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Life has been coming at Real Salt Lake's Ryan Johnson pretty fast in the three months since he left college, and it isn't slowing down any time soon.

The 21-year-old rookie will make his first professional start for RSL when it opens an important stretch of home games against the defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, replacing fellow midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy, the No. 2 pick of the Major League Soccer draft.

"This is what I work for every day in practice," Johnson said. "I'm glad I'm finally getting my shot, and hopefully I can prove myself."

In many ways, he already has.

While Ballouchy has strained to perform his best in four winless games at the left midfield spot, which isn't his natural position - especially in the team's new 3-5-2 formation - Johnson has impressed coaches with his strength on the ground and ability in the air.

Not only that, but the team's third-round draft pick out of Oregon State is a natural left-side player who recently made his first international appearance with the Jamaican national team in a 1-1 draw against the United States. Johnson was born in Jamaica, but grew up mostly in the Boston area.

"R.J. just has been training pretty good," coach John Ellinger said. "So we're going to give him a shot at it."

RSL had been using the heralded Ballouchy on the outside in an effort to acclimate him to the pro game without the pressure of trying to orchestrate the play-making from his natural position in the middle. Plus, it knew it would have to accommodate the return of all-time leading scorer Jason Kreis from a knee injury to his spot as an attacking midfielder.

Ellinger said Ballouchy has played well, considering he's a 22-year-old rookie who has been learning a new position.

But when the coach switched from a 4-4-2 formation to a 3-5-2 to accommodate Kreis' return to the starting lineup at Houston last weekend, Ballouchy found it even harder to get used to the outside.

"In the 4-4-2, I can play there fine," he said. "But in a 3-5-2, it seems like it's almost like a left-back position and that's not my natural position. It was kind of hard for me that last game to do it."

It showed.

RSL played a listless first half against the Dynamo, and Ballouchy was replaced at halftime of the eventual 2-1 loss, after going to the bench earlier and earlier in the second half of the team's first three games.

Still, the team isn't giving up on him.

The native Moroccan has been working as a central midfielder with the second team in practice this week, and Ellinger said he's the most likely candidate to replace starter Douglas Sequeira when Sequeira leaves RSL next month to join his Costa Rican national team for the World Cup in Germany.

"We still have high hopes for Mehdi," Ellinger said.

Ballouchy does, too.

"Since preseason, I've been playing on the outside," he said. "And actually yesterday was the first day I played in the [central] midfield, and I was like, 'Wow. This is, like, this is me again.' I'm taking the ball, I'm on the ball a lot. I touch the ball a lot and I like to be around it. . . . Hopefully it's going to work out better than what it was."

Galaxy

at RSL

SATURDAY,

2 p.m., ESPN2

Ryan Johnson

Forward/Midfielder

Height: 6-foot-1

Weight: 180 pounds

A third-round draft choice, the 21-year-old rookie was a four-time All-Pacific 10 Conference selection during his college career at Oregon State. . . . Born in Jamaica, he lived there until he was about 2 years old, then grew up mostly in the Boston area. . . . He has played 42 minutes in three games off the bench for RSL, and recently made his international debut for Jamaica against the United States.