Add Mehdi Ballouchy to the list of Jason Kreis castoffs.
On Monday, the Moroccan-born midfielder became the latest player kicked off Kreis' soccer island as Real Salt Lake continued its roster overhaul by dealing Ballouchy to rival Colorado in exchange for dread-locked midfielder Kyle Beckerman. The deal was still pending league approval as of Monday evening, but team officials expected the deal to be finalized soon.
It's Kreis' third major trade since taking over as head coach in early May. The first involved trading Jeff Cunningham to Toronto in exchange for Alecko Eskandarian, while the second involved dealing Chris Klein to the Galaxy for youngsters Robbie Findley and Nathan Sturgis.
Monday's trade was simply a matter of two struggling clubs swapping midfielders.
Both in their mid 20s, Ballouchy is a very skilled offensive-minded player, but one who's struggled throughout the 2007 season as he's failed to record a goal or an assist 15 games into the season. Beckerman, meanwhile, is a defensive-minded player who absolutely hates losing and would probably take out his grandma in stoppage time if it improved his team's chances of hanging on for a victory.
Playing primarily holding midfield for Colorado this year, Beckerman has tallied one goal and two assists, and he's coming off a 2006 campaign in which he enjoyed a career year with seven goals. His overall play as of late impressed U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley enough to invite him to participate in the recently competed Copa America tournament in South America.
"The addition of Kyle Beckerman gives us a hard-nosed player with a refuse-to-lose attitude," said RSL technical director John Ellinger. "Kyle's recent performances at Copa America for the United States demonstrated his two-way abilities on both the defensive and attacking sides of the ball, and we are excited to utilize not only his ball-winning abilities in the middle, but someone who is comfortable going forward."
Beckerman, 25, also played for former RSL coach Ellinger with the Under-17 U.S. National Team. He started all six games of the 1999 U-17 World Championship in New Zealand, leading the U.S. to its first semifinal appearance in tournament history.
The seven-year MLS veteran was drafted by Miami in 2000, but was eventually picked up by Colorado in 2002 after the Miami franchise folded. With the Rapids, he's evolved as one of the league's top defensive midfielders.
It might take RSL fans a while to warm up to the former Colorado villain. Beckerman plays a very physical style of soccer, and he's someone opposing fans quickly develop a loathing for. With the increased intensity of the Real-Colorado rivalry as of late, he and former Rapid teammate Pablo Mastroeni became public enemy No. 1 and 2 in Salt Lake City.
After a Colorado 2-0 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium earlier this year, several RSL players expressed their displeasure at the Rapids' excessive post-game celebration, for which Beckerman replied, "If they don't want us to celebrate, win the game."
Now it's Beckerman who'll be responsible for helping RSL turn things around.
Acquiring Beckerman does give RSL an excessive amount of holding midfielders. Carey Talley was the team's primary holding mid since last season before suffering a leg stress fracture several months ago. Atiba Harris flourished at that position in Talley's absence. Sturgis is another player who's primary position is in the midfield, but he's still yet to train with RSL because he's been participating in the U-20 World Cup the past month.
With the quartet now all together, expect Kreis to juggle his line-up to accommodate as many of the four as possible.
While Beckerman might be a little disappointed about being dealt from the Western Conference's fourth-place team to the last-place team, it's hard to imagine Ballouchy being disappointed about the trade. His wife lives in Denver.
Following the trade, of the 28 players on RSL's active roster, only 20 of them were with the team on opening day.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com