2018–19 Liga Panameña de Fútbol

The 2018–19 Liga Panameña de Fútbol (also known as the Liga Cable Onda) was the 28th season of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol, the top-flight football league in Panama. The season began on 17 July 2017 and was scheduled to end in May 2018. Ten teams competed throughout the entire season.

Liga Panameña de Fútbol

Season	2018–19
Champions	Apertura: Tauro Clausura: Independiente
Relegated	Santa Gema
CONCACAF League	Tauro Independiente San Francisco
Matches played	65
Goals scored	134 (2.06 per match)
Biggest home win	Plaza Amador 3-0 Chorrillo Chorrillo 3-0 Atletico Veraguense
Highest scoring	San Francisco 2-3 Atletico Veraguense
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

Teams

Chorrillo formed with Deportivo Centenario de Coclé and la Universidad Latina de Panamá to become Unión Deportivo Universitario therefore there was no need for a relegation. Taking their place for this season are the overall champions of last season's Liga Nacional de Ascenso, Costa del Este F.C.

Club	Home city	Stadium
Alianza	Panama City	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia
Árabe Unido	Colón	Armando Dely Valdes
Unión Deportivo Universitario	Santiago de Veraguas	Aristocles "Toco" Castillo
Costa del Este F.C.	Panama City	Estadio Maracaná
Independiente	La Chorrera	Estadio Maracaná
Plaza Amador	Panama City	Estadio Maracaná
San Francisco	La Chorrera	Estadio Agustín Sánchez
Santa Gema	Arraiján	Estadio Agustín Sánchez
Sporting San Miguelito	San Miguelito	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia
Tauro	Panama City	Estadio Rommel Fernandez

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
Plaza Amador	Juan Carlos García	Sacked	May 2018	Jorge Santos	May 2018	th (TBD)
Tauro FC	Sergio Angulo	Contract Finished	June 2018	Juan Carlos García	June 2018	th (TBD)
Arabe Unido	Sergio Guzman	Contract Finished	June 2018	Carlos Ruiz	June 2018	th (TBD)

During the Apertura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Tauro F.C.	Juan Carlos García	Sacked	September 2018	Saúl Maldonado	September 2018	10th (Apertura 2017)
Sporting San Miguelito	Noel Gutierrez	Mutual Agreement	September 2018	Gustavo Avila	September 2018	9th (Apertura 2017)
San Francisco FC	Andres Dominguez	Mutual Agreement	September 2018	Sergio Angulo	September 2018	9th (Apertura 2017)
Arabe Unidos	Carlos Ruiz	Sacked	September 2018	José 'Chicho' Pérez	September 2018	th (Apertura 2017)
UD Universitario	Óscar Upegui	Sacked	September 2018	Julio Medina	September 2018	th (Apertura 2017)

Between Apertura and Clausura seasons

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Independiente FC	Donaldo Gonzales	Sacked	December 2018	Francisco Perlo	December 2018	9th (Apertura 2018)
Plaza Amador	Jorge Santos	Sacked	December 2018	Javier Alvarez	December 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Alianza	Jair Palacios	Sacked	December 2018	Alberto Nino Valencia	December 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
CD Universitario	Julio Medina	Sacked	December 2018	Gustavo Onaindia	December 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
San Francisco FC	Sergio Angulo	Contract not renewed	December 2018	Gonzalo Soto	December 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Costa Del Este FC	Angel Sanchez	Contract finished	December 2018	Carlos Pérez Porras	December 2018	th (Apertura 2018)
Sporting San Miguelito	Gustavo Avila	Sacked	December 2018	Jair Palacios	December 2018	th (Pre Season)

During the Clausura season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Costa Del Este FC	Carlos Pérez Porras	Sacked	February 2019	Juan Carlos Fuentes	February 2019	10th (Clausura 2019)
Santa Gema	Jose Torres	Sacked	March 2019	Carlos Rivera	March 2019	10th (Clausura 2019)
CD Universitario	Gustavo Onaindia	Sacked	March 2019	Donaldo Gonzales	March 2019	10th (Clausura 2019)
Alianza	Alberto Nino Valencia	Sacked	March 2019	Celio Garces	March 2019	10th (Clausura 2019)

Apertura

Personnel and sponsoring (2018 Apertura)

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Alianza	TBD	Jair Palacios	Keuka	Balboa
Árabe Unido	TBD	Carlos Ruiz	Kelme	Pizza Hut, Panama Colon, Aguaseo
CD Universitario	TBD	Óscar Upegui	Lotto	McDonald's
Costa del Este F.C.		Angel Sanchez	Adidas	McDonald's, Cremoso
Independiente		Donaldo Gonzales	Everlast	Cemento Interoceanico, ECO Moda
Plaza Amador	TBD	Jorge Santos	Umbro	Páguela Facil, Frosquito, Mercana
Santa Gema		Mario Anthony "Chalate" Torres	Kelme	ShowPro, PSA Panama
San Francisco	Julio Quijano	Andrés Domínguez	Puma	KFC, Banco General
Sporting San Miguelito	TBD	Noel Gutierrez	Keuka	Los Andes, URBE, pío Pío
Tauro	TBD	Juan Carlos García	Patrick	Touritos, Argos, Caja de Ahorros

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Costa del Este	18	7	8	3	18	12	+6	29	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Árabe Unido	18	8	4	6	18	17	+1	28
3	Tauro	18	7	6	5	33	20	+13	27	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Plaza Amador	18	6	7	5	15	14	+1	25
5	San Francisco	18	7	4	7	19	19	0	25
6	Alianza	18	5	8	5	16	17	−1	23
7	Santa Gema	18	5	7	6	20	24	−4	22
8	Universitario	18	5	6	7	18	23	−5	21
9	Independiente	18	4	8	6	20	22	−2	20
10	Sporting San Miguelito	18	3	8	7	17	26	−9	17

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

Results

Home \ Away	ALI	ARA	CDE	IND	PLA	SFR	SGE	SSM	TAU	UNI
Alianza	—	0–2	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	2–2	1–1	0–1	2–0
Árabe Unido	1–0	—	0–0	2–0	0–1	2–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	1–0
Costa del Este	2–2	2–0	—	3–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–0	0–3
Independiente	0–0	2–0	0–0	—	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–2	2–2
Plaza Amador	1–1	1–3	1–1	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–1
San Francisco	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	1–0	—	1–2	2–2	2–3	1–1
Santa Gema	2–0	1–2	1–2	0–2	0–2	0–1	—	1–1	2–1	2–1
Sporting San Miguelito	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	1–2	1–2	1–1	—	1–3	1–3
Tauro	2–2	4–1	1–1	1–3	0–0	1–2	3–0	5–0	—	1–2
Universitario	1–1	1–0	0–2	2–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–4	—

Updated to match(es) played on completed. 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

Quarterfinals

November 15, 2018 (2018-11-15)

12:00

Plaza Amador	1 – 2	San Francisco
Jose Murillo 90'		Guido Rouse 14' Jhamal Rodriguez 78'

Nuevo Estadio Maracaná de Panamá, Panama City

Referee: Victor Rios

---

November 15, 2018 (2018-11-15)

13:00

Tauro	1 – 0	Alianza
Enrico Small 88'		None

Estadio Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez

Referee: Jose Kellys

Semifinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Árabe Unido	1 – 3	Tauro	0 – 2	1 – 1
Costa del Este	4 – 3	San Francisco	3 – 1	0 – 0

First leg

November 18, 2018 (2018-11-18)

8:00pm

Tauro	2 – 0	Árabe Unido
Enrico Small 34' Gustavo Chará 93'		None

Estadio Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez, Panama City

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November 19, 2018 (2018-11-19)

6:00pm

San Francisco	1 – 3	Costa del Este F.C.
Edson Samms 26'		Ernesto Sinclair 11' 22' 45'

Estadio Agustín Muquita Sánchez, La Chorrera

Second leg

November 24, 2018 (2018-11-24)

8:00pm

Árabe Unido	1 – 1	Tauro
Edwin Aguilar 37'		Blas Perez 92'

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés, Colón

Tauro won 3-1 on aggregate.

---

November 25, 2018 (2018-11-25)

7:00pm

Costa del Este F.C.	1 – 2	San Francisco
Ernesto Sinclair 55'		Ervin Zorrila 47' Guido Rouse 65'

Estadio Rommel Fernandez Gutiérrez, Panama City

Costa del Este won 4-3 on aggregate.

Final

December 1, 2018 (2018-12-01)

20:00 UTC−6

Costa del Este	1-2	Tauro
Edwin Aguilar own 15'	[ ]	Edwin Aguilar 3' Jesus Gonzales 119'

Estadio Rommel Fernández

Attendance: TBD

Referee: John Pitti

Clausura

Personnel and sponsoring (2019 Clausura)

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Alianza	TBD	Celio Garces	Keuka	Cemento Interoceanico
Árabe Unido	TBD	José 'Chicho' Pérez	Kelme	Pizza Hut
Unión Deportivo Universitario	TBD	Donaldo Gonzales	Keuka	EGS, NCO
Costa del Este F.C.		Juan Carlos Fuentes	Adidas	McDonald's, Cremoso
Independiente		Francisco Perlo	Everlast	Cemento Interoces, Eco Moda, Las Anclas, Preval
Plaza Amador	TBD	Javier Alvarez	Umbro	Balboa
Santa Gema		Carlos Rivera	Kelme	ShowPro
San Francisco	Julio Quijano	Gonzalo Soto	Puma	KFC, Canon, Banco General, Balboa
Sporting San Miguelito	TBD	Jair Palacios	Keuka	Pio Pio, Los Andes Mall, GMG, Melo
Tauro	TBD	Saul Maldonado	Patrick	Publica Amarias, Dominos, Estrella Azul, Argos, Capital Bank

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	San Francisco	18	11	5	2	33	15	+18	38	Advance to Playoffs (Semifinals)
2	Árabe Unido	18	10	5	3	28	17	+11	35
3	Independiente	18	10	4	4	30	18	+12	34	Advance to Playoffs (Quarterfinals)
4	Tauro	18	8	4	6	24	18	+6	28
5	Sporting San Miguelito	18	8	4	6	21	15	+6	28
6	Universitario	18	7	4	7	22	22	0	25
7	Plaza Amador	18	6	6	6	16	12	+4	24
8	Costa del Este	18	6	5	7	20	18	+2	23
9	Alianza	18	4	3	11	14	30	−16	15
10	Santa Gema	18	0	0	18	7	50	−43	0

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

Results

Home \ Away	ALI	ARA	CDE	IND	PLA	SFR	SGE	SSM	TAU	UNI
Alianza	—	0–1	1–0	0–2	0–3	0–1	3–1	0–1	0–2	0–3
Árabe Unido	4–1	—	2–0	3–3	1–1	1–4	3–0	1–0	1–0	1–2
Costa del Este	3–0	0–1	—	1–2	0–0	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–0	0–2
Independiente	2–0	0–2	0–0	—	2–1	2–2	2–0	2–1	4–3	0–0
Plaza Amador	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	—	0–1	3–0	0–1	0–1	0–0
San Francisco	2–2	1–1	3–0	0–1	2–1	—	3–0	2–1	2–0	0–0
Santa Gema	0–4	2–3	0–3	0–3	0–1	1–3	—	0–1	1–2	2–4
Sporting San Miguelito	1–1	0–0	5–2	1–0	0–0	2–1	3–0	—	1–1	1–0
Tauro	0–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–3	3–0	2–1	—	4–0
Universitario	3–0	1–2	0–4	1–4	0–1	1–2	3–0	2–1	0–0	—

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

Quarterfinals

May 14, 2019 (2019-05-14)

20:00

Independiente	2–1	Universitario
Aguilar 23' Torres 40'	Report	Dinalos 78'

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Ameth Sánchez

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May 14, 2019 (2019-05-14)

20:00

Tauro	1–0	Sporting San Miguelito
Catuy 15'	Report

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Victor Rios

Semifinals

First leg

May 18, 2019 (2019-05-18)

20:00

Tauro	1–1	San Francisco
Ariano 58'		Zúñiga 34'

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: John Pitti

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May 19, 2019 (2019-05-19)

20:00

Independiente	2–1	Árabe Unido
Negrete 41' Aguilar 65'		Arroyo 31'

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Oliver Vergara

Second leg

May 24, 2019 (2019-05-24)

18:00

Árabe Unido	2–1	Independiente
Heraldez 7' Cox 63'		Negrete 5'
Penalties
Cañate Brown Ferrera Cox Arroyo Pereira	4-5	Aguilar Bolívar Espinoza Negrete Torres Edwards

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés, Colón

Referee: Ameth Sánchez

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May 25, 2019 (2019-05-25)

18:00

San Francisco	1–0	Tauro
Jhamal Rodríguez 42' (pen.)

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Victor Rios

Final

June 1, 2019 (2019-06-01)

18:00

San Francisco	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Independiente
Guido Rouse 120+4'		Abdiel Ayarza 117'
Penalties
	1-4

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: John Pitti

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	San Francisco (Q)	36	18	9	9	52	34	+18	63	CONCACAF League preliminary round[a]
2	Árabe Unido	36	18	9	9	46	34	+12	63
3	Tauro (Q)	36	15	10	11	57	38	+19	55	CONCACAF League round of 16[b]
4	Independiente (Q)	36	14	12	10	50	40	+10	54	CONCACAF League round of 16[c]
5	Costa del Este	36	13	13	10	38	30	+8	52
6	Plaza Amador	36	12	13	11	31	26	+5	49
7	Universitario	36	12	10	14	40	45	−5	46
8	Sporting San Miguelito	36	11	12	13	38	41	−3	45
9	Alianza	36	9	11	16	30	47	−17	38
10	Santa Gema (R)	36	5	7	24	27	74	−47	22	Relegated to Liga 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:

1. As runners-up with better aggregate record (PAN3)
2. As Apertura champions (PAN1)
3. As Clausura champions (PAN2)

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players for the 2018-2019. The following players:

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

Alianza Robyn Pertuz Adrian Ararat Edwin Grueso Mike Campaz Yeferson Paz Mauricio Castaño Giandemir Jaen Ríos

Arabe Unido Faber Gil Raul Peñaranda Mauricio Castaño Miguel Lloyd Johnatan Mosquera

Chosta del Este FC Daniel Blanco Ariel Bonilla x Andres Escobar x David Loaiza x Julian Munoz x

Independiente David Uribe x Gerardo Negrete x Arichel Hernandez x Gustavo Bolivar Abel Marcovecchio x

Plaza Amador Nicolás Parodi José Tamburell

Santa Gema Juan Cano x Jhoan Romero x Milton Segura x

San Francisco FC Emerson Hurtado Cristian Pérez Humberto Mendoza

Sporting San Miguelito Wilmer Largacha Jorge Sandoval x Daniel Cano

Tauro FC Alexander Amut Gustavo Chara Juan Andrés Balanta Santiago Feuillassier

UD Universitario Gianfranco Cao Cristian Fabbiani Oliver Fula Richard Okunorobo

(player released mid season) (player released during Apertura and Clausura)

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20181006121704/http://panamafutbol.com/?cat=3&paged=3
• http://lpf.com.pa/w/category/noticas/
• https://int.soccerway.com/national/panama/lpf/20172018/apertura/r42284/
• http://www.rpctv.com/deportes/futbolnacional/