Match preview: Club Atlético de San Luis vs. Santos Laguna

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

Date: Thursday, February 18th

Time: 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 9:00 p.m. Central, 7:00 p.m. Pacific, 2:00 a.m. UTC

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

Referees: REF: Adonai Escobedo González, AR1: Andres Hernández Delgado, AR2: Enedina Caudillo Gómez, 4TH: Brian Omar Gonzalez Veles, VAR: Jorge Isaac Rojas Castillo, AVAR: Jorge Antonio Pérez Durán

Television: United States - TUDN; Mexico - ESPN2; Belize - ESPN2; Costa Rica - ESPN2 Dominican Republic - ESPN2; El Salvador - ESPN2; Guatemala - ESPN2; Honduras - FESPN2; Nicaragua - ESPN2; Panama - ESPN2

Streaming: fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), TUDN En Vivo

All-time record: This will be just the third time San Luis and Santos have met in Liga MX play, with Santos beating San Luis 2-1 at TSM in their last match on goals from Gael Sandoval and Juilo Furch. Germán Berterame got the lone goal for Atleti in that match. Santos also won the last meeting in San Luis Potosí 3-2 back on September 21, 2019. Santos got goals from Julio Furch, Adrián Lozano, and Brian Lozano while Atleti got goals from Nicolás Ibañez and Ian González. They have met four times before in Copa MX play, with each team winning once and the teams drawing twice.

Photo by Alejandro Ávila/Jam Media/Getty Images

Atlético San Luis (2W 1D 3L) returns home on a high, having beaten Mazatlán FC (2W 1D 3L) at the Kraken a week after pulling out a last minute draw against Club Tijuana (3W 3D 0L). They’ll put their unbeaten home record up against Santos Laguna (3W 3D 0L), who got a thrilling win last week against Monterrey (3W 1D 1L).

San Luis looks like a team that is pulling it all together finally after a couple of seasons spent searching for an identity. Nicolás Ibáñez is re-emerging as a formidable offensive threat, scoring five goals in six games so far this season. Only Toluca’s Alexis Canelo has more so far into the 2021 Guard1anes tournament. Ibáñez is half of San Luis’ ten goals, which is second in the league behind Canelo and Toluca naturally.

Photo by Manuel Guadarrama/Getty Images

Awaiting them will be a Santos team that has allowed just two goals this season. Carlos Acevedo and the Santos defense are playing lights out right now, shutting teams down and looking for opportunities on counterattacks and set pieces. The defense is pitching in on some of the offensive duties as well, with Matheus Dória scoring the game winner against Rayados last week.

This should be a compelling match to watch, with an attack heavy team attempting to break through a good defense that likes to hit teams on the counter.