Early exit for Pope; teen gets in early

It took defender Nik Besagno 11 games to make his first appearance with Real Salt Lake last year, but in Saturday's season opener at Rice- Eccles Stadium, it took him just 61 minutes.

After Eddie Pope went down with a left hip injury early in the second half, Besagno was called into emergency defensive duty, and his coach thought highly of him.

"It's a tough situation for any young player to come into, and I thought he did very well," said Ellinger. "After the first couple of minutes, he got his composure and played better balls."

Besagno entered the game at a right fullback as Ellinger opted to shift Jack Stewart from right fullback into Pope's vacated spot at central defender.

Since the start of training camp, Ellinger has been very pleased with the progress of the 18-year-old Besagno, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 MLS SuperDraft.

As a rookie, he played in just two games, and then last year he was used sparingly again appearing in just four games. This year, however, Besagno's overall improvement has helped him move up the depth chart, and he'll likely be making many more appearances this year.

Ironically enough, had first-year player Chris Lancos been healthy, it probably would've been him who entered the game. Instead, he's still nursing a quad contusion suffered in the BYU-friendly in St. George, and Besago took advantage with an impressive performance.

Pope said he left the game early in the second half after he said he felt his hip pop in and out real quickly. He believes he will be fine, however, after a few days of rest and said he expects to start next Saturday's game against Columbus.

The same goes for Mehdi Ballouchy, who was replaced in the 79th minute Saturday by Kenny Cutler.

Ballouchy's been training throughout the week with a knot in his right calf muscle, and he played through the pain throughout most of the game. In the latter stages against Dallas, however, he was slowing down and believed a healthier player would be more effective.

A BIT IRONIC: During its first two years, Real Salt Lake was too worried about poor attendance to pursue hosting an opening day game because of Utah's unpredictable spring weather. In year three, however, RSL decided to gamble — and it clearly paid off.

While the weather in Salt Lake City was a balmy 69 degrees at kickoff, the weather in Dallas was a crisp 43 degrees. Real might have been stuck playing in that miserable Texas weather had it opted to open on the road again in 2007.