So far they have participated in the Gipuzkoan team of First division 23 of the 24 players that make up the squad in the second round of the championship, two of whom were incorporated on loan in the winter transfer market, and precisely one of them is Rafa Soares. The Vitoria de Guimaraes has loaned it for 18 months, until June 30, 2021, and after Eibar will have a purchase option.
The Portuguese left-back defender arrived at the Eibarresa entity on January 31, the last day that players could join. Since then, Eibar have played 6 league games, in which the Barça coach, José Luis Mendilibar, has not entered the plans, who, on the other hand, has had the other signing, Sebastián Cristóforo.
The Portuguese player has been ruled out by the coach in 5 of the 6 games in which he could have acted. Only once has he been summoned. He entered a list of 18 cited for the duel against Real Sociedad (1-2) in Ipurua on Tuesday, March 10, which has gone down in history as the first game played behind closed doors in Spain by COVID-19. He was a substitute and did not get to play in a game without an audience, reason why their spirits from the bench and those of their companions, were the only ones that the Barça soccer players heard.
Perhaps he could have debuted three days later, but he couldn't because the championship was halted by the coronavirus. And it was that the Real Madrid-Eibar duel was scheduled at the Santiago Bernabéu, on Friday March 13 (9:00 p.m.). It was the third match for the Catalans in 7 days, since Eibar-Mallorca (1-2) took place in Ipurua on Saturday, March 7; reason why Mendilibar would have made changes in the starting eleven to distribute efforts before the saturation of meetings.
Rafa Soares was signed to shore up the position of left-back defense, who in the first round was a little 'lame' in the Eibarrés team, since there was only one specific footballer, José Ángel 'Cote' Valdés, who suffered several muscle injuries that prevented him from acting or was reduced by such mishaps.
But José Ángel 'Cote' has been acting without missing a commitment since the Eibar-Granada duel (3-0) in Ipurua on December 20, the last meeting of the past 2019 for the azulgranas. The Asturian has completed the 90 minutes of the last 10 league games for the Eibar team, making it impossible for Rafa Soares to debut.
Furthermore, the situation had changed in the past two months. And it is that in the first round there were many injured Eibar defenders (Iván Ramis, Anaitz Arbilla, José Ángel 'Cote', Esteban Burgos), and even Sergio Álvarez, who sometimes with Mendilibar acts in the center of the field as a pivot or as a central defender. This caused the coach to have to summon players from the subsidiary, CD Vitoria, from the Third Division on numerous occasions. On the other hand, since Rafa Soares arrived in February and March, there have been fewer troops in the 'dry dock', which has led to the fact that in most cases it has been ruled out by the coach.
Second experience outside Portugal
Luís Rafael Soares Alves (Marco de Canaveses, 1995) is living his second experience outside of Portugal, where he has spent most of his career.
He was trained in the Porto youth academy, in whose team B he played between 2013 and 2016. Without making his debut in the first team of Porto, he was loaned to two teams from the Portuguese first division; in January 2016 to Académica Coimbra (2015-2016), and then to Río Ave (2016-2017). Later, he was loaned to Fulham (2017-2018) of the English second division, although after the transfer was canceled -he barely played- to the London club on January 31, 2018, he returned transferred to a Portuguese club, Portimonense (2017-2018) ).
In the 2018-2019 season he signed for Vitoria Guimaraes and played 27 games, all of them as a starter. In the current campaign (2019-2020) he was ranked in 10 league games, one in the cup, and five in the Europa League (one of them against Arsenal). He has acted both in the lateral defense position and in a more offensive position, on the far left.
Rafa Soares, 24, has been international in the lower categories of Portugal (sub'17, sub'19, sub'20 and sub'21).
Dmitrovic, the one who has played the most
Serbian goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic is the Eibar player who has played the most minutes (2,340) until the 27th day of the league, intervening in 26 games. Only one match has been lost, in which Yoel Rodríguez participated, who has only played 90 minutes.
Orellana (2,080 minutes), José Ángel 'Cote' (1,836), Arbilla (1,729), Pape Diop (1,650), Paulo Oliveira (1,590), Edu Expósito (1,582), Inui (1,475), Pedro León (1,460), Sergi Enrich (1,449) and Escalante (1,406) are, in addition to Dmitrovic, the 11 footballers most used by Mendilibar in the league competition.