So I was very happy for Borchers, who became a big part of the Timbers' story this season at age 34. But I also recognize that from inside and outside of RSL's operation, there's considerable lament about a player who got away. Toward the end of the regular season, captain Kyle Beckerman and owner Dell Loy Hansen expressed such thoughts about former RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey's trade of Borchers for allocation money, with Lagerwey (now working in Seattle) having explained that Borchers would have been lost in the expansion draft anyway.
Coincidentally enough, the trade became official almost exactly a year before Borchers won another title, adding to his 2009 championship with RSL.