2018–19 Liga FPD

The 2018–19 Liga FPD season, also known as Campeonato Banco Popular for sponsorship reasons,^[1] is the 98th since its establishment. The tournament is the second since the 2006–07 season to use the Apertura and Clausura names to their short tournaments, marking a departure from the Invierno and Verano tournaments.

Liga FPD

Season	2018–19
Champions	Apertura: Herediano (27th title) Clausura: San Carlos (1st title)
Relegated	Carmelita
CONCACAF League	San Carlos Herediano Saprissa
Top goalscorer	Marcel Hernández (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Alajuelense 6–1 Herediano (9 September 2018)
Biggest away win	Grecia 0–5 Saprissa (28 April 2019)
Highest scoring	Herediano 6–2 Limón (11 November 2018)
← 2017–18 2019–20 → All statistics correct as of 11 November 2018.

The Voit Lummo is the official match ball of the tournament.^[2] Deportivo Saprissa are the defending champions, after defeating Herediano in the Clausura 2018 tournament.

Teams and Structure Changes

A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 11 sides from the 2017–18 season, one team promoted from the Liga de Ascenso.

San Carlos were promoted for the first time to the Liga FPD after defeating Jicaral in the Liga de Ascenso final, thus replacing Liberia in the Liga FPD.

For this season, the league has changed the playoff format. The top 4 teams in the regular season will progress to a two-legged knockout tournament. If the same team that wins the regular season wins the playoff, that team wins the season championship immediately. Should a different team win the playoff than won the regular season, those two teams will meet in a two-legged Grand Final for the season championship.

Personnel, kits and Stadia

Alajuelense/Carmelita

Cartaginés

Grecia

Guadalupe

Herediano

Limón

Pérez Zeledón

San Carlos

Santos

Saprissa

UCR

Locations of the 2018–19 Costa Rican FPD teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)	Stadium	Capacity
Alajuelense	Luis Diego Arnáez	Kelme	Claro	Alejandro Morera Soto	18,000
Carmelita	Mario Víquez	Monarca	Almacenes Decavisa	Estadio Rafael Bolaños	4,500
Cartaginés	Martin Arriola	Joma	Bancrédito	"Fello" Meza	13,500
Municipal Grecia	Walter Centeno	Living Sports	Super Rosvil	Estadio Allen Riggioni	3,000
Guadalupe F.C.	Geiner Segura	Pirma	Papa John's Pizza	Estadio José Joaquín "Coyella" Fonseca	4,500
Herediano	Jaime de la Pava	Umbro	kölbi	Eladio Rosabal Cordero	8,721
Limón	Ricardo Allen Thomas	Sportek	APM Terminals	Estadio Juan Gobán	3,000
Pérez Zeledón	José Giacone	Textiles JB	kölbi	Municipal de Pérez Zeledón	6,000
San Carlos	Martin Cardetti	ARN	Dos Pinos	Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez	5,600
Santos	Johnny Chaves	Capelli Sport	Grupo Colono	Ebal Rodríguez	3,000
Saprissa	Vladimir Quesada	Kappa	Bimbo, Ibérico	Ricardo Saprissa	23,000
UCR	Minor Díaz	Saeta	TBD	Estadio Jorge Hernán "Cuty" Monge	5,500

Managerial changes

Before the start of the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
CF Universidad de Costa Rica	TBD	Resigned	June 2018	Octavio Bermúdez	July 2018	TBD (2017–2018)
Herediano	TBD	Resigned	June 2018	Jaime de la Pava	July 2018	TBD (2017–2018)
Cartaginés	TBD	Resigned	June 2018	Paulo Wanchope	July 2018	TBD (2017–2018)

During the Apertura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Limón F.C.	Horacio Esquivel	Resigned	September 2018	Ricardo Allen Thomas	September 2018	12th (Apertura 2018)
Herediano	Jaime de la Pava	Sacked	September 2018	Jafet Soto	September 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
C.S. Cartaginés	Paulo Wanchope	Resigned	September 2018	Martin Arriola	September 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Limón F.C.	Ricardo Allen Thomas	Moved to assistant coach	September 2018	Marvin Solano	September 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
UCR	Octavio Bermúdez	Sacked	October 2018	Minor Díaz	October 2018	12th (Apertura 2018)
Herediano	Jafet Soto	Sacked	October 2018	Paulo Wanchope	October 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Carmelita	Mario Víquez	Sacked	October 2018	Luis José Herra y Luis Carlos Mejías	October 2018	th (Apertura 2018)

Between the Apertura and Clausura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Herediano	Jafet Soto	Sacked	December 2018	Hernan Medford	December 2018	12th (Apertura 2018)

During the Clausura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
San Carlos	Martin Cardetti	Sacked	January 2019	Luis Marin	January 2019	th (Apertura 2018)
Alajuelense	Luis Diego Arnáez	Sacked	January 2019	Hernán Torres	January 2019	th (Apertura 2018)
Herediano	Hernan Medford	Sacked	March 2019	Jafet Soto	March 2019	th (Apertura 2018)
Limon	Marvin Solano	Sacked	February 2019	Ricardo Allen	February 2019	th (Apertura 2018)

Apertura

The Apertura tournament will be played in the second half of 2018, starting on 21 July.

Regular season

The regular season began on 21 July 2018 and ended on 11 November 2018.

On 17 October 2018, the match between Limón and Grecia was suspended in the 25th minute due to a waterlogged pitch. The remaining 65 minutes were played the next day.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Saprissa	22	14	6	2	45	17	+28	48	Advance to Playoffs and (if necessary) Grand final
2	Alajuelense	22	16	0	6	44	22	+22	48	Advance to Playoffs
3	San Carlos	22	11	5	6	38	29	+9	38
4	Herediano	22	11	5	6	35	26	+9	38
5	Pérez Zeledón	22	10	7	5	31	24	+7	37
6	Cartaginés	22	8	8	6	40	34	+6	32
7	Santos de Guápiles	22	7	4	11	26	29	−3	25
8	Carmelita	22	6	6	10	31	40	−9	24
9	Grecia	22	7	3	12	27	36	−9	24
10	Guadalupe	22	6	5	11	25	40	−15	23
11	Limón	22	5	5	12	27	43	−16	20
12	UCR	22	2	4	16	23	52	−29	10

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw

Results

Home \ Away	ALA	CARM	CART	GRE	GUA	HER	LIM	PER	SCA	SNT	SAP	UCR
Alajuelense	—	2–3	2–1	2–0	3–1	6–1	1–0	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–0	5–1
Carmelita	0–1	—	1–1	1–2	3–0	0–0	2–1	1–1	2–4	0–3	2–2	3–2
Cartaginés	2–3	3–2	—	2–3	5–1	3–2	3–0	3–0	1–1	4–3	0–1	2–2
Grecia	1–4	2–0	1–1	—	2–0	2–0	1–2	1–2	1–0	1–1	1–3	2–1
Guadalupe	0–2	2–1	1–1	1–1	—	2–2	3–1	1–1	2–3	2–1	0–2	1–0
Herediano	1–0	2–0	0–0	4–2	2–1	—	6–2	0–1	1–0	3–0	2–0	4–0
Limón	0–1	1–1	1–3	2–1	5–2	3–0	—	0–3	1–2	0–2	1–1	3–1
Pérez Zeledón	3–1	2–2	1–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	—	2–1	2–1	0–2	2–0
San Carlos	2–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–2	2–0	2–1	—	2–2	2–2	2–0
Santos de Guápiles	0–2	2–1	3–0	2–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	—	0–0	2–1
Saprissa	2–1	3–0	4–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	4–0	2–2	3–3	2–1	—	4–0
UCR	1–2	3–4	1–2	3–1	1–1	1–1	2–2	0–2	1–2	2–1	0–4	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Playoffs

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	Saprissa	0	1	1 (2)
	4	Herediano	1	0	1 (4)
								4	Herediano	2	1	3 (4)
								2	Alajuelense	1	2	3 (2)
	2	Alajuelense	1	1	2 (3)
	3	San Carlos	1	1	2 (1)

Semifinals

First legs

24 November 2018 (2018-11-24)

19:55 (UTC-6)

Herediano	1–0	Saprissa
H. Saravia 21'

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Adrian Elizondo

25 November 2018 (2018-11-25)

18:00 (UTC-6)

San Carlos	1–1	Alajuelense
J. McDonald 38' (pen.)		54' Á. Saborío

Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez

Referee: Christian Rodríguez

Second legs

28 November 2018 (2018-11-28)

20:00 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Herediano
J. Venegas 33'
Penalties
	2–4

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Pedro Navarro

28 November 2018 (2018-11-28)

20:05 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	1–1	San Carlos
A. López 55'
Penalties
	3–1

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Referee: Geiner Zuñiga

Finals

First leg

2 December 2018 (2018-12-02)

18:00 (UTC-6)

Herediano	2–1	Alajuelense
Y. Ruiz 60' (pen.) 75'		88' M. Foster

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Keylor Herrera ^[3]

Second leg

10 December 2018 (2018-12-10)

11:00 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	2–1	Herediano
Jonathan Mcdonald 28' Jonathan Moya 72'		Allan Cruz 60'
Penalties
Roger Rojas Freddy Álvarez Jonathan McDonald Kenner Gutiérrez	2–4	Randall Azofeifa Pablo Salazar Gerardo Lugo Antonio Pedroza

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Referee: Christian Rodriguez

Grand final

If the regular season winners are unable to win the playoffs, a double-legged final will be played against the playoffs winner in order to determine the champions of the Apertura tournament. The team with the better accumulated record over the regular season and playoffs will host the second leg.

First leg

16 December 2018 (2018-12-16)

(UTC-6)

Herediano	2–2	Saprissa
Ó. Granados 40' A. Magaña 78'		69' J. Venegas 87' A. Cabral

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Adrian Elizondo

Second leg

23 December 2018 (2018-12-23)

(UTC-6)

Saprissa	2–3 (a.e.t.)	Herediano
O. Arellano 36' (o.g.) J. Venegas 66'		47' J. Marín 70' C. Reyes 112' A. Magaña

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Pedro Navarro

Apertura 2018 champions
Herediano 27th title

Clausura

Regular season

The regular season began on 12 January 2019 and will end of 28 April 2019.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	San Carlos	22	11	6	5	36	20	+16	39	Advance to Playoffs and (if necessary) Grand final
2	Saprissa	22	11	5	6	41	27	+14	38	Advance to Playoffs
3	Pérez Zeledón	22	9	10	3	35	27	+8	37
4	Herediano	22	9	7	6	31	24	+7	34
5	Cartaginés	22	9	7	6	34	28	+6	34
6	Alajuelense	22	8	8	6	33	27	+6	32
7	Grecia	22	8	7	7	32	32	0	31
8	UCR	22	8	7	7	35	38	−3	31
9	Santos de Guápiles	22	8	3	11	33	39	−6	27
10	Limón	22	7	5	10	22	32	−10	26
11	Guadalupe	22	4	6	12	20	37	−17	18
12	Carmelita	22	2	5	15	19	40	−21	11

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw

Results

Home \ Away	ALA	CARM	CART	GRE	GUA	HER	LIM	PER	SCA	SNT	SAP	UCR
Alajuelense	—	1–0	2–2	1–0	3–0	2–2	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–1	3–3
Carmelita	1–1	—	0–3	0–1	4–1	0–3	2–0	2–4	1–3	2–2	0–1	1–1
Cartaginés	2–4	2–1	—	1–1	2–3	2–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–2
Grecia	1–0	1–1	0–1	—	2–2	1–2	0–0	2–2	2–1	5–0	0–5	2–0
Guadalupe	0–3	1–1	0–3	1–2	—	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–0	0–2	1–4
Herediano	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–3	1–0	—	2–1	0–0	1–1	3–2	2–0	1–2
Limón	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–0	—	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–2
Pérez Zeledón	2–4	2–1	0–0	2–2	2–1	1–1	3–0	—	1–0	1–1	2–3	3–1
San Carlos	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	3–2	5–1	2–2	—	1–0	0–2	3–1
Santos de Guápiles	1–3	2–0	2–1	3–0	1–2	1–1	4–2	0–1	1–5	—	5–3	2–1
Saprissa	0–0	4–1	1–2	4–2	1–3	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	—	4–0
UCR	2–2	3–1	4–4	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–2	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Playoffs

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	San Carlos	0	4	4
	4	Herediano	2	1	3
								1	San Carlos	1	0	1 (a)
								2	Saprissa	1	0	1
	2	Saprissa	1	2	3
	3	Pérez Zeledón	1	1	2

Semifinals

First legs

4 May 2019 (2019-05-04)

20:00 (UTC-6)

Herediano	2–0	San Carlos
J. Marín 47' J. Ortiz 59'

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Pedro Navarro

5 May 2019 (2019-05-05)

15:00 (UTC-6)

Pérez Zeledón	1–1	Saprissa
L. Cazal 10'		45+2' C. Bolaños

Estadio Municipal Pérez Zeledón

Referee: Adrian Chinchilla

Second legs

8 May 2019 (2019-05-08)

20:00 (UTC-6)

San Carlos	4–1	Herediano
Á. Saborío 9' R. Chirino 26' L. Días 64' (o.g.) P. Leal 84'		24' J. Ortiz

Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez

Referee: Christian Rodríguez

San Carlos progress 4–3 on aggregate.

8 May 2019 (2019-05-08)

20:00 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	2–1	Pérez Zeledón
M. Torres 21' M. Barrantes 75'		24' J. Sánchez

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Adrián Elizondo

Saprissa progress 3–2 on aggregate.

Finals

First leg

12 May 2019 (2019-05-12)

16:00 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	1–1	San Carlos
R. Castillo 64'		42' M. Mena

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Adrian Chinchilla

Second leg

15 May 2019 (2019-05-15)

20:00 (UTC-6)

San Carlos	0–0	Saprissa

Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez

Referee: Christian Rodríguez

1–1 on aggregate. San Carlos wins 1–0 on away goals.

Grand final

If the regular season winners are unable to win the playoffs, a double-legged final will be played against the playoffs winner in order to determine the champions of the Clausura tournament. The team with the better accumulated record over the regular season and playoffs will host the second leg. For this tournament, San Carlos won both the regular season and playoffs, so they were declared champions without a grand final.

Clausura 2019 champions
San Carlos 1st title

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Saprissa (Q)	44	25	11	8	86	44	+42	86	CONCACAF League preliminary round[a]
2	Alajuelense	44	24	8	12	77	49	+28	80
3	San Carlos (Q)	44	22	11	11	74	49	+25	77	CONCACAF League round of 16[b]
4	Pérez Zeledón	44	19	17	8	66	51	+15	74
5	Herediano (Q)	44	20	12	12	66	50	+16	72	CONCACAF League round of 16[c]
6	Cartaginés	44	17	15	12	74	62	+12	66
7	Grecia	44	15	10	19	59	68	−9	55
8	Santos de Guápiles	44	15	7	22	59	68	−9	52
9	Limón	44	12	10	22	49	75	−26	46
10	UCR	44	10	11	23	58	90	−32	41
11	Guadalupe	44	10	11	23	45	77	−32	41
12	Carmelita (R)	44	8	11	25	50	80	−30	35	Relegated to Liga de Ascenso

Source: Soccerway Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw
(Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. As non-champions with best aggregate record (CRC3)
2. As Clausura champions (CRC1)
3. As Apertura champions (CRC2)

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in the 2018–19 season. The following players:

1. Have played at least one game for the respective club.
2. Have not been capped for the Costa Rica national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

A new rule was introduced this season, that clubs can have four foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or a player is released and it's before the close of the season transfer window.

Alajuelense Abdiel Arroyo Alexander López Luis Garrido Roger Rojas Henry Figueroa Maalique Foster Facundo Zabala Carmelita Amir Waithe Jonathan Camio Cartaginés Hernán Fener Nelson Barahona Julio Cruz González Juan Felipe Delgadillo Marcel Hernández Campanioni Grecia Paulo Cézar Byron Bonilla Víctor Pérez Lucas Giovagnoli Herdiano Aldo Magaña Omar Arellano Édgar Gerardo Lugo Antonio Pedroza

Guadalupe Lautaro Ayala Sebastián González Alejandro Abasolo Moisés Arce Limón Carlos Palacios Ronald Benavides Junior Murillo Richard Dixon Humberto Ward Javier Clavijo Pérez Zeledón Leandro Gastón Rodríguez Javier Liendo Pablo Azcurra Lauro Cazal Lucio Barroca San Carlos Manuel González Ismael Gómez Fabrizio Ronchetti Jonathan Soto Claudio Daniel Pérez Santos de Guápiles Francisco Flores Victor Griffith Ronaldo Dinolis Fabrizio Ronchetti Deportivo Saprissa Mariano Torres Alejandro Cabral Tássio Maia Aubrey David Rubilio Castillo Universidad Andres Riascos Jhon Ibargüen Fernando Cárdenas Daniel Ocampo Sebastián Bermúdez Román Calvo Luis Rodríguez

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

External links

• (CR Hoy -Spanish)
• (Nacion – Spanish)
• Archived 2015-01-07 at the Wayback Machine (Everardo herrera – Spanish)