2018–19 Liga Nacional de Guatemala

Liga Nacional de Guatemala
Season	2018–19
Dates	July 2018 – May 2019
Champions	Apertura:; Guastatoya (2nd title) ; Clausura:; Antigua (4th title)
Relegated	Chiantla; Petapa
CONCACAF League	Guastatoya; Antigua; Comunicaciones
Top goalscorer	Agustin Herrera (Antigua GFC) - 9 goals
Biggest home win	Malacateco 5–0 Chiantla; (2018)
Biggest away win	Chiantla 0–3 Guastatoya ; (2018)
	← 2017–18 2019–20 →

The 2018–19 Liga Nacional de Guatemala was the 66th professional season of the top-flight football league in Guatemala. The season was divided into two championships—the 2018 Apertura and the 2019 Clausura—each in an identical format and each contested by the same 12 teams.

Teams

2018–19 Liga Nacional de Guatemala is located in Guatemala

Location of the 2018–19 Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala teams

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 10 sides from the 2017–18 Liga Nacional and 2 promoted from the 2017–18 Primera División.

Teams relegated to Primera División de Ascenso

Deportivo Marquense and C.D. Suchitepéquez were relegated to 2018–19 Primera División the previous season.

Teams promoted from Primera División de Ascenso

The relegated team was replaced by the 2017–18 Primera División winners. Chiantla and Deportivo Iztapa.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain	Kitmaker	Shirt Sponsors
Antigua GFC	Víctor Hugo García	Juan Antonio Torres	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Chiantla	Damián Mérida	Alberto Salguero	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Coban Imperial	Jimmy Morales	Fabricio Benitez	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Comunicaciones	Pedro Portilla	William Coito Olivera	TBD	Kappa	Todo en Salud, Gatorade, Zeta Gas
Guastatoya	Léster Rodríguez	Amarini Villatoro	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Iztapa	Mario Mejía	Francisco Melgar	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Malacateco	Carlos Gutiérrez	Ronald Gómez	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
CSD Municipal	Gerardo Villa	Horacio Cordero	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Petapa	Luis Reyes	Norman Martin	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Sanarate	Ángel Pantaleón	Ariel Sena	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD
Siquinalá	Juan Pablo Godíne	Otto Rodríguez		Kelme	TBD
Xelajú MC	Francisco Santos	Walter Horacio González	TBD	TBD	Tigo, TBD

Managerial changes

Beginning of the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Petapa	Ramiro Cepeda	Resigned	May 2018	Rafael Loredo	May 2018	th (Clausura 2018)
Xelaju	Walter Claveri	Resigned to become coach of the national team	July 2018	Ramiro Cepeda	July 2018	th (Clausura 2018)

During the Apertura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Chiantla	Marvin Hernández	Sacked	August 2018	Alberto Salguero	September 2018	12th (Apertura 2018)
Municipal	Hernan Medford	Resigned	September 2018	Horacio Cordero	September 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Siquinalá	Daniel Berta	TBD	October 2018	Otto Rodríguez	October 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Sanarate	Pablo Centrone	TBD	October 2018	Julián Trujillo	October 2018	th (Apertura 2018)

Between Apertura and Clausura seasons

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Antigua GFC	Mauricio Tapia	Contract finished	December 2018	Juan Antonio Torres	January 2019	Th (Apertura 2018)

During the Clausura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Sanarate	Héctor Julian Trujillo	Sacked	February 2019	Ariel Sena	February 2019	th (Clausura 2019)
Xelaju	Ramiro Cepeda	Sacked	March 2019	Walter Horacio González	March 2019	8th (Clausura 2019)
Petapa	Rafael Loredo	Sacked	March 2019	Norman Martin	March 2019	12th (Clausura 2019)

Apertura

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guastatoya	22	13	5	4	34	11	+23	44	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Xelajú	22	11	7	4	28	17	+11	40	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
3	Comunicaciones	22	11	5	6	28	16	+12	38	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Malacateco	22	11	5	6	38	32	+6	38
5	Cobán Imperial	22	10	6	6	28	20	+8	36
6	Antigua GFC	22	9	7	6	24	24	0	34
7	Siquinalá	22	7	9	6	31	32	−1	30
8	Municipal	22	8	4	10	26	30	−4	28
9	Iztapa	22	6	7	9	23	28	−5	25
10	Sanarate	22	4	7	11	21	35	−14	19
11	Petapa	22	3	7	12	18	31	−13	16
12	Chiantla	22	2	5	15	15	38	−23	11

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ANT	CHI	COB	COM	GUA	IZT	MAL	MUN	PET	SAN	SIQ	XEL
Antigua GFC		2–2	1–2	0–3	3–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–2	2–0	0–0	0–0
Chiantla	1–2		0–1	0–2	0–3	1–1	0–1	2–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–0
Cobán Imperial	1–0	2–0		0–3	0–1	2–1	3–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	2–1	1–2
Comunicaciones	1–1	2–0	0–2		1–0	1–0	4–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	3–1	1–2
Guastatoya	3–0	2–1	2–2	2–0		3–0	3–1	2–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	0–0
Iztapa	0–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	0–4		0–2	1–0	3–1	4–1	1–1	1–1
Malacateco	3–0	5–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	0–0		5–4	2–1	3–0	3–3	2–1
Municipal	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–3	3–4		1–0	1–1	1–2	3–1
Petapa	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	1–2	0–1		0–2	1–3	1–0
Sanarate	2–3	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	3–3	1–1	0–1	2–2		2–0	0–1
Siquinalá	1–1	4–3	1–0	0–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	2–2	2–2	4–3		2–2
Xelajú	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	4–1	3–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final

					1	Guastatoya	0	0	0
4	Malacateco	2	2	4	5	Cobán Imperial	0	0	0
5	Cobán Imperial	2	3	5						1	Guastatoya	2	1	3
										3	Comunicaciones	1	1	2
					2	Xelajú	1	2	3
3	Comunicaciones	1	0	1	3	Comunicaciones	4	0	4
6	Antigua GFC	0	0	0

Final

First leg

13 December 2018

(UTC-6)

Comunicaciones	1–2	Guastatoya
Maximiliano Lombardi 68'		Luis Martinez 30' 42'

Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores, Guatemala City

Attendance: 8,976

Referee: Walter Lopez

Second leg

16 December 2018

(UTC-6)

Guastatoya	1–1	Comunicaciones
Angel Rodriguez 13'		Jorge Vargas 65'

Estadio David Cordón Hichos, Guastatoya

Attendance: 2,959

Referee: Mario Escobar

Clausura

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Antigua GFC	22	12	5	5	36	20	+16	41	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Cobán Imperial	22	12	4	6	35	25	+10	40	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
3	Comunicaciones	22	11	6	5	32	14	+18	39	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Municipal	22	10	6	6	37	22	+15	36
5	Malacateco	22	10	6	6	24	20	+4	36
6	Guastatoya	22	9	8	5	27	16	+11	35
7	Chiantla	22	8	6	8	21	25	−4	30
8	Xelajú	22	8	5	9	27	25	+2	29
9	Siquinalá	22	7	5	10	23	25	−2	26
10	Iztapa	22	7	4	11	21	28	−7	25
11	Sanarate	22	7	2	13	22	38	−16	23
12	Petapa	22	2	1	19	12	59	−47	7

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ANT	CHI	COB	COM	GUA	IZT	MAL	MUN	PET	SAN	SIQ	XEL
Antigua GFC		2–2	4–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	2–1
Chiantla	1–0		1–1	0–2	0–0	3–0	0–1	1–6	3–0	2–0	0–0	1–1
Cobán Imperial	2–3	3–0		1–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	4–0	4–1	1–0	2–1
Comunicaciones	0–0	2–0	3–1		0–1	3–1	3–0	1–3	5–0	3–1	0–0	2–0
Guastatoya	1–2	1–0	1–1	0–0		2–0	1–1	1–1	6–0	1–0	1–0	3–0
Iztapa	0–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–1		3–1	1–0	2–0	4–1	1–0	0–0
Malacateco	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–0		2–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	3–0
Municipal	2–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	2–1	3–0	1–1		6–1	4–1	1–1	0–2
Petapa	0–3	1–2	1–2	0–2	0–0	1–2	1–2	2–3		1–0	0–3	1–0
Sanarate	2–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	0–2	4–1		1–0	1–0
Siquinalá	1–2	0–1	2–2	0–0	0–3	3–1	2–1	1–0	4–2	0–1		2–1
Xelajú	1–2	3–1	2–0	2–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	3–1

Updated to match(es) played on completed. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final

					1	Antigua GFC	0	2	2
3	Comunicaciones	0	1	1	6	Guastatoya	1	0	1
6	Guastatoya	1	1	2						1	Antigua GFC	1	1	2
										5	Malacateco	0	0	0
					2	Cobán Imperial	2	0	2
4	Municipal	0	3	3	5	Malacateco	2	1	3
5	Malacateco	0	3	3 (a)

Quarterfinals

First legs

8 May 2019

14:30 (UTC-6)

Guastatoya	1 – 0	Comunicaciones
J. Corena 42'

Estadio David Cordón Hichos

Attendance: 921

Referee: Ever Lopez

9 May 2019

12:00 (UTC-6)

Malacateco	0 – 0	Municipal

Estadio Santa Lucía

Attendance: 1337

Referee: Jonathan Polanco

Second legs

11 May 2019

20:00 (UTC-6)

Comunicaciones	1 – 1	Guastatoya
C. Estrada 22'		45+2' O. Domínguez

Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores

Guastatoya advances 2–1 on aggregate.

12 May 2019

15:00 (UTC-6)

Municipal	3 – 3	Malacateco
F. de León 55' O. Arce 88' O. Moreira 90+6'		10' 32' E. Santaliz 22' E. Herrera

Estadio El Trébol

3–3 on aggregate. Malacateco advances 3–0 on away goals.

Semifinals

First legs

15 May 2019

14:30 (UTC-6)

Guastatoya	1 – 0	Antigua GFC
Á. Rodríguez 82'		Nil

Estadio David Cordón Hichos

Attendance: 1,100

16 May 2019

11:00 (UTC-6)

Malacateco	2 – 2	Cobán Imperial
J. Longo 20' E. Herrera 53'		51' (o.g.) W.Godoy 59' E. Guerra

Estadio Santa Lucía

Attendance: 1,722

Second legs

18 May 2019

15:00 (UTC-6)

Antigua GFC	2 – 0	Guastatoya
Anllel Porras 54' 81'		Nil

Estadio Pensativo

Antigua GFC advances 2-1 on aggregate.

19 May 2019

19:00 (UTC-6)

Cobán Imperial	0–1	Malacateco
Nil		Enzo Herrera 77'

Estadio Verapaz

Malacateco advances 2–3 on aggregate.

Final

First leg

23 May 2019

15:00 (UTC-6)

Malacateco	0 – 1	Antigua GFC
Nil		Alejandro Galindo 27'

Estadio Santa Lucía

Referee: Bryan Lopez Castellanos

Second leg

26 May 2019

15:00 (UTC-6)

Antigua GFC	1–0	Malacateco
Marco Dominguez 81'

Estadio Pensativo

Referee: Oscar Reyna

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guastatoya (Q)	44	22	13	9	61	27	+34	79	CONCACAF League round of 16^[a]
2	Comunicaciones (Q)	44	22	11	11	60	30	+30	77	CONCACAF League preliminary round^[b]
3	Cobán Imperial	44	22	10	12	63	45	+18	76
4	Antigua GFC (Q)	44	21	12	11	60	44	+16	75	CONCACAF League preliminary round^[c]
5	Malacateco	44	21	11	12	62	52	+10	74
6	Xelajú	44	19	12	13	55	42	+13	69
7	Municipal	44	18	10	16	63	52	+11	64
8	Siquinalá	44	14	14	16	54	57	−3	56
9	Iztapa	44	13	11	20	44	56	−12	50
10	Sanarate	44	11	9	24	43	73	−30	42
11	Chiantla (R)	44	10	11	23	36	63	−27	41	Relegated to Primera División de Ascenso
12	Petapa (R)	44	5	8	31	30	90	−60	23	Relegated to Primera División de Ascenso

Source: Soccerway Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

↑ As Apertura champions (GUA1)
↑ As runners-up with better aggregate record (GUA3)
↑ As Clausura champions (GUA2)

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in 2018-2019 season. 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. Archived 2018-07-29 at the Wayback Machine

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

Agustin Herrera
Alejandro Diaz
Jose Mena
Adrián De Lemos
Anllel Porras
Rafael Lezcano
Juan David Osorio
Pablo Mingorance

Chiantla

Luis Omar Hernández
Liborio Vicente Sánchez
Sergio Alejandro Blancas Martínez
José Abraham Alpuche
Juan Carlos Meza
Diego Bartolota
Daniel Guzmán Miranda

Coban Imperial

Álvaro García
Adrián Elois Leites
Janderson Pereira
Josue Flores
Victor Guay
Jonathan Charquero
Jorge Luis Sotomayor
Orlando Moreira

CSD Comunicaciones

Javier Irazún
Michael Umaña
Alexander Larin
Maximiliano Lombardi
Darío Carreño
Cristian Alexis Hernández

Guastatoya

Isaac Acuña
Omar Dominguez
Emmanuel Alejandro Tapia
Jose Coreno
Aaron Navarro
Jose Sanchez
Jorge Ignacio Gatgens
José Calderón

Deportivo Iztapa

Rafael Moreira Rafinha
Fredy Marques
Luis Alfonso Páez
Raúl Nava López
Ramiro Rocca
Lester Blanco

Deportivo Malacateco

Víctor Bolivar
Gabriel Leiva
Kenny Cunningham
Luis Ángel Landín
Willinton Techera x

CSD Municipal

Andrey Anthony Francis
Irving Esteban Calderón
Wálter Aníbal Acevedo
Jonathan Hansen
Omar Salazar
Matias Malvino
Othoniel Arce
Luis Angel Ladin
Orlando Moreira
Juan Barrera

Deportivo Petapa

Raúl Calderón
Yeltsin Car

Sanarate

Juan Lovato
Cristian Alexis Hernández
Juan Manuel Lazaneo
Fabián Castillo
Lucas Emanuel Acosta
Cristian Daniel Taborda
Víctor Bolivar
Jorge Zaldivar
Jonathan Posas
William Zapata
Juan Carlos Silva

Siquinalá

Quiarol Arzu
Cesar García
Jean Andrés Scott Hernández
Othoniel Arce
Verny Scott
Diego Sanchez Corrales
Luis Gerardo Arroyo
Julio Andrés Valdez
Sergio Alejandro Blancas
Christopher Solano

Club Xelajú MC

Carlos Kamiani
Bernardo Long
Álvaro Aguilar
César Morales
Juan Yax
Dario Ferrera
Álvaro García

(player released during the Apertura season) (player released between the Apertura and Clausura seasons) (player released during the Clausura season)

External links

[table_note_res_APE0.37588263273979-1] As Apertura champions (GUA1)

[table_note_res_CL30.37588263273979-2] As runners-up with better aggregate record (GUA3)

[table_note_res_CLA0.37588263273979-3] As Clausura champions (GUA2)

[a]

[b]

[c]