Match preview: Rayados de Monterrey vs. Santos Laguna

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

Date: Wednesday, November 8th

Time: 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 p.m. Central (local), 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 1:00 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Corona TSM (Torreón, Coah.) Mexican state abbreviations available here

Referees: REF: Fernando Guerrero Ramírez, AR1: Alberto Morín Méndez, AR2: Erick Durón Martínez, 4TH: Iván Antonio López Sánchez, VAR: Oscar Macías Romo, AVAR: José Ibrahim Martínez Chavarría

Television: United States - None; Mexico - None

Streaming: ViX - Español (Subscription), ViX - English (Subscription), FOX Soccer (Authentication)

All-time record: Monterrey holds the all time edge, winning 35 to Santos’ 29 while the teams have drawn 29 times. In Liga MX play, Monterrey holds the 29 to 25 advantage with 26 draws. In the playoffs, Monterrey won their fourth championship 5-3 on aggregate in the 2010 Apertura. Santos won their fourth championship 3-2 on aggregate in the 2012 Clausura. They also met in the quarterfinal round of the 2018 Apertura with Monterrey winning that 3-0 on aggregate, again in the 2019 Apertura quarterfinal round where Rayados advanced 6-3 on aggregate en route to their fifth championship, and in the 2021 Clausura quarterfinal round where Santos advanced 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a late goal by Roni Prieto in the vuelta leg.

The clubs have also met in the Copa MX, with Santos winning twice to Monterrey’s once as well as in Concacaf Champions League twice with Monterrey winning both the 2011-12 Final 3-2 on aggregate and the 2012-13 Final on 4-2 aggregate. In their last meeting, Monterrey defeated Santos 2-0 in Monterrey to win the 2023 Clausura Quarterfinal round by a 2-0 aggregate score.

Photo by Manuel Guadarrama/Getty Images

With time running out on the season, Santos Laguna is in control of their destiny with regards to making the repechaje. Currently at 20 points, they’re in tenth place, one point over the three teams jockeying for the final two spots in the postseason. They also have a game in hand, giving them one more game than those teams below them to try and fortify their position, as well as the league’s leading goal scorer in Harold Preciado.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that their final two games are a mid-week match at Monterrey and then another road match in San Luis Potosí, two teams that could very well qualify straight to the Liguilla. They’ll also miss Juan Brunetta for the match tonight against Monterrey, after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season this Sunday in the win against Toluca. They may also be missing defender Hugo Rodríguez, who had to come out of the match early after suffering what looked to be a knee injury. This depletes an already thin defensive corps, who have been without Matheus Dória since Week 9 and only had Ismael Govea return in the last match after missing over a month.

Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images

Rayados meanwhile comes in hot, having won five of six and looking all but a lock to go straight to the Liguilla. While talismanic striker Rogelio Funes Mori’s six goals are just half of his Clausura 2023 totals, Monterrey hasn’t needed him to score a ton of goals. The defense has been the story for Rayados this season, allowing just 15 goals in as many games and helping goalkeeper Esteban Andrada pick up five clean sheets on the season.

The great equalizer here however will be the short span of time between their last games. Monterrey had one extra day of rest, playing on Saturday while Santos played on Sunday. But while these mid-week games are usually fun to watch, they’re almost never predictable.