Monday, July 16, 2007

Rival trade

Colorado and Real Salt Lake pulled off a trade Monday as the Rapids sent Kyle Beckerman to Real Salt Lake for Mehdi Ballouchy.

It's a bit surprising because Ballouchy has stated before how he gets up to play the Rapids, RSL's chief rivals. Now, he has to play alongside players he probably didn't care much for while a member of RSL.

It seems that RSL got the better of the deal. Beckerman has blossomed into a solid player and will offer defensive support to Freddy Adu and Andy Williams in the RSL midfield and can also go forward as well. In Ballouchy, Colorado gets a player who is talented and skillful but is still very green but has a higher upside than Beckerman, provided he ever fulfills his potential.

What benefits RSL the most, though, is the ability now to hand the reins over to Adu and let him create and be the team's go-to attacking player. Let him play freely, the way he did with the Under-20s, and RSL will only benefit. RSL might not become a playoff contender overnight if that happens but they'll be way more exciting to watch and will at least put themselves in a position to win.

2 comments:

Jon Geissler said...

I've heard rumors that Beckerman wasn't getting along very well with some of his teammates and his coach. Just something I heard, I'm not saying it's true.

Anonymous said...

LB, is it true Kreis is in Argentina looking for a player?