Match preview: Santos Laguna vs. FC Juárez

qGame: Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. vs. Fútbol Club Juárez

Date: Sunday, August 29th

Time: 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 p.m. Central, 4:00 p.m. Pacific, 11:00 p.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Corona TSM (Torreón, Coah.)

Referees: REF: Oscar Macías Romo, AR1: Michel Alejandro Morales Morales, AR2: Michel Caballero Galicia, 4TH: Victor Alfonso Caceres Hernandez, VAR: Erick Yair Miranda Galindo, AVAR: Oscar Mejia Garcia

Television: United States - FOX Sports 2, FOX Deportes Network; Mexico - TUDN;

Streaming: fuboTV (Subscription), Sling TV (Subscription), FOX Sports GO, Vidgo (Subscription)

All-time record: Santos has never lost to FC Juárez, winning five and drawing three across all competitions. The last time the clubs met, Santos got a 3-2 win thanks to an autogol from Pol García and goals from Santi Muñoz and Matheus Dória, while Juárez got goals from Luis Pavez and Dario Lezcano.

Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images

Regional rivals clash as Santos Laguna (1-5-0) hosts FC Juárez (0-2-4) tonight at TSM. Santos are unbeaten this season, however have drawn their last five Liga MX matches and in two of the matches allowed the game tying goal past the 80th minute of play.

Santos will also be missing goalkeeper Carlos Acevedo, who will miss around six weeks due to an injury to his right shoulder. Gibran Lajud will most likely be the starting goalkeeper during Acevedo’s absence, which would be his first Liga MX start since the final game of the shortened 2020 Clausura when he was still with Club Tijuana. Lajud did however start against Orlando City in the Leagues Cup match and looked decent enough, keeping a clean sheet during the match.

Santos will however have the services of Matheus Dória, Fernando Gorriarán, and Diego Valdés, who played in the Liga MX vs. Major League Soccer All-Star Game midweek in Los Angeles, California. Brian Lozano, who played 28 minutes last week against León (4-1-1), is also available as is Omar Campos, who suffered a blow to the eye but suffered no lasting effects.

Photo by Alfredo Moya/Jam Media/Getty Images

FC Juárez have been in poor form all season under new manager Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti, with Bravos sitting in last place with just two points on the season. Ferretti is far removed from the established club he had built with Tigres, and is still perhaps looking to put his imprint on the borderland club.

In typical Tuca-style however, Juárez’ roster is comprised mostly of veterans like Paul Aguilar and Flavio Santos with younger players like Jefferson Intriago, Andrés Iniestra, and Blas Armoa thrown into the mix. The combination hasn’t worked well thus far, so Tuca may start to switch up some of the players to see if he can find a better fit.

This game should be a good one due to the nature of the regional rivalry between the clubs. Santos has some large question marks, but have been getting good performances. Juárez on the other hand also have some large question marks but haven’t had the results that Santos have been able to get.