2015–16 Liga Nacional de Guatemala

Liga Nacional de Guatemala
Season	2015–16
Champions	Apertura:; Antigua (1st title) ; Clausura:; Suchitepéquez (2nd title)
Relegated	USAC
Champions League	Antigua; Suchitepéquez;
Top goalscorer	Carlos Kamiani Félix (19) (Apertura) ; Carlos Kamiani Félix (15) (Clausura)
Biggest home win	Apertura:; Suchitepéquez 6–0 Petapa ; (31 October 2015); Clausura:; Malacateco 9–0 Cobán Imperial; (8 May 2016);
Biggest away win	Apertura:; Marquense 0–3 Comunicaciones ; (13 September 2015); Antigua 1–4 USAC ; (30 September 2015); Petapa 1–4 Comunicaciones ; (4 October 2015); Malacateco 0–3 USAC ; (4 November 2015); Municipal 0–3 Guastatoya ; (8 November 2015); Clausura:; USAC 2–6 Suchitepéquez; (8 May 2016);
Longest winning run	TBD (4)
Longest unbeaten run	TBD (7)
Longest winless run	TBD (10)
Longest losing run	TBD (3)
	← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 Liga Nacional de Guatemala was the 63rd professional season of the top-flight football league in Guatemala. The season was divided into two championships—the 2015 Apertura and the 2016 Clausura—each in an identical format and each contested by the same 12 teams.

Format

The format for both championships are identical. Each championship will have two stages: a first stage and a playoff stage. The first stage of each championship is a double round-robin format. The teams that finish first and second in the standings will advance to the playoffs semifinals, while the teams that finish 3–6 will enter in the quarterfinals. The winner of each quarterfinal will advance to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals will advance to the finals, which will determine the tournament champion.

Teams

2015–16 Liga Nacional de Guatemala is located in Guatemala

Locations of the 2014–15 Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala teams

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Antigua GFC	Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez	Pensativo	9,000
Cobán Imperial	Cobán, Guatemala	Estadio José Ángel Rossi	15, 000
Comunicaciones	Guatemala, Guatemala	Cementos Progreso	16,000
Guastatoya	Guastatoya, El Progreso	David Cordón Hichos	3,000
Malacateco	Malacatán, San Marcos	Santa Lucía	7,000
Marquense	San Marcos, Guatemala	Marquesa de la Ensenada	10,000
Mictlan	Mita, Jutiapa	Estadio La Asunción	3,000
Municipal	Guatemala, Guatemala	Manuel Felipe Carrera	7,500
Petapa	San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala	Julio Armando Cobar	7,000
Suchitepéquez	Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez	Carlos Salazar Hijo	12,000
USAC	Guatemala, Guatemala	Estadio Revolución	5,000
Xelajú MC	Quetzaltenango	Mario Camposeco	11,000

Apertura

The 2015 Torneo Apertura began on 13 August 2015 and ended on 21 December 2015.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Antigua GFC	Rafael Arreaga	Mauricio Tapia	TBD	Pegamex
Cobán Imperial	Irasema Melendez	Fabricio Chapa Benitez	Puma	TBD
Comunicaciones	Pedro Portilla	William Coito Olivera	Puma	TBD
Guastatoya		Ariel Sena	TBD	TBD
Malacateco	TBD	Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	TBD	TBD
Marquense	TBD	Juan Melgar	TBD	TBD
Mictlan	TBD	Sergio Guevara	TBD	TBD
Municipal	Gerardo Villa	Gustavo Machaín	TBD	DemosPro
Deportivo Petapa	TBD	Pablo Centrone	TBD	TBD
Suchitepéquez	TBD	Walter Claverí	TBD	TBD
Universidad SC	TBD	Roberto Gamarra	TBD	TBD
Xelajú	TBD	Hernán Medford	RetoSports	TBD

Final phase

Qualifying stage					Semifinals					Finals

					1	Xelajú MC	0	2	2

					3	Guastatoya	3	2	5
4	Guastatoya	3	0	3

5	Suchitepéquez	3	0	3
										3	Guastatoya	2	0	2

										2	Antigua GFC	1	2	3
3	Comunicaciones	0	3	3

6	Petapa	0	0	0
					2	Antigua GFC	3	1	4

					4	Comunicaciones	3	0	3
3

6

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Comunicaciones	QF1	Petapa	0–0	3–0
Guastatoya	QF2	Suchitepéquez	3–3	0–0

^† Order of legs reversed.

First leg

December 3, 2015

13:00 UTC−6

Petapa	0–0	Comunicaciones

Estadio Julio Armando Cóbar, San Miguel, Petapa

December 4, 2015

12:30 UTC−6

Suchitepéquez	3–3	Guastatoya
Wilson Morales 15' Ángel Prudencio 16' Sergio Targua 72'		Víctor Solalinde 41' Henry Suazo 48' Edi Guerra 62'

Estadio Municipal Carlos Salazar Hijo, Mazatenango

Second leg

December 6, 2015

13:00 UTC−6

Comunicaciones	3–0	Petapa
Jose Contreras 10' Rolando Blackburn 15' Emiliano Lopez 72'		None'

Estadio Cementos Progreso, Guatemala City

Comunicaciones won 3–0 on aggregate.

December 7, 2015

20:30 UTC−6

Guastatoya	0–0	Suchitepéquez
None		None

Estadio David Cordón Hichos, Guastatoya

1–1 on aggregate. Guastatoya advanced on the away goal rule.

Semifinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Xelajú MC	2–5	Guastatoya	0–3	2–2
Antigua GFC	4–3	Comunicaciones	3–3	1–0

First leg

December 10, 2015

8:00pm

Guastatoya	3–0	Xelajú MC
Tomas Castillo 10' Wilson Pineda 70' Nery Oliva 78'		None

Estadio David Cordón Hichos, Guastatoya

December 11, 2015

Comunicaciones	3–3	Antigua GFC
Emiliano Lopez 22' Brayan Ordóñez 65' Jairo Arreola 78'		Alex Diaz 32' & 76' Manfred Russell 86'

Estadio Cementos Progreso, Guatemala city

Second leg

December 13, 2015

13:00

Xelajú MC	2–2	Guastatoya
Kevin Arriola pen 54' Junior Andrade 79'		Tomás Castillo 33' Fredy Orellana 91'

Estadio Mario Camposeco, Quetzaltenango

Guastatoya won 5–2 on aggregate.

December 14, 2015

4:30

Antigua GFC	1–0	Comunicaciones
Edgar Chinchilla 91'		None

Estadio Pensativo, Antigua

Antigua GFC won 4–3 on aggregate.

Finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guastatoya	2–3	Antigua GFC	2–1	0–2

First leg

December 18, 2015

8:00

Guastatoya	2–1	Antigua GFC
Juan Manuel Klug 16' Edi Guerra 86'		Alejandro Díaz 49'

Estadio David Cordón Hichos, Guastatoya

Second leg

December 21, 2015

Antigua GFC	2–0	Guastatoya
Oscar Isaula 19' Edgar Chinchilla 74'		None

Estadio Pensativo, Antigua

Antigua GFC won 3–2 on aggregate.

Apertura 2015 champions
1st title

Managerial changes

Beginning of the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
C.S.D. Municipal	Enzo Trossero	Sacked	2015	Mauricio Wright	2015
Deportivo Malacateco	Emilio Umanzor	Sacked	2015	Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	2015
Marquense	Carlos Washington Blanco	resigned	2015	Juan Melgar	June 2015
Xelajú	Nahúm Espinoza		2015	Hernán Medford	June 2015

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Universidad SC	Roberto Gamarra	Resigned	September 2015	Ramiro Cepeda	September 2015	12th (Apertura 2015)
Deportivo Malacateco	Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	Resigned	November 2015	Ronald Gomez	November 2015	12th (Apertura 2015)
C.S.D. Municipal	Mauricio Wright	Sacked	November 2015	Gustavo Machain	November 2015	7th (Apertura 2015)

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Xelajú MC	22	13	2	7	22	17	+5	41	Qualified to the Semifinals
2	Antigua GFC	22	11	5	6	28	19	+9	38	Qualified to the Semifinals
3	Comunicaciones	22	11	4	7	26	20	+6	37	Qualified to the Quarterfinals
4	Guastatoya	22	9	7	6	33	23	+10	34
5	Suchitepéquez	22	10	4	8	36	27	+9	34
6	Petapa	22	9	6	7	29	31	−2	33
7	Municipal	22	9	4	9	28	27	+1	31
8	Marquense	22	8	5	9	22	28	−6	29
9	Cobán Imperial	22	7	7	8	20	26	−6	28
10	Mictlan	22	7	5	10	24	28	−4	26
11	Universidad SC	22	4	6	12	31	36	−5	18
12	Malacateco	22	4	5	13	24	41	−17	17

Updated to match(es) played on 2015. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ANT	COB	COM	GUA	MAL	MAR	MIC	MUN	PET	SUC	USC	XEL
Antigua GFC		0–0	0–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	1–0	1–4	3–0
Cobán Imperial	0–0		2–1	2–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–3	3–3	2–2	0–0
Comunicaciones	1–0	2–1		0–0	2–1	2–2	2–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	2–0
Guastatoya	1–2	2–0	1–1		4–1	2–0	0–0	3–1	1–1	3–0	2–3	2–0
Malacateco	1–3	1–0	2–1	0–2		4–0	2–0	2–2	1–1	0–2	0–3	0–1
Marquense	1–1	0–1	0–3	2–0	2–2		3–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	2–1	1–0
Mictlan	1–2	3–0	2–0	2–2	2–2	0–0		1–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–1
Municipal	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–3	1–0	3–1	2–0		4–1	3–2	3–2	0–0
Petapa	0–2	1–0	1–4	0–0	4–1	0–2	3–0	3–0		1–1	2–1	2–1
Suchitepéquez	3–1	1–1	2–0	1–0	4–1	3–0	2–3	0–2	6–0		2–0	1–0
Universidad SC	0–1	1–2	1–1	2–3	2–2	0–1	2–0	2–4	2–0	2–2		1–2
Xelajú MC	1–0	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 2015. Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in Apertura 2015. The following players:

have played at least one apertura game for the respective club.
have not been capped for the Guatemala national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

A new rule was introduced a few season ago, that clubs can only have five foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or player/s is released.

Antigua GFC

Mandred Russell
Alexander Robinson
Mekeil Williams
Akeem Priestley
Justin Arboleda

Cobán Imperial

Victor Guay
Argenis Fernandez
Mario Piñeyro
Jesus Darwin Ramirez

CSD Comunicaciones

Joel Benítez
Rolando Blackburn
Agustín Herrera
Jesús Jonathan Lozano
Emiliano Lopez

Guastatoya

Victor Solalinde
Agustín Arigon
Álvaro García

' Deportivo Mictlan

Juan Aguirre
Marlon Negrete
William Negrete
Ricardo Romero

Deportivo Malacateco

Martin Edwin Garcia
Nestor Asprilla
Juan Carlos Meza
Juan Carlos Silva
Ricardo Rocha
Jerrel Britto

(player released during the season)

Deportivo Marquense

None

CSD Municipal

Johnny Woodly Lambert
Carlos Hernández
Keilor Soto
Jaime Alas

Deportivo Petapa

Minor Alvarez
Lucas Trecarichi
Juan Lovato
Adrian Apellaniz
Ignacio Flores

CD Suchitepéquez

Ángel Prudencio
Shane Orio
Jhon Cardona
Jhon Jairo Córdoba
Luis Lobo

Universidad SC

Paulo Centurion
Jonathan Rodríguez Cuenu
Michel Rivera
Carlos Kamiani Félix
Alexis Egea

Club Xelajú MC

Juliano Rangel de Andrade
Juan Baena
Brunet Hay

Clausura

The 2016 Torneo Clausura began on 2016 and will end in 2016.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Antigua GFC	Rafael Arreaga	Mauricio Tapia	TBD	Pegamex
Cobán Imperial		Fabricio Chapa Benitez	Puma	TBD
Comunicaciones	Pedro Portilla	Iván Franco Sopegno	Puma	TBD
Guastatoya		Francisco Melgar	TBD	TBD
Malacateco	TBD	Rónald Gómez	TBD	TBD
Marquense	TBD	Néstor Emilio Soria	TBD	TBD
Mictlan	TBD	Sergio Guevara	TBD	TBD
Municipal	Gerardo Villa	Gustavo Machain	TBD	TBD
Deportivo Petapa	TBD	Pablo Centrone	TBD	TBD
Suchitepéquez	TBD	Walter Claverí	TBD	TBD
Universidad SC	TBD	Ramiro Cepeda	TBD	TBD
Xelajú	TBD	Hernán Medford	RetoSports	TBD