Match preview: Atlas vs. Santos Laguna

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

Date: Saturday, February 6th

Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Central, 3:00 p.m. Pacific, 11:00 p.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Jalisco (Guadalajara, Jal.)

Referees: REF: Fernando Hernandez Gomez, AR1: Alberto Morín Méndez, AR2: Michel Caballero Galicia, 4TH: Áxel Meza Méndez, VAR: Arturo Cruz Hurtado, AVAR: Christian Adrián Ramírez Tejeda

Television: United States - TUDN; Mexico - Afizzionados

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

All-time record: Santos holds the all-time record across all competitions, winning 33 to Atlas’ 16 while the clubs have drawn 26 times. The clubs drew both their meeting in the 2003-04 Interliga and in the 2009-10 SuperLiga, with all other results being in Liga MX play. Their last meeting ended with a 0-0 draw in Torreón back on August 16, 2020, while their last meeting in Guadalajara was a 2-1 win by Santos back on August 2, 2019. In that match, Santos got a brace from Brian Lozano while Osvaldo Martínez scored a penalty in stoppage for Atlas.

Photo by Manuel Guadarrama/Getty Images

Santos Laguna (2W 2D 0L) heads out on the road to Guadalajara, where they’ll take on Atlas (0W 1D 3L), who are fresh off of their first point of the season. Santos has looked strong this season, with a solid defense complimented by an emerging offense. Carlos Acevedo continues to impress, as he and the Santos defense have conceded just one goal in four outings so far in 2021. A win this weekend would push them to sole possession of the superlíder position.

The offense has come to life as well, with four different players (Diego Valdés, Juan Ferney Otero, Eduardo “Mudo” Aguirre, and Santiago Muñoz) scoring the team’s four goals. Valdés will not be available due to a broken toe suffered at the end of January, however Santos announced last week that they were signing Andres Ibargüen from América (2W 1D 1L) and manager Guillermo Almada announced “Pikiña” would be available and might play.

Photo by Mauricio Salas/Jam Media/Getty Images

While Santos seems to be hitting on all cylinders, Atlas can’t seem to catch a break. Julio Furch was their big signing during the offseason, but he’s out for the foreseeable future with an ankle injury. Atlas scrambled to sign Milton Caraglio after Furch’s injury, but Caraglio so far hasn’t been able to provide an offensive spark. Atlas is the only team yet to score a goal in league play.

The good news for Atlas fans is that they have a decent squad of players. Luciano Acosta, José Abella, Hugo Nervo, Ignacio Malcorra, and others on the team are all capable of turning in good performances. The problem is that a bad day by one or more of these players really puts Atlas at a disadvantage against most other teams. They’ll need to be at their absolute best to be competitive against Santos.