Seattle Sounders bring must-wins in the fight for one of the earliest berths in the tournament's next stage into Sunday's Santos Laguna contest at Lumen Field, as well as the confidence of having come out of the biggest drubbing in team history.
Their 7-0 triumph vs the most recent Leagues Cup title winners, Cruz Azul, was the biggest in MLS team history vs the reigning Liga MX opponent. With the score, the team has had the inspiration as it has been undefeated in seven matches, scoring 21 in the same, as well as playing at the season's best for confidence.
Sounders hope to convert historic triumph into earlier qualification
The Sounders’ connection with Santos goes back years. They first played each other in 2012 in the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals. Seattle took the first leg 2-1 but was eliminated after losing the second leg 6-1. The teams went on to meet each other five times since, with each team winning twice, as well as one tie amongst the teams. Their most recent contest had Santos advance for the first time in team history in the championship game of the Leagues Cup in stoppage time after forward Raúl Ruidíaz made the goal.
Confidence is really high, here. Seattle did not merely walk away with a historic performance against Cruz Azul, but showed the quality of their team as well. Pedro de la Vega was called in to score twice, one of them being one fantastic volley, of course, marked for the size of difficulty. Alongside him, Ruidíaz is still the central penetrative threat, at least in high-pressure matches. With the type of attack in this sort of form, at home, Seattle is going to attack Santos's defense right from the beginning of the game and shake it out of sorts.
Santos battle for existence and need to surmount crucial absence
Santos need to win this game in order to remain in contention for qualification. They will lack starting goalie Carlos Acevedo, as he was red-carded during stoppage time while playing against the Colorado Rapids. This is the bad news for one of the teams that has been weak in defense in the last games.
Narrow smart strategy, closing the space, shooting against the counter is the approach here, as it is one of the aggressive tactics against the team that has scored seven in the recent past, but Santos case calls for caution, as Loss would seal the end for them, pride only to fight for in the rest of the group-stage match.