2017–18 Liga FPD – Apertura season

The 2018 Apertura season served as the opening half of the 2017–18 Liga FPD association football season. It began on 29 July 2017 and ended on 23 December 2017.

Liga FPD

Season	2017–18
Dates	29 July^[1] – 23 December^[2]
Champions	Pérez Zeledón (1st title)
CONCACAF League or CONCACAF Champions League	Pérez Zeledón
Matches played	146
Goals scored	426 (2.92 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jonathan McDonald (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Saprissa 6–1 Grecia (3/4 September 2017) Santos 5–0 Grecia (29 October 2017) Herediano 5–0 UCR (1 November 2017)
Biggest away win	Guadalupe 0–4 Santos (15 October 2017) Cartaginés 2–6 Carmelita (25 October 2017) Liberia 1–5 Saprissa (19 November 2017)
Highest scoring	Cartaginés 2–6 Carmelita (25 October 2017)
Longest winning run	5 matches Herediano (Two times)
Longest unbeaten run	22 matches Herediano
Longest winless run	8 matches Guadalupe UCR (Two times)
Longest losing run	6 matches Alajuelense Guadalupe Liberia
Highest attendance	17,037 Saprissa 2–0 Alajuelense (29 October 2017)^[3]
Lowest attendance	210 Santos 4–0 Pérez Zeledón (30 July 2017)^[3]
Total attendance	388,793^[3]
← 2016–17 2018 Clausura →

Herediano entered as the defending champions, but lost the title in the Apertura finals to Pérez Zeledón.

Personnel and kits

Team	Chairman	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Alajuelense	Fernando Ocampo	Wílmer López	Patrick Pemberton	Puma	Toyota, Claro, Volaris
Carmelita	Isidro Zamora	Mario Víquez	Carlos Acosta	Sportek	Great Wall Motors, Universidad Santa Lucía
Cartaginés	Luis Vargas	Adrián Leandro	Danny Fonseca	Joma	Bancrédito, Premium, TWO
Grecia	Dagoberto Matamoros	Walter Centeno	Daniel Vallejos	ProSport	ROES, Super Rosvil
Guadalupe	Vacant^[4]	Antonio Abasolo	To be determined	Pirma	Dream Travels, Papa John's^[5]
Herediano	David Patey	Hernán Medford	Óscar Granados	Umbro	Kölbi, Huawei, San Miguel, Coca-Cola, Papa John's, Toyota
Liberia	Julio Salas	Víctor Abelenda	Rafael Núñez	Prosport^[6]	Pulmitan, Condovac, Toyota, Philips, Papa John's
Limón	Noel Ferguson	Horacio Esquivel	Kareem McLean	Sportek	Reina's
Pérez Zeledón	Juan Artavia	José Giacone	Keilor Soto	Living Sport	Kölbi, Tracopa
Santos	Rafael Arias	Johnny Chávez	Edder Monguío	Living Sport	El Colono, Eusse, CopyVisión
Saprissa	Carlos Watson	Vladimir Quesada	Daniel Colindres	Kappa	Bimbo, Ibérico
UCR	Fernando Ocampo Cano	Marco Arias	Darío Delgado	Roma	INS

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
UCR	Mauricio Wright	Sacked	17 April 2017^[7]	Pre-season	Marco Arias	26 May 2017^[8]
Cartaginés	Jeaustin Campos	Resigned	29 May 2017^[9]		Javier Delgado	30 May 2017^[10]
Liberia	Erick Rodríguez	Resigned	27 July 2017^[11]		Vinicio Alvarado	31 July 2017^[12]
Alajuelense	Benito Floro	Sacked	21 August 2017^[13]	7th^[13]	Wílmer López	21 August 2017^[13]
Guadalupe	Luis Fallas	Sacked	4 September 2017^[14]	12th	Antonio Abasolo	4 September 2017^[14]
Carmelita	Guilherme Farinha	Sacked	28 September 2017^[15]	11th	Mario Viquez^1	24 November 2017^[16]
Liberia	Vinicio Alvarado	Resigned	7 November 2017^[17]	12th	Fernando Castro (interim)	7 November 2017^[17]
Cartaginés	Javier Delgado	Mutual consent	10 November 2017^[18]	10th	Adrián Leandro^2	22 November 2017^[19]^[18]
Saprissa	Carlos Watson	Resigned	17 December 2017^[20]	2nd (Quadrangular)	Vladimir Quesada	18 December 2017^[21]

Notes

• ¹: Mario Viquez had already assumed as interim manager of Carmelite following Farinha's departure on 28 September.
• ²: Adrián Leandro had already assumed as interim manager of Cartaginés following Delgado's departure on 10 November.

League table

Regular season

Defending champions Herediano topped the season undefeated with 54 points. By achieving this, Herediano broke two records in the league. They became the first team with the longest undefeated streak (surpassing the 21-match streak by Saprissa in the 2003–04 season, the team being coincidentally managed by Hernán Medford). The team also broke the record for more points achieved in a regular season, surpassing Alajuelense in the 2014 Invierno season.^[22]

On 3 September 2017, the match between Saprissa and Grecia was suspended at the 81st minute due to a false bomb threat.^[23] The remaining nine minutes were played the next morning.^[24]

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Herediano	22	16	6	0	41	12	+29	54	Advanced to the quadrangular and a possible final
2	Saprissa	22	13	4	5	50	27	+23	43	Advanced to the quadrangular
3	Santos de Guápiles	22	11	7	4	46	28	+18	40
4	Pérez Zeledón	22	10	6	6	43	33	+10	36
5	Alajuelense	22	8	7	7	38	31	+7	31
6	Grecia	22	8	7	7	31	37	−6	31
7	Limón	22	7	9	6	35	36	−1	30
8	Cartaginés	22	4	11	7	27	38	−11	23
9	UCR	22	4	8	10	16	28	−12	20
10	Carmelita	22	4	6	12	29	38	−9	18
11	Guadalupe	22	3	7	12	22	36	−14	16
12	Liberia	22	4	2	16	23	57	−34	14

Updated to match(es) played on 16 November 2017. 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

Positions by round

	Quadrangular and possible final
	Quadrangular
	Relegation (Aggregate table)

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Herediano	7	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Saprissa	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Santos	1	2	5	6	3	7	7	7	6	7	6	7	6	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Pérez Zeledón	12	12	12	9	6	4	3	3	4	6	7	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Alajuelense	2	3	3	5	7	6	5	4	3	3	3	3	4	5	6	7	7	7	6	7	7	5
Grecia	11	7	6	3	4	3	6	6	5	4	4	5	7	7	5	6	6	6	5	5	6	6
Limón	4	5	8	4	5	5	4	5	7	5	5	6	5	6	7	5	5	5	7	6	5	7
Cartaginés	5	8	9	11	11	11	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9	10	11	10	9	9	8	8
UCR	8	6	4	7	8	9	10	11	11	11	9	10	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9
Carmelita	10	10	10	12	12	12	11	10	9	10	11	11	11	11	10	9	9	9	10	10	10	10
Guadalupe	6	9	7	10	9	10	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	11	11	11	11	11
Liberia	9	11	11	8	10	8	8	9	10	9	10	9	10	10	11	12	10	12	12	12	12	12

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Home \ Away	ALA	CRM	CAR	GRE	GUA	HER	LIB	LIM	PEZ	SAN	SAP	UCR
Alajuelense		1–3	3–3	3–0	0–1	0–1	3–0	3–2	3–3	2–2	2–0	2–1
Carmelita	1–1		1–1	0–1	3–1	0–1	1–4	0–1	2–1	1–1	0–2	1–2
Cartaginés	2–2	2–6		2–2	0–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	0–0	3–4	1–1
Grecia	0–3	1–1	0–0		1–1	0–1	4–0	3–3	0–3	2–1	1–1	1–0
Guadalupe	1–1	1–1	2–3	0–3		1–2	4–0	1–3	1–2	0–4	1–2	1–1
Herediano	3–2	2–0	3–0	2–1	0–0		4–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	5–0
Liberia	0–2	2–1	0–3	1–4	4–1	0–2		3–1	2–2	0–2	1–5	2–3
Limón	1–1	2–2	3–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	2–1		2–2	1–1	3–1	2–1
Pérez Zeledón	3–2	3–1	3–3	2–2	1–1	0–1	4–0	2–0		4–1	1–2	3–1
Santos	2–1	3–2	4–0	5–0	0–2	1–4	4–2	2–2	4–0		3–2	0–0
Saprissa	2–0	4–2	3–0	6–1	1–0	1–1	4–0	5–2	1–2	1–2		1–0
C.F. Universidad de Costa Rica	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	0–2	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on 22 November 2017. Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Quadrangular – Apertura

Teams qualified

• Herediano (Title holders, winners of the regular season)
• Saprissa
• Santos de Guápiles
• Pérez Zeledón

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Pérez Zeledón	6	4	1	1	9	6	+3	13	Final
2	Saprissa	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	10
3	Herediano	6	2	0	4	5	5	0	6	Final
4	Santos de Guápiles	6	1	2	3	3	7	−4	5

Source:
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

Positions by round

	Champions

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6
Pérez Zeledón	1	1	2	1	1	1
Saprissa	3	2	1	2	2	2
Herediano	4	4	3	3	3	3
Santos	2	3	4	4	4	4

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Home \ Away	HER	PEZ	SAN	SAP
Herediano		1–2	2–0	0–1
Pérez Zeledón	1–0		1–0	3–2
Santos	0–2	1–1		0–0
Saprissa	1–0	2–1	1–2

Updated to match(es) played on 17 December 2017. Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Apertura finals

Since regular season leaders Herediano were unable to top the quadrangular stage, a double-legged final will be played against the quadrangular winner Pérez Zeledón in order to determine the champions of the Apertura tournament. By getting more points in the aggregate table, Herediano will host the second leg.^[25]

20 December 2017 (2017-12-20)

20:00 (UTC-6)

Pérez Zeledón	1–0	Herediano
Venegas   15'

Estadio Municipal Pérez Zeledón

Referee: Ricardo Montero^[26]

---

23 December 2017 (2017-12-23)

20:00 (UTC-6)

Herediano	0–0	Pérez Zeledón

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Keylor Herrera

Season statistics

Scoring

 

Saprissa's Luis Stewart Pérez scored the first goal of the Apertura tournament

• First goal of the season:
    Luis Stewart Pérez for Saprissa against Carmelita (30 July)^[27]
• Last goal of the season:
    Jeikel Venegas for Pérez Zeledón against Herediano (20 December)

Top goalscorers

Source: ^[28]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jonathan McDonald	Alajuelense	15
2	Randall Azofeifa	Herediano	10
	Josué Mitchell	Pérez Zeledón
4	Marvin Angulo	Saprissa	9
	Lauro Cazal	Pérez Zeledón
	José Guillermo Ortiz	Herediano
7	Randall Brenes	Cartaginés	8
	Andrey Francis	Limón
	Aldo Magaña	Guadalupe
	David Ramírez	Saprissa
	Keilor Soto	Pérez Zeledón

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Round	Reference
Randall Azofeifa	Herediano	Santos	4–1 (A)	27 September 2017	10	[1]
Julio César Cruz		UCR	5–0 (H)	1 November 2017	18	[2]

Goalkeeping

 

Leonel Moreira's four consecutive clean sheets helped him become the goalkeeper with the most consecutive minutes without receiving a goal in Herediano, and eighth in the history of the league^[29]

Rank	Player	Club	Matches	Goals Against	Average^[30]
1	Leonel Moreira	Herediano	21	11	0,52
2	Daniel Cambronero	Herediano	4	3	0,75
3	Marco Madrigal	Cartaginés	5	4	0,80
4	Kevin Briceño	Saprissa	19	17	0,89
5	Bryan Morales	Santos	13	13	1,00
6	Luis Carlos Zamora	Carmelita	3	3	1,00
7	Carlos Méndez	UCR	17	18	1,06
8	Bryan Segura	Pérez Zeledón	19	21	1,11
9	Patrick Pemberton	Alajuelense	18	22	1,22
10	Alejandro Gómez	Santos	14	18	1,29

Foreign players

This is a list of foreign players in the 2017 Apertura 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(s) is released and it's before the close of the season transfer window.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4
Alajuelense	Iván Luquetta	Jamille Boatswain	Kurt Frederick	Iago Soares
Carmelita	Cristian Tissone	Anderson Andrade
Cartaginés	Hernán Fener	Fabrizio Ronchetti	Nelson González
Grecia	Team has no foreign players in its squad
Guadalupe	Aldo Magaña	Lautaro Ayala	César Martínez
Herediano	Luis Ángel Landín	Jonathan Hansen	Julio César Cruz
Liberia	Boris Balinovic	Vladimir Vujasinović	Zoran Zec	Alessio Lava
Limón	Cristian Rivas	Jorge Luis Ruiz	Víctor Pérez
Pérez Zeledón	Paulo Azcurra	Lauro Cazal	Luis Aseff	Milton Martínez
Santos	Team has no foreign players in its squad
Saprissa	Henrique Moura	Jerry Bengtson	Mariano Torres	Anderson Leite
UCR	Mike Campaz	Darío Bustos	Edwards Jiménez	Daniel Ocampo

^[31]

References

1. Molina, José Pablo (28 July 2017). . UNAFUT.com (in European Spanish). UNAFUT. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
2. Molina, José Pablo (20 June 2017). . www.unafut.com (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-06-25. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
3. . UNAFUT.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
4. Martínez, Daniel (15 June 2017). "Olman Vega no es más presidente de Guadalupe FC". Radio Monumental. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
5. Jiménez, Daniel (27 July 2017). "Uniforme de local de Guadalupe FC @nacion @PuroDeporteLNpic.twitter.com/F2flcMe1W5". Twitter. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
6. "Nuestras equipaciones para el Torneo de Apertura 2017.pic.twitter.com/6L7tSyURsS". Municipal Liberia on Twitter. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
7. Oviedo, Steven (17 April 2017). "Mauricio Wright queda fuera de la UCR". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 May 2017.
8. Retana, Pedro (26 May 2017). "UCR apuesta por un D.T. tipo Pinto". Diario Extra (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 May 2017.
9. Brenes, Cristian (29 May 2017). "Jeaustin Campos deja el Cartaginés y apunta al Blooming de Bolivia". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 May 2017.
10. Villarreal, Juan Diego (30 May 2017). "El primer rival de Javier Delgado será un Cartaginés en problemas económicos". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 May 2017.
11. Martínez, Daniel (27 July 2017). "Erick Rodríguez renunció a la dirección técnica de Liberia". Radio Monumental. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
12. "Vinicio Alvarado asume la dirección técnica del Municipal Liberia - Website Oficial Municipal Liberia". Website Oficial Municipal Liberia (in European Spanish). Municipal Liberia. 31 July 2017. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
13. Tayver, Fanny (21 August 2017). "Alajuelense confirma: Wílmer López asume en lugar de Benito Floro". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 August 2017.
14. Araya, José Fernando (4 September 2017). . Teletica (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-09-06. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
15. Oviedo, Steven (28 September 2017). "Carmelita destituye a Guilherme Farinha". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 December 2017.
16. Solano Salas, Adriana (25 November 2017). "Junta directiva de Carmelita ratificó la dupla de Mario Víquez-Luis José Herra para Clausura 2018". El Mundo CR (in European Spanish). Retrieved 3 December 2017.
17. Jiménez, Daniel. "Vinicio Alvarado renunció a Liberia". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 November 2017.
18. Contreras, Paulo (10 November 2017). . C.S. Cartaginés (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
19. Contreras, Paulo (22 November 2017). "Adrián Leandro es oficialmente Director Técnico del Cartaginés". cartagines.cr (in European Spanish). C.S. Cartaginés. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
20. . www.laprensalibre.cr. 17 December 2017. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
21. Naranjo, Julio. "Vladimir Quesada es el nuevo técnico del Saprissa". Teletica (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 December 2017.
22. Brenes, Cristian (21 November 2017). "Herediano impone récords aplastando dentro y fuera de casa". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 November 2017.
23. Álvarez, Cristian (3 September 2017). "El partido Saprissa-Grecia fue suspendido por una falsa amenaza de bomba". Diario Digital Nuestro País (in European Spanish). Retrieved 18 December 2017.
24. . UNAFUT.com. 18 December 2017. Archived from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
25. "Resultados". unafut.com (in European Spanish). Retrieved 17 December 2017. En esta serie final el equipo local en el segundo juego sera el mejor ubicado en la tabla acumulada
26. "FIFA Referees News: Costa Rica : 2017 Torneo Apertura Final". 23 December 2017.
27. Álvarez, Cristian (30 July 2017). "Luis Stewart Pérez anotó el primer gol del Apertura 2017". Diario Digital Nuestro País. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
28. . UNAFUT.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
29. Segura, Geovany (20 August 2017). . La Prensa Libre. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
30. . UNAFUT.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
31. . www.unafut.com (in European Spanish). UNAFUT. Archived from the original on 2017-08-19. Retrieved 2018-01-11.

External links

• (in Spanish) UNAFUT - Primera División de Costa Rica