Chivas USA 2012 Player Postmortem: Marky Delgado

Ok, let's get down to business. Marky Delgado was the one and only home grown signing of the Robin Fraser era for Chivas USA. Signing a professional contract with the Goats way back in April, the now-17 year old had to wait until August to make his competitive debut with the first team, due to regulations with the minimum time a home grown player must play with a club's academy team. Still, he wasn't thrown onto the field straightaway, instead getting just one chance to show the world why he got the contract.

You may recall that Chivas hit the wall and spent the rest of the season sliding further, further like a broken egg on said wall from August on. As the defense faltered, as the attack continued to fail to produce, as the veterans couldn't get it together, Delgado was held out. On one level, that makes sense, since he has to be considered a player for the future, not 2012. It could also be argued that Chivas jumped on signing Delgado as a direct response to the defection of fellow Chivas USA Academy player Stevie Rodriguez, who was considered the best candidate to get a home grown contract headed into the season, to Club Tijuana. Regardless, Delgado is still one for the future.

In his only action of the season, Delgado came on as a substitute against the Vancouver Whitecaps October 3rd. Playing the final 17 minutes in a 4-0 rout by the Caps, Delgado had one good chance on goal, but whiffed on the shot. In his defense, he had never played a professional game before, and nobody on his team had a shot on goal that night. Surrounded by a team that had been battered for weeks, and was being pummeled that night, it has to be said that the only function of that showing was to give him a runout and deal with the butterflies.

Will he be back in 2012? He better be. Otherwise, it will have been a humongous waste for club and player. He only made $44,000 in base salary this season, so he isn't expensive, and he fits right in the sweet spot of being an inexpensive American-born Latino player, something that will most likely be a hallmark of the "new" era for Chivas USA. Next year he'll be a little bit bigger and hopefully better as a player, and hopefully he'll be more involved in the competitive matches.

Here are Delgado's statistics for the 2012 season:

Grades:

His +/- of 0 ties Scott Gordon for tops among Chivas USA players in 2012. It certainly helps that his 17 minutes began immediately after Vancouver netted their fourth and final goal. If there was any silver lining to the defeat, it was that Delgado could make his debut wearing a safety net; in a hostile environment against players many years older than himself, the Caps had a convincing lead and weren't looking to shred the new kid.

Overall, not a bad first performance. In 17 minutes, Opta recorded him being involved in 34 events, mostly keeping on the right flank. He did contribute a key pass (fourteen passes overall) and did manage to get off a shot in the box in the waning moments of the game. He made the most of his time and could be a very rare promising young player in a year when the team opted to trade away youth for graybeards.

Scoring Threat: Incomplete

Playmaking (Passing/Creativity): Incomplete

Defensive: Incomplete

- Matthew Hoffman

GM's* Evaluation:

As a home grown player who saw minimal minutes this season, it's hard to generate a strong evaluation on him. However, I think he's a keeper for a few reasons. First, he's the type of creative midfielder this team desperately needs. While he is young, I think he can be someone that can really grow into himself on this team and become the "face" of this team. He's got the background of being a local boy that I sense Vergara wants for this organization. And even though we don't have a lot of stats on him as a Chivas first team player, his stats for the youth academy and for the US youth teams demonstrate his abilities. I really like his attitude too - if you follow him on twitter or read interviews with him, he has a strong head on his shoulders and is a hard worker.

- Rachna Kapur

* We realize Rachna isn't the "actual" General Manager, but she's playing one on The Goat Parade.

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