Santos Laguna returns to the Copa for 9th time!

Santos Laguna returns to the Copa for 9th time!

 Mexican 1st Division Professional club, Santos Laguna, returns for the 9th time in 11 years of the Copa Rayados Internacional!.....

Santos Laguna returns for the 9th time to the Copa Rayados Internacional! 

 

Mexican 1st Division Professional club, Santos Laguna, will challenge for the title again in 2023.  Santos Laguna is the only LigaMX club to compete in every Copa Rayados Internacional, outside of host club, CF Monterrey Rayados.   (excluding Covid19 restricted years) 

 Santos Laguna won the inaugural Copa Rayados Internacional Under 15 title in 2013.  In 2014, Santo Laguna took 3rd place in both the Under 13 and Under 15 Gold divisions.  Last year, Santos Laguna lost in the semifinals to Toluca.   

As a club, Santos Laguna has been one of Mexico’s top professional sides, regularly competing with Monterrey Rayados for the CONCACAF Champions League Title.  The past few years have seen both teams in the finals with Monterrey Rayados prevailing each time.  Santos Laguna is a power in the Mexican league and with one of the strongest fan followings, a challenging place to win at. 

 

More About Santos Laguna at their official website  

 

Club Santos Laguna is a Mexican football club. They represent the urban area of Comarca Lagunera, which is made up of Torreón, Gómez Palacio, and Lerdo. Santos Laguna currently plays in the Liga MX. The club was founded in 1982, and reached Mexico’s top division after buying the franchise belonging to the Ángeles de Puebla. The club’s debut in Mexico’s top division was in the 1988/89 tournament. They have won the league championship four times: first in the Invierno 1996 tournament, second in the Verano 2001 tournament, third in the Clausura 2008 tournament, and the most recent in the Clausura 2012 tournament. They have also reached the finals in the 1993–94 season, the Verano 2000 tournament, the Bicentenario 2010 tournament, the Apertura 2010 tournament, and the Apertura 2011 tournament. The club made history on November 20, 2012 assigning for the first time a European coach, Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha.

 

In the Clausura 2007 season, Santos was in grave danger of being relegated to the Primera División A along with other teams Querétaro and Tigres UANL. Despite having bought several important players such as Oswaldo Sánchez, Daniel Ludueña and Vicente Matías Vuoso, the team lost five games of their first seven. However, the team managed to keep a steady pace and scored 22 points during the season. They were benefited by the "20/11 rule", which made Querétaro lose three points for not using enough players under 20 years, 11 months. Thanks to this, Santos remained in the Primera División. Not only did they save themselves from relegation, but they made enough points to play the repechage. There they would face the preferable San Luis to whom they had lost the 1st leg 1–0 at home, but miraculously came from behind and won the 2nd leg 2–0, thus eliminating San Luis. In the quarter finals, Santos would lose to the champion of the season, Pachuca in a global score of 2–2 eliminating Santos for the positioning on the table.

The Apertura 2007 season was a much better season for Santos leaving them first place on the regular season standings, eliminating Monarcas Morelia with a global score of 5–2 in the quarter-finals, but they were defeated by Pumas UNAM with a global score of 5–4 in the semi-finals.

Clausura 2008 Champions

In the Clausura 2008 season Santos would come out champion by defeating Monterrey in the semi-finals with a last minute goal, and finally Cruz Azul by an aggregate score of 3–2.

Torneo Bicentenario 2010

In the finals they played against FC Toluca. In the first game, the final score was 2-2 with a goal by Carlos Darwin Quintero and another one by Vicente Matías Vuoso. In the second game the scored was tied 0–0 and lead to penalty kicks, Santos was 2 penalties ahead of Toluca, the ones that scored the penalties were: Lacerda, Chato and Ludueña, Santos only needed to score a goal and the championship was theirs, but Vuoso failed his penalty kick, then toluca scored, then Morales also failed his pk, the penalty kicks were 3–3, then Arce failed his shoot, and then Toluca scored, leaving Santos in the second place.

Apertura 2010

In the Apertura 2010, Santos Laguna played against Monterrey. The first leg was at TSM with a score of 3–2 in favor of Santos Laguna with goals of Gutty 23’, Quintero 41’, Davino (own goal) 85’ and for Monterrey Suazo 37’ and Cardozo 54’ scoring their goals. The second leg was played in Monterrey, with Los Regios winning 3–0 with goals of Suazo 28’ & 85’ and Basanta 72’ winning aggregate 5–3.

Apertura 2011

In this tournament, Santos Laguna went to the final playing against Tigres. The first leg was played at TSM with Tigres winning 1–0 with the goal of Damian Alvarez. The second leg was at El Volcan, with Tigres also winning that game 3–1 with goals of Mancilla 52’, Danilinho 63’, and Pulido 87’ and for Santos Laguna, Peralta scored at 30’ with Tigres winning aggregate 4–1. The referee for the second leg’s match, was Marco Antonio Rodriguez with very controversial decisions, including the sending off of Oswaldo Sánchez at 12’ of the first half. Later on, he would send off Baloy of Santos Laguna and Jimenez of Tigres at 69’.

CONCACAF Champions League 2011–2012 Final

Santos Laguna lost to Monterrey in this CCL, with Monterrey winning the first leg 2–0 Humberto Suazo scoring for the Regios when he was supposed to be sent off before scoring the goals. Santos Laguna won 2–1 the second leg, Daniel Luduena and Oribe Peralta scoring for the Laguneros and Nery Cardozo for the Regios. This was the 4th lost final for Santos Laguna.

Clausura 2012 Champions

In the Clausura 2012 season, Santos would come out champion by fourth time, defeating Tigres dramatically in the semi-finals with two last minute goals, and defeating Monterrey in the finals by a winning aggregate score of 3–2. The goals were scored by Daniel Luduena at 6’ and Oribe Peralta at 64’ for Santos, and Aldo De Nigris at 78’ for Monterrey.

Squad