The Official Rafael Baca thread

A discussion started on him in the Stanford/LA postgame thread. To sum up my comments from there, I love that he's on the "plus side" for on turnovers, keeps the ball moving for the Quakes and closes down opponents all the time before they can trap and steals balls from them. Does seem to have trouble being fully effective for 90 minutes but we are deep on the bench.

 

He was at 39/49 passes complete in the Stanford game... good for a 79 to 80% pass completion rate, many of them were forward passes, and he had 10 recoveries. He was a beast in that game and he is having a great season.

 

He looks even better given that he is practically a rookie. I can't think of anyone else who has been so young and a consistent starter at attacking center mid in the history of the league.

Plus he's often the smallest guy on the field, which definitely matters in the "physical" play of MLS.

I wonder if he could get a green card or U.S. citizenship? I would like to see him improve enough to get a shot at the Nats.

 

I think he has come back even better after losing his consistent starting spot. Too bad he didn't get the goal but he's a great player. I just hope we can keep him in SJ.

 

Baca's first game was on July 9th, 2011 when he came on as a sub in the 80th minute for Simon Dawkins against Philly.......Its almost his 1 year anniversary....

 

Nejar in D.C. comes to mind. Convey when he started was also doing well (with D.C ?).

 

Same post as in the Cronin thread.

Cronin and Baca Rule!

Great article about how dominating these two are, and how well they work together.

“I think [Rafael] Baca and Sam Cronin were great in the middle of our midfield,” Yallop said. “They bossed it. They made sure it was difficult to play against them, and they were clean on the ball. It was great.”​

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“I thought our midfield won the game for us tonight,” said Wondolowski, who did his part with his first hat trick of 2012. “I wish [Baca and Cronin] had trackers on them. If you see how much ground they cover – they’re such smart players; you think you have [an open] pass and they cut it out."​

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“Rafa pulls the strings, as you can see,” San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch said. “He’s been fantastic so far this year.”​

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“Sammy’s a little bulldog in the midfield,” Busch said. “You can’t count out the little guys; they’ve got a lot of bite to them. ... To me, he reminds me a lot of Logan Pause and Chris Armas, two guys I regard very highly that I played with in Chicago. Sammy fits into that mold. He breaks a lot of plays up, he gets in on tackles. He does all the dirty work that nobody else notices or wants to do.”​

Great stuff! and what have I been saying this season?! Baca and Croninja are the engine that makes our team go. (With critical help from Shea and Chavez, and Lionheart and Wondo, and Bernardez, JM, and Beta.)

OK, so I just credited almost the whole team. Still, Rafael and Sam just rule the midfield!!

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Baca continues to be underappreciated by people outside of San Jose apparently. He's not even listed in the top 24 young players in MLS in their "24 under 24" series. They still have 3 players to name, but Baca's not going to be in the top 3 (expect to see Brek Shea, Darren Mattocks and Omar Gonzalez in the final 3 slots).

I'm quite surprised that Baca didn't make this list, although I suspect it's because his contributions don't show up on the stat sheet very well (few assists or goals). He also did not come into the league with the hype of the other players (like Wenger, Salgado and Kitchen). I'd rank Baca at least in the top 20, probably as high 12-15, based on his contributions this year and the level of improvement he showed from last year to this year.

Here's the list of the 21 other players already named to the list ahead of Baca:

4. Sean Johnson
5. Felipe
6. Juninho
7. Andrew Wenger
8. Perry Kitchen
9. Andy Najar
10. Bill Hamid
11. Will Bruin
12. Gershon Koffie
13. Juan Agudelo
14. Luis Gil
15. Darlington Nagbe
16. Nick DeLeon
17. Connor Lade
18. Sheanon Williams
19. Freddy Adu
20. Teal Bunbury
21. Luis Silva
22. Fabian Castillo
23. Omar Salgado
24. Andy Rose

 

Why do you assume Omar gonzalez is in the top 3? He's barely come back from injury hasn't he? But I agree Baca is very unappreciated outside of San Jose. So he won't make the list.

 

Because of how well the LA defense has played with him back (and how poorly they played without him). I've seen a few people on twitter and other places talking about Omar as an MLS MVP candidate (big stretch, obviously). Remember, this list is not based on how well a player has played this season, it's supposed to be the "top players" in terms of performance and potential at this stage of their careers.

That's the same reason I assume Brek Shea will be in the top 3 - he's had at best an average MLS season, but he's so well thought of that he gets called into the USMNT and gets playing time.

 

Baca is definitely improving. Maybe people forget that he only became a pro in July of 2011 and also went undrafted. I'm sure that doesn't sit well across the league. I mean to have a free agent starting and playing well for the top team in MLS and outshining many Generation Adidas and #1 college draft picks. I also think it has to do with a lot of bias towards San Jose. If you look around the threads, there are very few talking about any of the Quakes or how well they are doing. I see an occasional Wondo mention but other than that, I've yet seen all that many people praising our team and that is a real shame because I believe they are playing the best soccer in the country. This team reminds me so much of the 2005 team where there was just an incredible style of play and level of talent. If that team was an indicator of things to come, I think San Jose along with Baca will be a winner for years to come.

 

Quakes are getting a lot of props in all the MLS podcasts. There a few media guys that think the Quakes are paper tigers and will choke in the playoffs. But most of them just say good things. However, if Baca doesn't make the top 24 under 24, then the voters on that list know zippo nada nothing about soccer.

 

Any team can choke in the playoffs, paper tigers or not. You just need to have one bad game at the wrong time. If the Quakes continue to do well through to the end of the season and win the Supporter's Shield, that's good enough for me. That to me is the best test measure of "best team", unbalanced schedule and all not withstanding.

Or let me put it this way: If the Quakes have one bad playoff game and go out, I'm not going to let some two-bit "MLS analyst" convince me that the Quakes were a mirage because anyway they didn't have any "stars" like Thierry Henry or Robbie Keane.

 

How about that?

 

So apparently Baca doesn't even rate as one of the top 24 players in the league under 24, but he's the most influential player on the best team in the league? Are you kidding me?

 

I think Baca really helps make the team tick over properly.

 

Here's an article from MLS's Spanish site on Baca as a "Promising Latino":
link (Spanish)

And for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, here is Baca's "Journey to Excellence" video:
link

 

Let's see if he's #1 tomorrow.

 

Nope. Mattocks as expected. Not a single Quakes made the list. Eligible players were Baca, Bingham, Garza, and Opara. Opara made the list 2 years ago. This year, I'd say that Baca was the only deserving one of the 3, but to not even make the list at all is a crime. He is the engine that makes the best team in the league run. Top ten at least.

 

To me this really is proof that the state of soccer journalism in this country is poor, to say the least. The fans votes counted 10%, so 90% of this was on the people who are supposed to know something about soccer. Clearly, they don't.

 

It's not just soccer journalism that is poor, it's the profession at large.