The Whitecaps made an interesting move today, officially signing central defender Mouloud Akloul to an MLS contract. Akloul has been around the team for quite some time, as he signed with them near the start of last year's Division II season, and he even made a quick impact, scoring in his debut against AC St. Louis. Unfortunately for him, that was the extent of his impact on the team last year, as he fractured his ankle later in that match and was out for most of the rest of the season (he did make one more appearance near the end of the year). Thus, unlike most of the other players coming from the Whitecaps' Division II roster, we haven't seen much of Akloul in the blue and white so far.
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That doesn't mean he's an entirely unproven player, though. Akloul is 28 and has had a varied career so far, playing everywhere from his home country of France to the United Arab Emirates. In his limited Whitecaps action at the Division II level, he was certainly impressive at both ends of the pitch, so we'll see if he's able to translate that to the MLS level.
However, it's notable that the Whitecaps have signed another defender. If you look at their <a href="http://whitecapsfc.com/roster">roster</a>, it's rather heavily stacked towards the back end. Some of that includes players like Wes Knight, Blake Wagner and Kevin Harmse who can also play in midfield, but most of the questions this week centred around how the club would handle injuries and suspensions in midfield and up front, not if they needed another man at the back. Akloul is also the 29th player on the MLS roster, so it looks like the Whitecaps <a href="http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Mind+boggling+making+roster/4273935/story.html">have one spot left</a>. It's going to be interesting to see how they use that.