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Sandy • Tony Beltran had zero clue of the milestone he was approaching. Once the Real Salt Lake right back passed it in the 1-0 home win against Colorado last weekend, he still had no idea that in his ninth year in Major League Soccer, the UCLA product had helped secure a shutout in his 200th career appearance at RSL.
The news was relayed in a post-game phone call when Beltran's mother called to congratulate her son on the accomplishment. "A special moment," Beltran called it.
The steady outside back joins esteemed company such as Kyle Beckerman, Nick Rimando, Javier Morales, Nat Borchers and Chris Wingert becoming the sixth player in club history to amass 200 regular-season appearances at RSL.
"I'm very proud of that and, of course, I'm proud of all my games and all my time with the club," Beltran said. "It's so special that I've done it with just one club. It's so rare in this league or any league, so I feel very fortunate in that regard."
RSL's No. 3 pick back in 2008, Beltran has started 187 of his 200 regular-season outings — a starting rate of 94 percent. Since 2012, Beltran has started 122 of a possible 140 regular-season matches, logging nearly 11,000 minutes in the past five seasons. Availability is one of the tenets Beltran prides his game on.
"It's an area where I want to continuously contribute to our team, just because I'm not a flashy player, I'm not a special player, I'm not going to win any games by scoring goals or anything like that," he said. "I want to, at the end of my career, know that I worked as hard as I can and gave everything for my teammates."
RSL general manager Craig Waibel called Beltran's milestone "a remarkable thing."
"I think it's monumental for an organization to be that dedicated to a player and for a player to be that dedicated to the club — especially in MLS, where there's always a ton of movement in the offseason," Waibel said.
Beltran views his 200th appearance as another motivator. As he explains, 300 appearances is the benchmark for any soccer player.
"I want to get there, and I'd love to do that with my one true club," he said.
Notes
MLS referee Allen Chapman was initially scheduled to be in the middle of RSL's home match against Vancouver on Saturday night, but the Utah resident was removed from the match by the Professional Referee Organization on Wednesday afternoon.
Most recently, Chapman was the referee of the Galaxy-Timbers match Sunday in which L.A. midfielder Nigel De Jong committed a severe tackle on Portland's Darlington Nagbe. Chapman showed De Jong, who is expected to be suspended by MLS for the challenge, just a yellow card.
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
RSL vs. Vancouver
P Saturday, 8 p.m.
TV • KMYU