Match recap: Santos Laguna 1, Guadalajara 1

A draw is never the desired result, but sometimes teams can take positives from picking up one of three available points. Santos wanted a win in their building, but didn’t play their best and had to battle back to pick up the point. Chivas meanwhile ended their scoreless drought this season and picked up a point at a notoriously difficult place to play. In the end, the 1-1 draw wasn’t what either side may have started the match wanting, but both can be happy with the result after 90 minutes.

Early on Chivas had a great chance in the third minute when a free kick from Alexis Vega hit the crossbar and went straight down but did not cross the line. The rebound fell to Chivas, but the shot was tipped over the bar by Carlos Acevedo. On the resulting free kick, Alan Cervantes went down on the pitch with blood coming out of his nose. Luis Olivas was shown a yellow card well after the play, and after a brief spell on the sidelines Cervantes was back in the match. Santos then proceeded to take control of the match, keeping Chivas pinned in their own end for a long stretch of time, earning a corner kick but not creating much in the way of goal scoring opportunities.

Chivas made it back down to the Santos end in the 13th minute, and Roberto “Piojo” Alvarado was able to get a shot from distance, but Acevedo saw it the entire way wand was able to easily smother the chance. A minute later Cristian “Chicote” Calderón was played in by Fernando Beltrán and got a shot that Acevedo make a sprawling kick save on that would have made Terry Sawchuk proud. In the 17th minute Harold Preciado made a nice run down the right side and threaded a beautiful through the box, but no one from Santos made the trailing run and the ball was eventually cleared out. In the 21st minute Chivas had a nice play where Piojo Alvarado dummied a nice ball from Beltrán and Alexis Vega got on to it in the box, however his cross to Jesús González was too far out in front and the danger was removed. A minute later Vega tried one himself but it was right to Acevedo, who stopped it rather easily.

Both sides battled for possession and in the 33rd Santos had a great chance when Preciado got into the box and hit a shot that Miguel Jiménez had to turn aside. On the ensuing corner kick, there was a bit of controversy when Santos players thought a handball had been committed in the box. While it looked like a Chivas player’s arm had hit the ball, the referee and VAR crew determined it was close enough to his body that it was not a handball. In the 36th minute Chivas fed a nice ball in to “Piojo” Alvarado, but his shot went well into the stands. Two minutes later Jair González fed a great ball into the box that Correa redirected by Jiménez was well-positioned and stopped the shot.

In the 40th minute there was a bit more controversy when Alexis Vega made a run into the box and hit the ground after contact from Matheus Dória, however no call was given. Immediately after at the other end, Javier Correa was played in on goal but Jiménez made a great play to get in front of the shot. Despite four minutes of stoppage time, that’s as close as either side would get and the half ended knotted at zero.

The scoreless draw wouldn’t last long into the second half. In the first minute a long ball was sent over the top to Alexis Vega. Vega fought off Dória and headed the ball back across to Jesús González, who easily knocked it into the empty net.

Santos came back down the pitch and had a decent chance when Juan Brunetta got a shot off but it missed the far post and the trailing run by Franco Pizzichillo was too far behind. In the 53rd it was a shot from distance by Miguel Ponce that gave Acevedo trouble, however he was able to recuperate from bobbling the ball and smother it before any further damage was caused. As the clock struck the 60 minute mark, Gilberto Orozco committed a foul just outside of the box, conceding a dangerous free kick for Santos. Unfortunately for Santos the free kick and resulting corner kick went nowhere and the opportunity was left unfulfilled.

Chivas was able to hit Santos on a counter in the 64th minute, but “Piojo” Alvarado’s shot again went up and into the crowd behind the goal. In the 69th minute it looked like Santos had scored a goal when Eduardo “Mudo” Aguirre corralled a loose ball in the box and fired past Jiménez. It was immediately ruled offside on the field, however replays showed Aguirre may have been onside. A VAR booth review overturned the ruling on the field and awarded the goal to Aguirre.

Santos wasn’t quite done, and moments after the goal came down and fired a shot that hit off of the post. Then in the 81st minute a great buildup play by most of the players in green and white brought the ball down the pitch and around the box, but Leo Suárez’ resulting shot missed its mark by quite a bit. A minute later referee Marco Antonio Ortíz showed a red card to Antonio Briseño, who was on the sidelines and hadn’t been in the game. Santos kept applying pressure, while Chivas looked like they were struggling to see the game out.

Chivas did make a nice run in the fourth minute of stoppage time, but Matheus Dória played an inch-perfect tackle in the box to dislodge the ball and remove the chance. Despite having much more of the possession in stoppage, Santos were ultimately unable to make anything of it and wound up with a hard-fought draw.

Santos heads on the road to face Toluca on Saturday, July 23 while Chivas returns home to host León on Wednesday, July 20 before heading to Las Vegas, Nevada to play Juventus in a friendly match on the Soccer Champions Tour 2022.

Santos Laguna: Carlos Acevedo; Omar Campos, Matheus Dória, Hugo Rodríguez, Franco Pizzichillo (Félix Torres, 56’); Fernando Gorriarán, Alan Cervantes (Jordan Carrillo, 56’); Javier Correa (Eduardo Aguirre, 65’), Juan Brunetta (Leo Suárez, 56’), Jair González (Carlos Orrantia, 78’); Harold Preciado

Guadalajara: Miguel Jiménez; Cristian Calderón (Miguel Ponce, 51’), Luis Olivas, Gilberto Sepúlveda, Gilberto Orozco; Carlos Cisneros (Alan Mozo, 77’), Rubén González, Fernando Beltrán (Alan Torres, 76’); Roberto Alvarado (Isaac Brizuela, 87’), Jesús González (Ángel Zaldívar, 76’), Alexis Vega

Scoring: Santos Laguna - Eduardo Aguirre (71’); Guadalajara - Jesús González (46’)

Disciplinary: Santos Laguna - Franco Pizzichillo (Yellow - 42’), Eduardo Fentanes (Yellow - 60’), Fernando Gorriarán (Yellow - 90+5’); Guadalajara - Luis Olivas (Yellow - 6’), Cristian Calderón (Yellow - 43’), Gilberto Orozco (Yellow - 60’), Antonio Briseño (Yellow - 79’, Red - 82’), Gilberto Sepúlveda (Yellow - 88’), Miguel Ponce (Yellow - 90’)