Um...About Beckerman and Rapids Fans....

I think it's fair to say I'm pretty disconnected from fan opinion. I almost never visit Big Soccer, the place where a helluva lot of fans lurk, because 1) I think it's a time-consuming black hole, and 2) people there take the whole "eat, live, breath soccer" thing more far more seriously than I do. Beyond a simple love of the game, soccer for me is an excuse for excessive behavior - e.g. yelling, drinking, and, in my youth, breaking other people's property. In other words, I miss a lot of this kind of chatter and hope I don't speak to that facet of the game very often because I'm not remotely qualified to do so. Hence this:

"Are you reading the same blogs I am? On big soccer, we are ready to lynch our coach over this deal. Beckerman has not always been the best player in the league, but he has come a long way and is now a very solid player. The supporters have a lot invested in him because we watched him grow. He is a terrific person. He was the spirit of the team. So, they trade him for a nobody. After last year, the FO doubled (yes doubled) Kyle's salary. Almost all of the Rapids marketing stuff has Beckerman's picture on it. Now they trade him because he pissed off our terrible coach. If nothing else it was good for some Beckham/Beckerman cross marketing. Now nothing.

A Rapids fan - who will only be identified by name if he so chooses to reveal himself (I'm a stickler for online privacy; I asked for permission to post, but not to name) - wrote that in response to my earlier post on the Beckerman trade. And I appreciate the assist (anyone and all: feel free to do the same in future; communication (usually) makes us smarter). In any case, he wanted the world outside Colorado to know that the trade that sent Kyle Beckerman to Real Salt Lake didn't make all Rapids fans happy.

In fact, judging from the thread on Beckerman trade that linked to me (right around the 18th page into it), the response to this has been overwhelming negative...um, actually, there's talk of canceling season ticket packages being bandied about as early as the 4th page in the thread (which is as far as I've gotten....it's not a bad read)...which is worse than lynching to sales departments; lynching, after all, ends quickly and with less noise (these days, anyway).

I'm still plugging through the thread; it seems a person or two accepts the deal with cautious optimism, but the people who feel burned control the space. Interesting times....

Of Ballouchy, Of Beckerman

MLSUnderground broke the story yesterday (at least for my little corner of the world) and, in spite of the absence of "official word" (whoops, went official while I was typing), the mainsteam media reported on it today (out of Utah, the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune; from Colorado, The Denver Post (sort of; can you spell blurb?) and Rocky Mountain News).

The news: Real Salt Lake (RSL) traded midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy to the Colorado Rapids for Kyle Beckerman. Naturally, it was down to the blogs to tell us what to think about it.

Curiously, the emotions I'm seeing run from curious to happy regardless of the team they support. The Real Salt Lake Offside begins his post with a stirring, "I do not disagree with this trade." Nearly all the papers that posted more than a blurb mentioned Beckerman's stormy past with RSL's fans, so I had expected talk anticipating a tack or two on Beckerman's locker-room seat, but...nope; it's pretty polite. And the only hostility apparent on The Rapids Offside is directed at Beckerman, who Clint figures will make the worst team in MLS (that's RSL; I know; it's close) "become even worse" - go figure.

Naturally, these could be individual fan views and Beckerman, for his past sins, may yet have to endure some kind of fan-directed spanking tunnel (y'know...when a kid has to crawl through the legs of a bunch of other kids who spank him on his way through? no?). Then again, maybe not.

Turning to more neutral venues, USSoccerplayers.com's Ian Plenderleith, dubs this a good move for Real; going the other way, FC Rocky, who makes up for the Rocky Mountain News' disinterest in soccer, seems surprisingly excited about the young Ballouchy's arrival. Given all that, it's hard to say who won. Maybe they both did (though one commenter on MLS Underground's original post viewed this as both teams, essentially standing pat). Ives Galarcep did a fair job of a both glasses half-full approach on his blog; he's also got good stuff in there on both teams' needs, "The Clavijo Situation" (which is sure to depress Rapids fans), and what this means for Freddy Adu.

So after reading all that, and doing a little thinking, here's what I've got: on a player-to-player level, RSL probably did better; put another way, I rate Beckerman's overall game higher than Ballouchy's - though, I also think Ballouchy has a bigger potential upside, with the stress on the word "potential." In terms of needs met now, again, I'd go with RSL: I would love to be proved wrong here because I see hints here and there that Ballouchy can be the kind of player I like watching, but Colorado needs goal-scorers and that Ballouchy ain't that. Beckerman should help RSL with building the standard model MLS team: e.g. one that's hard to beat, which is something RSL can definitely use; in spite of a stretch of draws in May, RSL went back to losing ways thereafter.

Given all that, advantage RSL - even if it's not much of an advantage. The sad thing is, you have to wonder what someone like Ballouchy can do in the right environment - hardly an apt description for Colorado circa 2007. You have to wonder if he'll get a chance.

Colorado Rapids: 2007 Season Preview

You wore green, once....

Past
MLSnet.com: 2006 Season Wrap
MLSnet.com: Big Questions after '06
My Thoughts on Colorado's '06 (Know my biases)

Present
2006-07 Off-Season Changes
Soccer New England's Ins & Outs for most roster changes

Colorado Rapids roster from their official site (what do they have against foreigners? Just look at it; you’ll see what I mean.)

And now, the Future

Key Men
Greg Vanney - The Rapids also picked up Brandon Prideaux and Ugo Ihemelu in the off-season, but one gets the feeling Clavijo picked up Vanney to lead the defense. With Colorado tying for the league’s worst defensive record last season, he’ll have plenty to do.

Kyle Beckerman - With much respect to Pablo Mastroeni, who does many things, good (tenacious) and bad (cards) for this team, Beckerman is the two-way engine for this team; enforcing is important, but Beckerman can make Colorado a better team if he can build on his impressive '06...and, say, ups his assists.

Terry Cooke - Last year’s chief supply line for the Rapids attack (such as it was). He’s got more to work with this time around personnel-wise, so a repeat for Cooke could spell serious trouble for the rest of the West.

Zach Thornton - So, I hear he’s an asshole with the media. I don’t hold that against him, but there’s no question Thornton is plugging a big, big post-Joe Cannon need for the Rapids (seriously; read the season review and “big questions piece above and see who the reporters talked to the most). On the upside, he’ll have very little patience for questions about how he stacks up against Cannon. And I can hardly blame him for that.

Additional Assets
New Ground in the Thin Air - Courtesy of playing a “mile high,” no team has a home-field advantage like Colorado. Add a new stadium to the mix and they could prove a tougher road game still. The idea of feeling pressure to win may render the home stadium advantage inoperable in the near-term, but they’ll have something special down the road.

Stacked D - I mentioned the importance of Vanney leading the defensive line above and, holy crap, will he have a lot of minions: I’ve already mentioned the new additions, but they join Mike Petke as well as up-and-comers like Dan Gargan, Hunter Freeman, Chris Wingert, and, though I don’t see him on the roster, there’s a guy named Daniel Wasson, who seemed to impress the coaches last year. This is a team deep on defense.

Liabilities
The Past - One of the bigger obstacles Colorado will have to overcome is a weird one. It’s true there are teams who have never reached an MLS Cup, but the Rapids one trip in 1997 doesn’t seem to do anything about what can only be called a kind of inferiority complex. I pick up on this as an observer of the league, which wouldn’t be nearly so valid if Cannon didn’t second that perception in the “big questions” column. Whatever it is, it plays a part when it comes to...

Scoring - I had originally plugged both Clint Mathis and Nicolas Hernandez into the “Key Men” space above, but there’s something about Colorado’s scoring record that compelled me to back away. The fact is, this team has struggled to score for as long as I can remember; personnel doesn’t seem to matter. Mathis’ “issues” are well known (and discussed below) and Hernandez seems to have a knack for clutch goals, though he doesn’t score nearly enough of them. Maybe the addition of Herculez Gomez, a pure scoring threat in a previous career, will give everyone else some space to make Colorado the team they can be. But there’s that past to overcome.

Unknowns
Back Four Conundrum - The MLSnet.com ’06 review quotes assistant coach Steve Trittschuh as bemoaning the Rapid’s lack of consistency. As noted above, the Rapids tied for league-worst on defense, giving up - yikes! - 49 goals on the season; that’s 5 more than FC-freakin’-Dallas. In clarifying the problem, Trittschuh pointed to the instability at fullback, as opposed in the middle, where the Rapids tried a variety of players throughout the season. They’ve certainly got the personnel, but what about the right formula?

Clint Mathis - (DISCLOSURE: I’m something like the last unwavering Mathis fan on the planet.) I’ve got grand theories about art and think those apply to Mathis; he possesses talent no other American player has, but seems hampered by a lack of inspiration...which, of course, only builds on the “artist” theme. If he can find the switch in his head, Colorado becomes something big and scary. But “ifs” don’t come bigger than this.

Exotic Arrivals - Yherland McDonald, Roberto Brown: right now, they’re just names occupying space on the big list of MLS players. But who are these guys? I learned what I could through a Google search on each (McDonald and Brown), but that’s not enough to know how they’ll adapt to the league. Could be good, could be bad.

Prospects - Using Gambling Analogies
I don’t talk about it much, but I love craps. Think about Colorado’s 2007 this way: their point is 8 and I’m feeling sufficiently jiggy about their chances that I’m willing to say they’ll not only make their point, but I’m betting a hard eight to boot. They’ll repeat to the conference finals and, if they don’t make the final, they’ll scare the holy shit out of the team that does. I like nearly all their acquisitions and think Clavijo’s confidence in his squad is justified.