Match preview: Santos Laguna vs. Atlético de San Luis

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

Date: Sunday, August 28th

Time: 8:05 p.m. Eastern, 7:05 p.m. Central, 5:05 p.m. Pacific, 12:05 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Corona TSM (Torreón, Coah.)

Referees: REF: Fernando Guerrero Ramírez, AR1: Pablo Israel Hernández Luna, AR2: Michel Ricardo Espinoza Avalos, 4TH: Jorge Abraham Camacho Peregrina, VAR: Adonai Escobedo González, AVAR: Enríque Isaac Bustos Díaz

Television: United States - FOX Deportes; Mexico - TUDN

Streaming: fuboTV (Subscription), FOX Sports app, Vidgo (Subscription), ViX+ (Mexico)

All-time record: This will be the tenth time San Luis and Santos have met, with the last match in Torreón ending in a 2-0 win for Santos in the 2021 Apertura repechaje on goals from Ayrton Preciado and Ignacio Jeraldino. The last time the clubs met was in San Luis Potosí back on May 1, and Santos won 3-1 on goals from Eduardo “Mudo” Aguirre, Brian Lozano, and Andrés Ávila, while San Luis’ lone goal came from German Berterame. The teams have also met four times before in Copa MX play, with each team winning once and the teams drawing twice.

Photo by Francisco Vega/Getty Images

Historically, Santos Laguna has been almost invincible at home while they struggle on the road. For the first time in almost two years however, Santos is coming off of two straight wins on the road as they head back to Torreón and their fortress Estadio Corona to host San Luis.

As good as they’ve been, Santos will be without some key players. Matheus Dória is still out with an ankle injury, and the club announced that Jair González would miss two to three weeks with a sprain in his right knee. Fernando Gorriarán will also miss the match, having picked up his fifth yellow card in the match against Tijuana on Thursday. Santos however will again have the services of head coach Eduardo Fentanes, who missed the Xolos match after picking up a red card against Pumas the week before.

After the first ten games, Juan Brunetta and Harold Preciado each have three goals and five more players have two. With 20 goals so far on the season, Santos is third behind América and Rayados and has really found their offensive stride as of late. Defensively, they’ve only allowed 11 goals, tied for seventh best in the league although they do have a game in hand against most teams.

Photo by Cesar Gomez/Jam Media/Getty Images

San Luis meanwhile come in really needing points in order to stay in the Liguilla race. With 11 games played, they’re in eighth place with 14 points, which is only two more points than Juárez, who are in twelfth place and the last repechaje spot at the moment. Atleti has been good on the road this season, winning one and drawing the other four away from San Luis Potosí.

San Luis has allowed ten goals so far this season, however they’ve only managed to score ten as well, tying them for last place. Abel Hernández has half of those ten goals, however three of those came against Pumas in Week 9. No one else on the team has more than one goal.

San Luis’ road form should be enough to give Santos pause and force them to take them seriously. While there are significant concerns about Atleti’s ability to score, Santos is missing their captain and best defender as well as their engine in the midfield and a promising winger. They’ll need to be at their best in order to keep their good run of form going.