Match preview: Atlético San Luis vs. Santos Laguna

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

Date: Saturday, January 18th

Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Central, 3:00 p.m. Pacific, 10:00 p.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Alfonso Lastras (San Luis Potosí, S.L.P.)

Referees: REF: Oscar Mejia Garcia, AR1: Michel Alejandro Morales Morales, AR2: Erick Duron Martinez, 4TH: Hector Salvador Solorio Arreola, VAR: Edgar Allan Morales Olvera, AVAR: Miguel Ángel Anaya Suárez

Television: United States - TUDN; Mexico - ESPN

Streaming: fuboTV (Subscription), TUDN En Vivo

All-time record: This will be the twelfth time San Luis and Santos have met, with Santos picking up a 4-1 win in their last meeting with goals from Eduardo “Mudo” Aguirre, Leo Suárez, Javier Correa, and Rivaldo Lozano while Rubens Sambueza scored the lone goal for San Luis. In their last match in San Luis Potosí back on May 1, 2022 Santos won 3-1 on goals from “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 Manuel Guadarrama/Getty Images

On the heels of a disappointing loss in Juárez, Santos now heads to San Luis Potosí to take on Atlético San Luis. San Luis meanwhile are looking to bounce back from two straight losses, including a 3-1 loss midweek against Club América.

Santos fell apart in the second half against Juárez, and for the second straight game will be without a player due to picking up a red card. Two weeks ago it was Lucas González picking up a straight red card against América, last week it was Cecilio Domínguez getting a straight red deep in stoppage time for something he said to referee Guillermo Pacheco.

When Santos has been able to keep it together, they’ve been pretty good. Prior to the last two matches they had seven out of twelve possible points, giving up just six goals in the four matches. They’ve given up five goals in the two games since, and desperately need to staunch the bleeding.

Photo by Leopoldo Smith/Getty Images

Luckily for them, Atlético San Luis has scored just seven goals in seven games, scoring just once in the past two games while giving up four. They’re tied with Santos at eight points, despite having played one more match than them.

Newcomer Leonardo Bonatini has three goals on the season so far for San Luis, which leads the team. No one else has more than one, highlighting the gaping hole left by the departure of Germán Berterame a year ago. Bonatini was brought in to be the replacement for Abel Hernández, who scored 8 of San Luis’ 15 goals last season. In order for San Luis to be competitive, Bonatini has to start scoring regularly.

San Luis needs someone to step up and score in order to give them a chance. Meanwhile as defensively focused as they are, Santos has to execute and get comfortable out of possession while not giving up the advantage of having someone sent off. Both teams need a victory here to put a stop to a poor run of form.