CONCACAF Champions League: Jose Cardenas’s Four Goals Lead Santos’s 5-2 Win Over Joe Public

Visiting Santos Laguna raced to an easy 5-2 win over Trinidad and Tobago’s Joe Public behind four goals from José Cárdenas.

The Mexican attacker, who has not scored a league goal since moving to Santos from Pachuca two years ago, started his night in the ninth minute, beating Glenroy Samuel to the `keeper’s lower right after the Joe Public defense failed to close him down, 15 yards from goal. After settling a ball knocked-down to him, Cárdenas put a right-footed shot off the inside of the post, giving Santos a 1-0 lead.

The hosts would respond two minutes later through Makan Hislop, though it was goalkeeper Miguel Becerra’s error that allowed the goal. From 25 yards out, Hislop put a low, bouncing shot toward the near post. Becerra reacted as if he expected the ball to go out for a goal kick. Instead, the shot went just inside the `keeper’s right post, tying the match.

Cárdenas would respond 13 minutes later, taking a ball 22 yards from goal, evading four defenders before beating Samuel near-post with a left-footed shot.

Joe Public’s Yu Hoshide would score the host’s final goal of the match, a right-footed blast just inside of halftime, beating Becerra to his near post from 20 yards out to sent the match into half drawn 2-2.

In the second, Cárdenas gave Santos a 3-2 lead in the 66th minute with a left-footed, far post shot from the right of the penalty area, splashing into Samuel’s side netting. Cárdenas would add his fourth ten minutes later, winning an aerial challenge to head a ball down and into goal, making it 4-2.

Rodrigo Ruiz would set up Santos’s final goal, rolling a ball across the area from the right flank to José Carlos Enriquez, creating an uncontested fifth tally for the Guerreros.

Santos’s win puts them on top of Group B, their goal difference edging them in front of the Columbus Crew.