SALT LAKE CITY - Real Salt Lake today acquired midfielder Kyle Beckerman in its second deal with the Colorado Rapids in four days, sending Moroccan-born midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy, drafted #2 overall in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, to the Rocky Mountain Cup rivals. Beckerman is expected to join Real Salt Lake Wednesday as the team returns to training after a three-day All-Star break and will be eligible for selection in Saturday's international exhibition vs. English Premier League power Everton FC as part of the XanGo Cup 2007, kicking off at 8:00 p.m. MT at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"The addition of Kyle Beckerman gives us a hard-nosed player with a refuse-to-lose attitude," said Real Salt Lake Technical Director/Director of Soccer Operations John Ellinger. "Kyle's recent performances at Copa America for the U.S. 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."
The 25 year-old Beckerman comes to Salt Lake with 158 MLS games played during both the regular- and post-season, scoring 11 goals and adding 19 assists in his more than 12,000 minutes played since 2000 for the Colorado Rapids and now-defunct Miami Fusion. Since becoming a full-time starter in 2003 for Colorado, Beckerman has played no fewer than 28 games each season, the already eight-year MLS veteran earning a reputation as a destroyer in the middle and one of the fiercest tacklers in America's Division I league. </p>
After graduating from Arundel (MD) High School in May 2000, Beckerman entered the MLS/U.S. Soccer Project-40 program, aimed at giving America's top young players the opportunity to train as professionals at a young age, and was selected by the Fusion in a draft that July. Beckerman scored his first MLS goal in his first start that September against D.C. United, but a broken leg in a Project-40 game limited his 2001 season to a pair of exhibition games against CD Marathon of Honduras. </p>
All three of Beckerman's appearances with the senior U.S. Men's National Team have come in 2007, debuting against Denmark in January before playing the final 11 minutes of the USA's recent 1-3 loss to Paraguay in Copa America and starting and playing the full 90 minutes in the 0-1 loss to Colombia. </p>
Ballouchy departs Real Salt Lake after appearing in all 46 League matches he was available for leading up to the one-game suspension he served during last Saturday's 0-1 loss at the Kansas City Wizards. The 24-year-old Ballouchy notched a pair of goals and assists in his season-and-a-half with RSL, with all those points being tallied during his 2006 rookie campaign. The Santa Clara University product finished his RSL career tied for fourth place on the team's career charts with 46 games played and sixth in team annals with 40 games started. </p>
TRANSACTION: Real Salt Lake acquires MF Kyle Beckerman via trade from Colorado Rapids in exchange for MF Mehdi Ballouchy.
