2020–21 Liga Nacional de Guatemala

The 2020–21 Liga Nacional de Guatemala season is the 23rd season of the Liga Nacional de Guatemala, the top football league in Guatemala, in which the Apertura and Clausura season is used. The season will begin in August 2020 and will end in May 2021.

Liga Nacional de Guatemala

Season	2020–21
Champions	Apertura: Guastatoya (3rd title) Clausura: Santa Lucía (1st title)
Relegated	Sacachispas Sanarate
CONCACAF League	Gustatoya Santa Lucía Comunicaciones
Top goalscorer	Ramiro Rocca - 21 goals
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

Team information

Antigua

Achuapa

Cobán

Comunicaciones

Guastatoya

Iztapa

Malacateco

Municipal

Sacachispas

Sanarate

Santa Lucia

Xelajú

Location of the 2019–20 Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala teams

A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 10 sides from the 2019–20 Liga Nacional and 2 promoted from the 2019–20 Primera División.

Siquinalá and Mixco were relegated to 2020–21 Primera División the previous season.

The relegated team were replaced by the 2019–20 Primera División winners Achuapa and Sacachispas.

Promotion and relegation

Promoted from Primera División de Ascenso as of August 2020.

• Champions: Achuapa and Sacachispas

Relegated to Primera División de Ascenso as of August 2020.

• Last Place: Siquinalá and Mixco

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain	Kitmaker	Shirt Sponsors
Achuapa	Francisco Zepeda	Sergio Pardo	Juliano Rangel	NetSportswear	Tigo, Domino’s
Antigua	Víctor Hugo García	Roberto Montoya	Jairo Arreola	NetSportswear	Tigo, TBD
Cobán Imperial	Irasema Meléndez	Ernesto Corti	Jorge Sotomayer	NetSportswear	Tigo, TBD
Comunicaciones	Juan Garcia	Mauricio Tapia	Michael Umaña	Nino	Tigo, Gatorade
Guastatoya	Léster Rodríguez	Willy Coito Olivera	Wilson Pineda	NetSportswear	Tigo, TBD
Iztapa	Mario Mejía	Ramiro Cepeda	Carlos Kamiani Félix	TutoSport	Tigo, TBD
Malacateco	Carlos Gutiérrez	Ronald Gomez	Sixto Betancourt	Silver Sport	Tigo, TBD
Municipal	Gerardo Villa	Sebastian Bini	Jose Mario Rosales	Umbro	Tigo, TBD
Sacachispas	Alexander Hernández	Diego Cerruti	Egidio Arévalo Ríos	NetSportswear	Tigo, TBD
Sanarate	Jahiro Otzoy	Matías Tatangelo	Orlando Moreira	NetSportswear	Tigo, TBD
Santa Lucía	Rodolfo Puertas	Mario Acevedo	Rafael da Roza	TutoSport	Tigo, TBD
Xelajú	Francisco Santos	Marcó Antonio Morales	Pablo Mignorance	MR	Tigo, Domino’s

Managerial changes

Beginning of the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
TBD		Resigned	May 2019	TBD	May 2019	th (Clausura 2018)

During the Apertura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Sacachispas	Erick Gonzalez	Sacked	October 2020	Alejandro Larrera	October 2020	th (Clausura 2018)
Antigua GFC	Juan Antonio Torres	Resigned	November 2020	Jeff Korytoski	November 2020	th (Aperura 2018)
Deportivo Achuapa	Irbin Olivares	Resigned	November 2020	Marvin Ivan Leon	November 2020	th (Clausura 2018)

Between Apertura and Clausura seasons

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
F.C. Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa	Sergio Guevara	Resigned	December 2020	Mario Acevedo	January 2021	th (Apertura 2020)
Sanarate	Gabriel Castillo	Resigned	December 2020	Matias Tatangelo	January 2021	th (Apertura 2020)
Xelaju	Walter Claveri	Sacked	December 2020	Antonio Morales	January 2021	th (Apertura 2020)

During the Clausura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Antigua GFC	Jeff Korytoski	Resigned	March 2021	Roberto Montoya	March 2021	12th (Clausura 2021)

Apertura

League table

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Comunicaciones	16	9	5	2	25	10	+15	32	Advance to Playoffs (Final Series)
2	Malacateco	16	7	3	6	19	18	+1	24
3	Xelajú	16	6	3	7	17	22	−5	21	Advance to Playoffs (Prem. Round)
4	Antigua GFC	16	5	5	6	21	23	−2	20
5	Iztapa	16	5	4	7	24	28	−4	19
6	Santa Lucía	16	4	4	8	12	17	−5	16

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

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Municipal	16	10	3	3	33	11	+22	33	Advance to Playoffs (Final Series)
2	Cobán Imperial	16	8	5	3	22	12	+10	29
3	Guastatoya	16	4	8	4	19	19	0	20	Advance to Playoffs (Prem. Round)
4	Achuapa	16	5	4	7	17	21	−4	19
5	Sanarate	16	3	5	8	19	33	−14	14
6	Sacachispas	16	2	7	7	20	34	−14	13

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

Finals

Guastatoya v Municipal

5 February 2021 Final	Guastatoya	2–1	Municipal
01:00				Attendance: 0 Referee: Bryan Lopez Castellano

Municipal v Guastatoya

8 February 2021 Final	Municipal	1–1	Guastatoya
01:00				Attendance: 0 Referee: Walter López Castellanos

Clausura

League table

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Comunicaciones	16	10	4	2	28	12	+16	34	Advance to Playoffs (Final Series)
2	Malacateco	16	3	7	6	8	14	−6	16
3	Xelajú	16	3	8	5	14	15	−1	17	Advance to Playoffs (Prem. Round)
4	Antigua GFC	16	2	7	7	15	26	−11	13
5	Iztapa	16	5	7	4	29	25	+4	22
6	Santa Lucía	16	6	6	4	13	13	0	24

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

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Municipal	16	8	3	5	24	11	+13	27	Advance to Playoffs (Final Series)
2	Cobán Imperial	16	5	8	3	20	17	+3	23
3	Guastatoya	16	7	7	2	23	10	+13	28	Advance to Playoffs (Prem. Round)
4	Achuapa	16	4	2	10	16	27	−11	14
5	Sanarate	16	4	6	6	16	25	−9	18
6	Sacachispas	16	5	3	8	15	26	−11	18

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

Finals

Santa Lucía v Comunicaciones

21 May 2021 Final	Santa Lucía	4–0	Comunicaciones	Cotzumalguapa
02:00	Diego Ruiz 12' Romario da Silva 28' 88' Isaac Acuna 38'		Nil	Stadium: Estadio Municipal Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Walter López Castellanos

Comunicaciones v Santa Lucía

23 May 2021 Final	Comunicaciones	5–2	Santa Lucía	Guatemala City
08:00	Junior Lacayo 39' 53' 74' Stheven Robles 49' Nicolas Royon 47'		Thales Douglas Moreira Possas 90+2' Nelson Miranda 90+4'	Stadium: Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores Attendance: 0 Referee: Mario Escobar

Clausura 2021 winners:
Santa Lucía 1st title

Aggerate League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Comunicaciones	32	19	9	4	53	22	+31	66
2	Municipal	32	18	6	8	57	22	+35	60
3	Cobán Imperial	32	13	13	6	42	29	+13	52
4	Guastatoya	32	11	15	6	42	29	+13	48	CONCACAF League round of 16
5	Iztapa	32	10	11	11	53	53	0	41
6	Santa Lucía	32	10	10	12	25	30	−5	40
7	Malacateco	32	10	10	12	27	32	−5	40
8	Xelajú	32	9	11	12	31	37	−6	38
9	Antigua GFC	32	7	12	13	36	49	−13	33
10	Achuapa	32	9	6	17	33	48	−15	33
11	Sanarate	32	7	11	14	35	58	−23	32	Relegation play-offs
12	Sacachispas	32	7	10	15	35	60	−25	31	Relegated to Segunda División

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in 2020-2021 season. The following players:

1. have played at least one apertura game for the respective club.
2. 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.

Achuapa Juliano Rangel Nícolas Martínez Marlon Negrete Joshua Vargas Antigua José Mena Juan Osorio John Rochford Cayo Ribeiro Josué Martinez Éver Guzmán Genaro Castillo Deyner Padilla Cobán Imperial Jorge Sotomayor Bladimir Díaz Janderson Allan Miranda José Calderón Comunicaciones Michael Umaña Agustín Herrera Andrés Lezcano Jose Corena Manfred Russell Alexander Robinson Júnior Lacayo Nicolás Royón Guastatoya Adrián de Lemos Luis Landín Omar Dominguez Edgardo Ruiz Aarón Navarro Maximiliano Lombardi Iztapa Nicolás Foglia Carlos Felix Christian Hernández Jordan Smith Malacateco Darío Silva Elmer Morales Lauro Cazal Jorge Gatgens Orlando Osorio Carlos Barrochez Santiago Gómez Municipal Alejandro Díaz Rafael Garcia Gustavo Britos Steve Makuka Jaime Alas Gabe Robinson Santa Lucía Rafael da Roza Denis Lima Thales Moreira Romario Da Silva Anllel Porras Isaac Acuña Sanarate Charles Martinez Yosel Piedra Orlando Moreira César Canario Sacachispas Jesús Lozano Jose Sanchez Egidio Arévalo Ríos Diego Ávila Leandro Rodriguez Xelajú David Monsalve Josue Odír Flores Pablo Mignorance Israel Silva Leo Bahia Alexander Larin Jeffrey Payeras Juan Yax

External links

• https://lared.com.gt/deportes/futbol/liga-nacional/
• https://www.guatevision.com/etiqueta/futbol-guatemala/