Santos Laguna Hopes to Overcome Many Curses and Win Mexico’s Clausura Title

Santos Laguna has a lot of baggage as it prepares to face Monterrey in the Mexican League final. The two-legged series takes place on Thursday and Sunday. The team has become Mexico's perennial runner-up after losing three straight league finals and this year's CONCACAF Champions League.

Against Monterrey, it hopes to avenge its latest loss after falling 3-2 in the Champions League against Rayados.

To accomplish that, Santos will have to overcome Monterrey's own streak: its coach, Manuel Vucetich, has made 12 finals in his career and won all of them.

Much like Manchester City, who broke its own four-decade title drought, Santos Laguna pulled off a miracle over the weekend, which the team hopes will provide further momentum against Monterrey. Down 2-0 in the semifinals against Tigres with ten minutes to go, Oribe Peralta scored two late goals against the best defense in the league to power the team to the final.

Santos is a recurrent contender. It made the previous league final despite a disastrous start to the campaign before coach Benjamin Galindo saved the season. It has made four league finals in five years. In the latest, this past December, it lost to Tigres, who won its first league title in 30 years.

Galindo has his own demons to fend off. He has been runner-up in the league with Chivas, Cruz Azul, and Santos (on two different occasions). As a coach, or assistant, he has never managed to win a league final, which is one of the reasons he has had a hard time gaining any sort of permanence in a particular job.

As if that weren't enough, Santos also faces one of the more perplexing curses in Mexican Soccer: the curse of the "superlider." No number one seed has won the title since 2007 when Pachuca pulled it off. The team already dusted off part of that curse by advancing to the semifinals (something the no. 1 team in Mexico hadn't been able to do recently), and it hopes to extend that streak through the finals.

It has been the year of upsets in soccer: Real Madrid finally besting Barcelona, Manchester City getting one over United, and Juventus' improbable return to the top. Santos is the latest feel-good story, looking to win its first final since taking the Clausura 2008: it's been a short wait, but a frustrating one for the fans in Torreon.

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