Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando is a keeper

Acquiring Kyle Beckerman for Mehdi Ballouchy has long been regarded as highway robbery and easily the best trade in Real Salt Lake's brief history.

Nick Rimando has all but changed that notion.

Nothing was cut and dry about Rimando's arrival in 2007, but when it was all said and done, the veteran goalkeeper only cost RSL a fourth-round draft pick that became Matt Hatzke — a nobody who has since retired.

Rimando, meanwhile, is far from hanging up his cleats. At age 31, he recently won his 101st career game; he led RSL to last year's MLS Cup with some superior penalty-kick saves, and he's in the midst of a five-game shutout streak heading into tonight's 6:30 p.m. match at FC Dallas.

With Rimando enjoying arguably his best season ever, his team is unbeaten in its last 10 games and gaining ground on the West-leading L.A. Galaxy. And to think, RSL got him for table scraps — twice.

Rimando's journey to Real Salt Lake is one of the more bizarre tales in team history, one that Scott Garlick, Chris Seitz and Bruce Arena all played a major part in, for better or worse.

Rimando is thrilled with how things played out.

"I want this to be my home; this is my team," Rimando said. "We've built this from the ground up, when you talk about the stadium, the players and the front office. I like it here."

"Here" easily could have been D.C. United or New York if those franchises handled things differently at the end of the 2006 season. Instead, in a complicated sequence of events, both traded Rimando to Real Salt Lake within three months of each other, and they've paid for their decisions by playing musical chairs with their 'keepers ever since.

D.C. United has started eight different 'keepers since 2007, and New York has started five. Rimando, meanwhile, has been a rock, starting all but seven matches for RSL the past four seasons.

"One thing that's never changed is how good he's been with his feet out of the back. To be such a possession-oriented team, it's very, very nice to have a goalkeeper that's really calm on the ball and helps you keep possession. He's kind of our extra attacker back there at times," said RSL coach Jason Kreis.

The sequence of events that led Rimando to Salt Lake began early in 2006.

Nagging injuries kept Rimando out of D.C.'s lineup early in 2006, and back-up keeper Troy Perkins capitalized. He flourished in a scintillating start to the season and maintained the job when Rimando returned healthy.

With Perkins' rise to stardom, D.C. United deemed Rimando expendable and shipped him to Real Salt Lake in December 2006 as part of the Freddy Adu trade.

Rimando was more of an afterthought in the deal, especially with Garlick, the incumbent 'keeper, coming off a respectable season.