I've been hearing it since he was traded to New York, even from some people who have watched Ballouchy! Even after the Brian Mullan trade which was so obviously to replace him, these complaints have come out. I honestly don't understand it. He wasn't the worst player in the MLS, but I'm fairly certain that even if he had the talent that he was supposed to have, it wasn't coming out while he wore Burgundy.
Was he a good playmaking midfielder? People will point to his five assists and say yes. I'll point to the fact that just about the entire season until August the offense was completely anemic. Ballouchy was the starter in the midfield the entire time. This trend of god-awful offense basically continued until the game against Houston in late August where suddenly the Rapids rattled off three. This didn't happen because Mehdi improved, in fact he looked worse than usual. In that and every game that followed where the Rapids had a total of 10 goals, Ballouchy had no goals and no assists. For a play making midfielder, he certainly wasn't sparking a damn thing in the resurgence of the offense.
He wasn't exactly on pace to improve much either this season. In 2009 he had 2 goals and 7 assists at the end of the season. He was at 3 and 5 this season the day he was traded, not exactly a marked improvement. In fact the one extra goal from last season came on a PK of all things. At the rate he was going, a final tally in Colorado of 3 goals and 7 assists sounds about right had he stuck around. For a guy that's supposedly right smack dab in the middle of his prime footballing years that's not the numbers I look for from the guy on your team that makes plays.
Besides, if we're using that argument… Kandji actually got himself an assist of his own today. That's more than Ballouchy did in more games than I care to count for Colorado. Good riddance.
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Matt Pollard 