Which is why the team jettisoned Besagno on Monday, nearly four years after making him the oft-ridiculed first draft pick in franchise history, and signed Olave to a new four-year contract as part of its preparations for the upcoming Major League Soccer expansion draft. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"He didn't come cheap," general manager Garth Lagerwey said. "But he's a very valuable player who definitely helps us."

RSL also left veteran midfielders Andy Williams and Dema Kovalenko unprotected and exposed to the expansion draft Wednesday that will help stock the new Seattle Sounders franchise that begins play in MLS next season. It originally said it planned to leave starting goalkeeper Nick Rimando unprotected, as well, but changed its mind - after the announced deadline, and barely 30 minutes before the league planned to release every team's list - and exposed young midfielder Nathan Sturgis, instead.

The team was allowed to protect only 11 senior players - not counting three who are part of the Generation Adidas program, or its four other "developmental" players - but can lose no more than one of the others to the Sounders.

With the league having eliminated the reserve division and reduced roster sizes from 28 to 24 players for next season, RSL also released midfielder Kenny Cutler and defender Dustin Kirby. Cutler was one of the few remaining original RSL players, but played only 11 games in his career, while Kirby played only briefly in one game.

Coach Jason Kreis knew he was going to risk losing a player he liked "very, very much" in the expansion draft, and the exposure of Rimando would have represented a significant gamble, considering he would have been the most marketable of the unprotected players. Even though the Sounders already have signed veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller, they could have chosen Rimando in order to either trade him elsewhere for a player they wanted, or hold him for ransom from RSL, knowing RSL has only inexperienced Chris Seitz as a backup.

Four others - forwards Clint Mathis and Kenny Deuchar, and defenders Ian Joy and David Horst - were left unprotected, too, and defender Robbie Russell had surgery last week to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his shoulder. But the big news was the definitive roster moves.

Besagno played only 440 minutes in eight games for RSL since it made him the No. 1 pick of the 2005 MLS SuperDraft at the age of 16, and former coach John Ellinger envisioned him developing into a top player. But that never happened, Ellinger was fired, and Besagno spent much of last season on loan to a lower-division team.

Olave, meanwhile, became an imposing presence on the back line during RSL's run to the MLS Western Conference final after joining the team on loan from Deportivo Cali in his native Colombia. Team officials acquired him outright as part of his new contract, the same way they did with star midfielder Javier Morales during the season.

Now, both are under contract through the 2012 season.