a free kick before the first minute had passed. Santos kept the pressure on and it paid off in the fifth minute when a corner kick fell to a wide open Fernando Gorriarán, who hit an absolute rocket past Toño Rodríguez. To celebrate, he held up his hands in a one and a five and pretended to hobble down the pitch in a nod to his friend and teammate, injured winger Brian Lozano.

The goal would wake Chivas up a bit, and the visitors were able to apply some pressure but Santos defense seemed to have answers for whatever was thrown at them. Santos almost took advantage of another corner kick as Diego Valdés put his head on one and floated it toward the far corner. Toño Rodríguez made a fine diving save to tip the ball over bar and prevent a two goal lead before the first fifteen minutes had expired.

In the 19th Santos had a couple of good chances when David Andrade hit a great cross in that Diego Valdés, whose header was well saved by Rodríguez. The ball fell to the feet of Eduardo “Mudo” Aguirre, but he scuffed his shot and it was cleared out before any real damage could be done.

Santos did well to spread the field, making long passes from the full back to the opposite winger. Chivas was back on their heels, and Santos kept ratcheting up the pressure and not allowing anything to develop from the visitors. To their detriment, Chivas was reluctant to adjust and their preference to slowly, methodically build up play and suffered for it.

Chivas had their first decent chance in the 33rd minute when Santos tried to start a counterattack but was picked off before it could start in earnest. Isaác Brisuela had a shot from distance but Carlos Acevedo saw it the entire way and calmly slapped it to the turf.

In the 42nd minute, Santos had a great buildup when Julio Furch went out wide drawing the defense. Furch slotted it central to Diego Valdés, who made a defender miss and shot it past Rodríguez. After a brief look in VAR, referee Eduardo Galvan judged Valdés stepped on Cristian Calderón’s leg and not only called the goal off but showed Valdés a yellow card as well. Chivas was very lucky to escape to the locker room at halftime just down one goal.

Chivas started the second half using two subs and it looked to allow them some freedom of movement but it was Santos who got the first good chance in the 49th minute when it looked like Mudo Aguirre had scored but the AR correctly deemed him to have been played in an offside position. Just three minutes later Sanos hit again when Valdés hit a dime forward to Gorriarán, who was in alone and hit it far post for the second goal. This goal would stand, and Gorri did his hobble celebration for his fellow Uruguayan.

Chivas got a good chance in the 57th when Calderón was played in one-on-one with Acevedo but the goalkeeper stood his ground and made a fine save to tip the ball up and out of danger. Chivas would also get a lifeline when Félix Torres picked up a second yellow card in the 66th minute for throwing a dead ball out of play, putting the hosts down a player for the remaining 24 minutes.

Chivas had a good chance in the 77th when Calderón again was played in past the defender and hit a shot to the far post, but once again Acevedo made a sprawling save to tip the ball out of bounds. Chivas still was playing slowly and seemingly without urgency. Santos almost notched another one in the 79th when Gorriarán uncorked an uncontested left footed blast that went over the bar.

Deep in stoppage time the referee stopped play to do a VAR review and judged Ismael Govea had handled the ball in the box. J.J. Macías stepped up to take the penalty, but Acevedo made a fantastic diving save to keep the clean sheet and preserve the 2-0 win.

Santos will travel a few hours to the east to face Rayados in Monterrey on Saturday while Chivas will return home to Guadalajara to host Puebla, also on next Saturday.

Santos Laguna: Carlos Acevedo; David Andrade, Félix Torres, Matheus Dória, Ismael Govea; Alan Cervantes, Ulíses Rívas, Fernando Gorriarán, Diego Valdés (Carlos Orrantia, 89’); Eduardo Aguirre (Gael Sandoval, 70’), Julio Furch (Octavio Rivero, 74’)

Guadalajara: Antonio Rodríguez; Jesús Sánchez, Hiram Mier, Gilberto Sepúlveda, Cristian Calderón; José Juan Vázquez (Dieter Villalpando, 50’), Jesús Molina, Isaác Brizuela, Jesús Angulo (Zahid Muñoz, 73’); José Juan Macías, Sebastián Martínez (Uriel Antuna, 50’)

Scoring: Santos Laguna - Fernando Gorriarán (6’, 52’); Guadalajara - None

Disciplinary: Santos Laguna - Félix Torres (Yellow - 39’, Second Yellow - 66’), Diego Valdés (Yellow - 44’), Matheus Dória (Yellow - 81’); Guadalajara - José Juan Vázquez (Yellow - 45+1’)