2020–21 Liga de Expansión MX season

Liga de Expansión MX
Season	2020-21
Champions	Guardianes 2020:; Tampico Madero (1st title)
Matches played	149
Goals scored	364 (2.44 per match)
Top goalscorer	Guardianes 2020:; Alberto Alvarado Morín; Lizandro Echeverría; Guillermo Martínez; Gustavo Ramírez; (7 goals); Guardianes 2021:; Vladimir Moragrega; Sergio Vergara; (4 goals)
Biggest home win	Guardianes 2020:; Tepatitlán 4–0 Sinaloa; (14 October 2020); Cancún 4–0 Pumas Tabasco; (17 October 2020); Zacatecas 5–1 UAT; (4 November 2020); Guardianes 2021:; UAT 3–0 Cancún; (13 January 2021)
Biggest away win	Guardianes 2020:; Pumas Tabasco 0–4 Atlante; (30 September 2020); Guardianes 2021:; Pumas Tabasco 0–1 Tapatío; (12 January 2021); Oaxaca 0–1 Tepatitlán; (19 January 2021)
Highest scoring	Guardianes 2020:; Tapatío 3–3 Atlético Morelia; (1 September 2020); Pumas Tabasco 3–3 Zacatecas; (2 September 2020); Zacatecas 5–1 UAT; (4 November 2020); Oaxaca 2–4 Sonora; (17 November 2020); Tapatío 4–2 Pumas Tabasco; (18 November 2020); Guardianes 2021:; UAT 3–0 Cancún; (13 January 2021); Tlaxcala 2–1 Atlético Morelia; (20 January 2021); Celaya 2–1 Pumas Tabasco; (20 January 2021)
Longest winning run	Guardianes 2020: 4 matches; Atlante; Sonora; Zacatecas
Longest unbeaten run	Guardianes 2020: 12 matches; Celaya
Longest losing run	Guardianes 2020: 5 matches; UAT
	2021–22 → Stats are from the regular season only

The 2020–21 Liga de Expansión MX season is the first professional season of the second-tier football division in Mexico. The season is divided into two championships—the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura—each in an identical format and each contested by the same sixteen teams. The Apertura began at 18 August 2020.

Changes from the previous season

The Liga de Expansión MX is a Mexican football league founded in 2020 as part of the Mexican Football Federation's "Stabilization Project", which has the primary objective of rescuing the financially troubled teams from the Ascenso MX and prevent the disappearance of a second-tier league in Mexico, for which there will be no promotion and relegation during the following six years.^[1] The project also attempts for Liga MX and former Ascenso MX teams to consolidate stable projects with solid basis, sports-wise and administrative-wise, financially wise and in infrastructure.

Atlante F.C. was relocated from Cancún to Mexico City.^[2]
Club Atlético Zacatepec was moved to Morelia and was renamed as Atlético Morelia.^[3]
Cafetaleros de Chiapas was moved to Cancún and renamed as Cancún F.C.^[4]
Tapatío and Pumas Tabasco, entered to the league as Liga MX affiliate teams.^[5]^[6]
Tepatitlán F.C. and Tlaxcala F.C. were accepted as an expansion teams.^[7]

Stadiums and Locations


Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Atlante	Mexico City	Ciudad de los Deportes	33,000
Atlético Morelia	Morelia, Michoacán	Morelos	35,000
Cancún	Cancún, Quintana Roo	Andrés Quintana Roo	17,289
Celaya	Celaya, Guanajuato	Miguel Alemán Valdés	23,182
Pumas Tabasco	Villahermosa, Tabasco	Olímpico de Villahermosa	10,500
Oaxaca	Oaxaca City, Oaxaca	Tecnológico de Oaxaca	14,598
Sinaloa	Culiacán, Sinaloa	Banorte	20,108
Sonora	Hermosillo, Sonora	Héroe de Nacozari	18,747
Tampico Madero	Tampico/Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas	Tamaulipas	19,667
Tapatío	Zapopan, Jalisco	Akron	49,850
Tepatitlán	Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco	Gregorio "Tepa" Gómez	10,000
Tlaxcala	Tlaxcala City, Tlaxcala	Tlahuicole	12,000
UAT	Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas	Marte R. Gómez	10,520
U. de G.	Guadalajara, Jalisco	Jalisco	55,020
Venados	Mérida, Yucatán	Carlos Iturralde	15,087
Zacatecas	Zacatecas City, Zacatecas	Carlos Vega Villalba	20,068

Location of teams in the 2020–21 Liga de Expansión MX

Personnel and kits

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
Atlante	Jorge Santillana	Mario García Covalles	Lizandro Echeverría	UIN Sports	Betcris
Atlético Morelia	Víctor Manuel Arana	Ricardo Valiño	Arturo Ledesma	Keuka	Akron, Avocados from Mexico
Cancún	José Luis Orantes Costanzo	Christian Giménez	Juan Basulto	Keuka	Cancún, Riviera Maya
Celaya	Alan Achar	Israel Hernández	Leobardo López	Keuka	Bachoco
Oaxaca	Juan Carlos Jones	Oscar Fernando Torres	Óscar Torres	Silver Sport	Patsa, Ópticas América, ADO
Pumas Tabasco	Ramón Neme	Alejandro Pérez	Julio Barragán	Nike	DHL
Sinaloa	José Antonio Núñez	Rafael García	José Lugo	Charly	Coppel, Caliente, Sukarne
Sonora	Juan Pablo Rojo	Gabriel Pereyra	Miguel Vallejo	Keuka	Yiuppi, El Imparcial
Tampico Madero	Carlos Gutiérrez Riera	Gerardo Espinoza	José Ávila	Charly	Nexum
Tapatío	Amaury Vergara	Alberto Coyote	Sergio Flores	Puma	Caliente
Tepatitlán	Víctor Flores Cosío	Paco Ramírez	Luis Robles	Carrara	Pacífica
Tlaxcala	Rafael Torre Mendoza	Irving Rubirosa	Francisco Uscanga	Keuka	Providencia, Tlaxcala
UAT	Miguel Mansur Pedraza	Roberto Hernández	Abraham Riestra	Silver Sport
U. de G.	José Alberto Castellanos Gutiérrez	Jorge Dávalos	José Hernández	Umbro	Electrolit
Venados	Rodolfo Rosas Cantillo	Carlos Gutiérrez	Armando Navarrete	U-Sports	Yucatán
Zacatecas	Eduardo López Muñoz	Omar Alexis Moreno	Manuel Madrid	Spiro	Fresnillo plc, Mobil

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table	Ref.
Pre-Apertura changes
Celaya	Héctor Altamirano	Sacked	23 April 2020	Israel Hernández	1 July 2020	Preseason	^[8]^[9]
Zacatecas	Oscar Torres	Sacked	11 June 2020	Omar Alexis Moreno	1 July 2020		^[10]^[11]
Sonora	Isaac Morales	Sacked	12 May 2020	Gabriel Pereyra	3 July 2020		^[12]^[13]
Atlante	Alex Diego	Signed by Querétaro	12 June 2020	Mario García Covalles	20 July 2020		^[14]^[15]
Oaxaca	Alejandro Pérez	Mutual agreement	4 July 2020	Oscar Fernando Torres	10 July 2020		^[16]^[17]
Pre-Clausura changes
Sinaloa	David Patiño	Sacked	30 November 2020	Rafael García	21 December 2020	Preseason	^[18]^[19]
Pumas Tabasco	Carlos Humberto González	Moved to UNAM U–20	21 December 2020	Alejandro Pérez	21 December 2020	Preseason	^[20]

Guardianes 2020

The Guardianes 2020 season was the 1st season of Liga de Expansión MX. The regular season began on 18 August 2020 and ended on 20 December 2020. The tournament was renamed Torneo Guardianes 2020 (stylized as Guard1anes) in honour of the job healthcare workers have done during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Ext	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Celaya	15	9	5	1	3	21	10	+11	35	Qualification to the semi-finals^[a]
2	Atlante	15	9	1	5	4	25	14	+11	32	Qualification to the quarter-finals^[b]
3	Sonora	15	9	1	5	2	25	16	+9	30	Qualification to the Reclassification^[c]
4	Atlético Morelia	15	7	5	3	3	24	18	+6	29
5	Cancún	15	7	3	5	3	19	14	+5	27
6	Tampico Madero (C)	15	6	5	4	3	14	12	+2	26
7	Zacatecas	15	6	5	4	2	24	19	+5	25
8	Tepatitlán	15	6	5	4	1	20	15	+5	24
9	Tapatío	15	5	6	4	1	20	14	+6	22
10	Tlaxcala	15	5	3	7	2	13	22	−9	20
11	Venados	15	4	4	7	1	14	21	−7	17
12	Pumas Tabasco^[d]	15	3	5	7	3	20	30	−10	17
13	Sinaloa	15	3	5	7	2	18	27	−9	16
14	U. de G.	15	3	4	8	2	17	21	−4	15
15	Oaxaca	15	4	1	10	2	15	25	−10	15
16	UAT	15	3	4	8	0	17	28	−11	13

Source: Liga de Expansión MX
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Number of goals scored away; 5) Head-to-head results between tied teams; 6) Highest relegation coefficient; 7) Fair Play points
(C) Champions
Notes:

^ The 1st ranked team qualifies for the Liguilla semi-finals.
^ The 2nd ranked team qualifies for the Liguilla quarter-finals.
^ The Teams ranked from 3rd to 12th place qualify to the Repechage.
^ Team is last in the relegation table

Positions by Round

	Leader and qualification to semi-finals
	Qualification to quarter-finals
	Qualification to repechaje.
	Last place in table

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Team ╲ Round
Celaya	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Atlante	1	4	8	13	8	4	2	2	3	4	6	4	3	2	2
Sonora	2	1	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	2	2	2	5	3	3
Atlético Morelia	7	14	13	14	14	7	8	8	5	7	7	7	6	5	4
Cancún	6	7	3	3	3	3	5	6	7	6	5	5	2	4	5
Tampico Madero	13	13	12	9	13	12	9	10	10	8	9	9	8	7	6
Zacatecas	12	10	11	7	7	8	4	4	2	3	3	3	4	6	7
Tepatitlán	8	9	5	8	4	9	6	5	6	5	4	6	7	8	8
Tapatío	15	15	14	15	10	13	13	14	14	11	11	8	9	10	9
Tlaxcala	4	6	6	6	11	14	15	15	15	14	13	12	14	9	10
Venados	16	16	15	16	16	16	12	11	12	10	10	11	12	15	11
Pumas Tabasco	9	3	4	5	9	12	14	13	13	15	14	15	11	11	12
Sinaloa	11	5	9	4	6	6	7	7	8	12	12	13	10	12	13
U. de G.	14	12	7	10	5	5	10	9	9	13	15	14	15	13	14
Oaxaca	5	8	10	12	15	15	16	16	15	16	16	16	16	14	15
UAT	10	11	16	11	12	10	11	12	11	9	8	10	13	16	16

Source: Liga de Expansión MX

Results

Each team plays once all other teams in 15 rounds regardless of it being a home or away match.

Home \ Away	ATL	ATM	CAN	CEL	OAX	PUM	SIN	SON	TAM	TAP	TEP	TLA	UAT	UDG	VEN	ZAS
Atlante	—	—	2–1	—	—	—	4–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	—	—	—	0–1	3–0	2–1
Atlético Morelia	2–1	—	2–3	—	—	0–2	1–1	2–0	—	—	—	3–0	—	—	—	2–1
Cancún	—	—	—	0–2	0–2	4–0	—	—	1–0	—	—	2–0	2–0	—	1–2	1–1
Celaya	3–0	1–0	—	—	—	—	—	1–1	0–0	—	—	—	2–1	1–0	2–1	—
Oaxaca	1–2	0–1	—	1–2	—	—	1–3	2–4	—	—	—	2–2	—	1–0	1–0	—
Pumas Tabasco	0–4	—	—	1–2	0–2	—	2–2	—	—	—	2–2	0–1	—	—	—	3–3
Sinaloa	—	—	1–1	1–2	—	—	—	0–2	0–1	1–1	—	—	2–2	3–2	—	0–1
Sonora	—	—	2–1	—	—	2–1	—	—	3–1	—	2–0	—	—	1–0	1–0	2–3
Tampico Madero	—	1–2	—	—	2–0	1–2	—	—	—	2–1	0–0	—	0–0	—	1–1	—
Tapatío	—	3–3	0–0	1–0	3–0	4–2	—	0–2	—	—	0–1	2–0	—	—	—	—
Tepatitlán	2–1	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–0	—	4–0	—	—	—	—	—	—	3–2	2–0	—
Tlaxcala	0–3	—	—	1–1	—	—	2–1	2–1	0–1	—	1–1	—	1–0	1–3	—	—
UAT	1–2	2–3	—	—	3–2	0–0	—	2–1	—	0–3	2–0	—	—	—	—	—
U. de G.	—	1–1	0–1	—	—	2–2	—	—	1–2	1–1	—	—	3–1	—	—	1–1
Venados	—	1–1	—	—	—	1–3	1–2	—	—	0–0	—	1–0	2–2	2–1	—	—
Zacatecas	—	—	—	1–1	1–0	—	—	—	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	5–1	—	1–2	—

Source: Liga de Expansión MX
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Regular Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Alberto Alvarado Morín	UAT	7
	Lizandro Echeverría	Atlante
	Guillermo Martínez	Celaya
	Gustavo Ramírez	Atlético Morelia
5	Juan José Calero	Zacatecas	6
	Eduardo Pérez	Atlético Morelia
	Raúl Zúñiga	Sinaloa
8	Juan David Angulo	Tepatitlán	5
	Franco Arizala	Oaxaca
	Luis García	Atlante
	Luis Hernández	Zacatecas
	Ángel Adán López	Sonora
	Óscar Macías	Tapatío
	Miguel Ángel Vallejo	Sonora
	Óscar Villa	Sonora

Source:Liga de Expansión MX

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Round	Reference
David Angulo	Tepatitlán	U. de G.	3–2 (H)	17 November 2020	15	[1]

(H) – Home ; (A) – Away

Final phase

Reclassification

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Sonora	2–3	Pumas Tabasco
Atlético Morelia	1–0	Venados
Cancún	1–2	Tlaxcala
Tampico Madero	0–0 (5–3 p)	Tapatío
Zacatecas	1–0	Tepatitlán

All rounds are played in a single game
The higher seed will host the match
If a game ends in a draw, it will proceed directly to a penalty shoot-out.

24 November 2020 (2020-11-24)	Zacatecas	1–0	Tepatitlán	Zacatecas City, Zacatecas
17:00 CST (UTC−6)	Mascorro 62'	Report		Stadium: Estadio Carlos Vega Villalba Referee: Edgar Allan Morales

24 November 2020 (2020-11-24)	Tampico Madero	0–0 (5–3 p)	Tapatío	Ciudad Madero / Tampico, Tamaulipas
19:10 CST (UTC−6)		Report		Stadium: Estadio Tamaulipas Referee: Luis Daniel Chávez
	Penalties
	De Buen Simental López Eguade Robles		Torres Hernández Muñoz Aguayo

24 November 2020 (2020-11-24)	Sonora	2–3	Pumas Tabasco	Hermosillo, Sonora
20:10 MST (UTC−7)	Machado 3' López 90' (pen.)	Report	Montejano 28' Mejía 56' Figueroa 60' (pen.)	Stadium: Estadio Héroe de Nacozari Referee: Abraham de Jesús Quirarte

25 November 2020 (2020-11-25)	Atlético Morelia	1–0	Venados	Morelia, Michoacán
17:00 CST (UTC−6)	Tamay 54'	Report		Stadium: Estadio Morelos Referee: Guillermo Pacheco Larios

26 November 2020 (2020-11-26)	Cancún	1–2	Tlaxcala	Cancún, Quintana Roo
18:00 EST (UTC−5)	Mora 89' (o.g.)	Report	Uscanga 27' (pen.) Tehuitzil 35'	Stadium: Estadio Andrés Quintana Roo Referee: Daniel Quintero Huitrón

Bracket

Template:7Team2LeggedBracket

The first place team qualifies directly to the semi-finals.
The second place team qualifies directly to the quarter-finals.
Teams are re-seeded each round.
The winners of the Repechage matches will be seeded based on their ranking in the classification table.
Team with more goals on aggregate after two matches advances.
In the quarterfinals and semifinals, if the two teams are tied on aggregate, the higher seeded team advances.
In the final, if the two teams are tied after both legs, the match goes to extra time and, if necessary, a shoot-out.
The champion qualifies to the Campeón de Campeones match against the Clausura 2021 champion.

^[21]

Quarter-finals

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Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Pumas Tabasco	1–1(s)	Atlante	1–1	0–0
Tlaxcala	0–5	Atlético Morelia	0–2	0–3
Zacatecas	2–4	Tampico Madero	2–1	0–3

First leg

2 December 2020 (2020-12-02)	Tlaxcala	0–2	Atlético Morelia	Tlaxcala City, Tlaxcala
17:00 CST (UTC−6)			Acosta 11' Ramírez 29'	Stadium: Estadio Tlahuicole Referee: Jesús Ruiz González

2 December 2020 (2020-12-02)	Zacatecas	2–1	Tampico Madero	Zacatecas City, Zacatecas
19:00 CST (UTC−6)	Pedraza 31' Madrid 90'	Report	López 11'	Stadium: Estadio Carlos Vega Villalba Referee: Áxel Meza Méndez

3 December 2020 (2020-12-03)	Pumas Tabasco	1–1	Atlante	Villahermosa, Tabasco
19:00 CST (UTC−6)	Mejía 78'	Report	Hernández 16' (pen.)	Stadium: Estadio Olímpico de Villahermosa Referee: Gustavo Padilla Aguirre

Second leg

5 December 2020 (2020-12-05)	Atlético Morelia	3–0 (5–0 agg.)	Tlaxcala	Morelia, Michoacán
17:00 CST (UTC−6)	Milke 3' Ramírez 18', 26'	Report		Stadium: Estadio Morelos Referee: Edgar Allan Morales

5 December 2020 (2020-12-05)	Tampico Madero	3–0 (4–2 agg.)	Zacatecas	Ciudad Madero / Tampico, Tamaulipas
19:00 CST (UTC−6)	Lozano 2' Ávila 3', 42'	Report		Stadium: Estadio Tamaulipas Referee: Guillermo Pacheco Larios

6 December 2020 (2020-12-06)	Atlante	0–0 (1–1 agg.)	Pumas Tabasco	Mexico City
21:00 CST (UTC−6)				Stadium: Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes Referee: Ismael Lopez Peñuelas

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Celaya	2–3	Tampico Madero	0–1	2–2
Atlante	(s)1–1	Atlético Morelia	1–1	0–0

First leg

9 December 2020 (2020-12-09)	Tampico Madero	1–0	Celaya	Ciudad Madero / Tampico, Tamaulipas
19:00 CST (UTC−6)	De Buen 10'	Report		Stadium: Estadio Tamaulipas Referee: Jesús Roberto Ruiz

9 December 2020 (2020-12-09)	Atlético Morelia	1–1	Atlante	Morelia, Michoacán
21:00 CST (UTC−6)	Tamay 22'	Report	Rol. González 66'	Stadium: Estadio Morelos Referee: Áxel Meza Méndez

Second leg

12 December 2020 (2020-12-12)	Celaya	2–2 (2–3 agg.)	Tampico Madero	Celaya, Guanajuato
19:00 CST (UTC−6)	Martínez 25' Vergara 67'	Report	Medina 23' de Buen 89' (pen.)	Stadium: Estadio Miguel Alemán Valdés Referee: Abraham de Jesús Quirarte Contreras

12 December 2020 (2020-12-12)	Atlante	0–0 (1–1 agg.)	Atlético Morelia	Mexico City
21:05 CST (UTC−6)		Report		Stadium: Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes Referee: Luis Daniel Chávez León

Final

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Atlante	3–4	Tampico Madero	1–1	2–3

First leg

17 December 2020 (2020-12-17)	Tampico Madero	1–1	Atlante	Ciudad Madero / Tampico, Tamaulipas
21:00 CST (UTC−6)	Pérez 7'	Report	García 59'	Stadium: Estadio Tamaulipas Referee: Guillermo Pacheco Larios

Second leg

20 December 2020 (2020-12-20)	Atlante	2–3 (a.e.t.) (3–4 agg.)	Tampico Madero	Mexico City
20:00 CST (UTC−6)	Sánchez 66' Vega 106'	Report	Salas 74', 112' de Buen 118' (pen)	Stadium: Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes Referee: Edgar Allan Morales Olvera

Guardianes 2020 winners
Tampico Madero 1st title

Guardianes 2021

The Clausura tournament will be named Guardianes 2021, in honor of the doctors and health professionals in the country who fight against COVID-19.^[22]

The Clausura 2021 began on 12 January 2021.^[23]