Just a day after it was made known that RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman would be on the U.S. National Team roster for upcoming World Cup qualifiers, RSL forward Robbie Findley was named to the team on Thursday.

Findley and Beckerman are part of the 24-man roster that will play against El Salvador on Sept. 5 at Rio Tinto Stadium and then travel to play at Trinidad & Tobago three days later. Findley came on as a second-half sub and scored twice in RSL’s 4-0 win over Chivas USA on Wednesday. This is the first appearance for Findley and Beckerman on a World Cup qualifier roster.

SANDY — With its coach calling for better effort, Real Salt Lake answered.

RSL earned three very important points on Wednesday night by beating Chivas USA 4-0, keeping its playoff hopes alive.

“It was a big win, but I don’t know if it was a relief because Saturday night is another match and we don’t have time to dwell on this one,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. “We need to move forward and figure out a way to get points on the road.”

RSL (8-9-6), which plays on Saturday at Kansas City, was in desperate need of points and got them after the game-winning goal came from an unfamiliar source. One of RSL’s newest acquisitions, Pablo Campos made a gigantic impact in his first start with the club. The 6-foot-4 forward headed in his first goal with the club in the 43rd minute off a well-timed cross from Fabian Espindola to give the team a lead it wouldn’t let slip away.

The goal came just before the end of the first half, and gave the home team momentum heading into the locker room.

“It was a really timely goal for us because we had been the better team in the first half,” Kreis said. “It’s another one of those occasions where if you don’t get the goal – don’t reward yourself for all the hard work – then the pressure starts to mount and it becomes more difficult to get that goal in the second half.”

Espindola doubled the lead with a goal in the 75th minute and second-half substitute Robbie Findley added goals in the 85th and 89th minute.

Campos, who was subbed out of the game in the 67th minute for Findley, had played in five games this season for RSL after being traded from San Jose on July 15. During his time with the Earthquakes, Campos made 14 appearances, starting nine games, and scored two goals. Campos had only played 97 minutes – split between five games – for RSL prior to Wednesday. Kreis said the team expected a transition period before Campos would be ready to start, and that time ended before Wednesday’s match.

“I was told at the beginning that it would take me a while before I got in the rhythm and got to know the players and they got to know me,” Campos said. “Now I think we’re getting there.”

Chivas USA (10-8-3) never really threatened to score. Of Chivas’ two shots on goal, only one required a difficult save from RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who recorded his seventh clean sheet of the season. Rimando made a diving save on Jesus Padilla’s shot in the 23rd minute, deflecting it out of bounds at the last moment.

RSL now has 30 points, and is in a four-way tie for the final two playoff spots. With seven games left in the regular season, four of which will come away from Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL can’t afford to have any letdowns.

That happened during Sunday’s 3-1 loss at New England, which is why Kreis called out his players and asked for a better effort in Wednesday’s match. According to the coach, his players passed with flying colors.

“As I’ve said many, many times to them and other people, when they put in the effort, when they put in the commitment we get points,” Kreis said.

Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman has been named to the U.S. National Team roster that will take on El Salvador on Sept. 5 at Rio Tinto Stadium in a World Cup qualifier. Three days later the U.S. will play at Trinidad & Tobago. Beckerman will not miss any games with RSL since the team will be on its bye week then.

Beckerman appeared in all six Gold Cup games this summer for the U.S., starting five games and scoring the equalizer in the critical come-from-behind win over Panama.

The entire roster will be announced on Thursday.

Real Salt Lake isn’t out of the playoff picture yet, but a loss or tie tonight would be a big blow to its postseason hopes.

RSL (7-9-6) takes on Chivas USA in Real’s second game in four days and is in desperate need of points prior to Saturday’s game at Kansas City.

The team entered this stretch with high hopes of earning important points, but a major setback came with Sunday’s 3-1 loss on the road against the New England Revolution.

“It’s going to be a tough seven days, and this isn’t the way you like to start it,” said RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman. “We’ve just got to put it past us. We put ourselves in the situation we’re in. We’re still in it — we have a chance to still get into the playoffs. There are games left, so luckily we have a game to forget about this one as quickly as possible.”

But things won’t get any easier. Following tonight’s match against Chivas (10-7-3), RSL will play four of its final seven games on the road and four of those seven matches will be against teams with more points than RSL. Road points are more difficult to come by and it will take a better effort from RSL, which has only won one of its last four games, to start earning three points per game.

“I think we’ll need to take a good hard look at who’s going to be on the field,” said RSL coach Jason Kreis, who was not happy with the team’s effort in the loss at New England. “We can’t go with guys who don’t show the effort.”

One player who is listed as doubtful for tonight’s game is midfielder Javier Morales, who suffered a groin injury against the Revs. Veteran Andy Williams entered the game for Morales and will likely be called on again tonight if Morales can’t play.

“Any time you lose him it’s going to be a big impact,” Beckerman said of Morales. “It was tough, but I think Andy (Williams) came on and tried to fill that spot as best he could, and I thought he did well.”

Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando made a heads-up play and found forward Robbie Findley with a blast of a goal kick to set up the lone goal in RSL’s 1-0 win over Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday. Rimando quickly took a goal kick in the 62nd minute and sailed it over an unsuspecting Seattle defense. Findley ran to meet the ball and shot it past Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Following the game when I asked RSL head coach Jason Kreis if that was something the team has worked on in training, he just tried to keep a straight face while being a bit sarcastic.

“Yeah, we work on that a lot where he kicks it 50 yards over the top,” Kreis joked. “No, not at all. Nick is extremely good with his feet and can pick people out from very far away.”

Check out Sunday’s Standard-Examiner for more on the game.

Real Salt Lake’s newest addition Richard El Khalifi, who signed with the team earlier this week, will not accompany the team to Chicago for Saturday’s game against the Fire. Coming in during the middle of his offseason, the Dutch forward is not match fit.

“We’re kind of handling him as if he’s in a mini-preseason and he’s been asked to do quite a bit more than the rest of the group,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis said following Friday’s training session. “He’s had some double-days and that will continue over the weekend. It’s important to get him altitude-adjusted as well and in order to accomplish all these things we thought it best to leave him here.”

If ever there was a soccer game that non-soccer fans should have witnessed to see how exciting the “Beautiful Game” can be, this was it.

Real Salt Lake scored four goals in the second half after trailing by two goals at halftime to beat FC Dallas 4-2 on Friday night.

After a pretty ugly first half for RSL, things quickly changed in the second half when Yura Movsisyan, who entered the game at halftime, scored in the 55^th minute.

Then Robbie Findley earned a penalty kick and scored in the 62^nd minute to tie the score at 2.

Then former RSL forward Jeff Cunningham had a chance to not only give FC Dallas the lead in the 71^st minute with a penalty kick, but pass RSL head coach Jason Kreis on the MLS all-time goal-scoring list. Cunningham scored in the 13^th minute to give FC Dallas a 1-0 lead and tie Kreis with 108 career goals, which is good enough for third on the list.

However RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando saved the penalty kick, and kept the game even and Cunningham tied with Kreis, who nearly leaped out of his shoes celebrating the save on the sideline.

“That was in the back of my mind,” Rimando said. “He scored one but I couldn’t let him get two tonight.”

Then Kreis was throw out of the game two minutes later after continuing to have heated words at the fourth official over the controversial handball on RSL defender Chris Wingert that resulted in the penalty kick.

Kreis missed the exciting finish.

“Somebody told me we won,” joked Kreis during his postgame press conference. “Is that true?”

Yep, that’s true.

RSL forward Fabian Espindola’s cross in the 88^th minute bounced off the back of FC Dallas defender Daniel Torres, who also spent time with RSL, into the goal. That gave RSL a 3-2 lead.

Movsisyan sealed the win with his second goal of the game in stoppage time.

To celebrate Pioneer Day, there were fireworks after the game. Not that the crowd of 18,822 needed any more excitement.

No Becks at the All-Star Game?

Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear, who will coach the MLS All-Star team on July 29 against Everton FC at Rio Tinto Stadium, named the final six players to the All-Star team and Los Angeles’ David Beckham was not one of them.

Kinnear and his staff added goalkeeper Pat Onstad (Houston),  defender Jhon Kennedy (Seattle), midfielders Brad Davis (Houston) and Davy Arnaud (Kansas City) and forwards Brian Ching (Houston) and Fredy Montero (Seattle).

The Final 18-player MLS roster includes five members of the Houston Dynamo, four from Seattle Sounders FC, two from the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake and one player from the Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy and New England Revolution.

Kinnear and his staff will select the starters based on player availability and tactical considerations. The inactive, or alternate All-Star roster, will be announced at a later date

Andy Williams won’t be with Real Salt Lake today for its road game against the Columbus Crew, but thanks to Williams’ longest RSL teammate, the only player to have been with the club for all of its existence will be represented.

Clint Mathis, who was an RSL original with Williams in 2005 but left after that season and returned in 2008, has received permission to wear Williams’ No. 77 in tonight’s game and for as long as Williams is away from the team.

Williams left Salt Lake City last week to be near his wife, Marcia, who is recovering in Seattle following a bone marrow transplant. Marcia, who was diagnosed with leukemia, was readmitted to the hospital due to complications during her recovery and Williams immediately left to be at her side.

Mathis wore No. 77 in RSL’s international friendly against Club America last Saturday, and wants to continue the tribute as long as necessary.

“Me and Andy’s been friends for a long time,” Mathis said. “I’m just trying to keep him around as much as possible.”

RSL (5-6-5) will be plenty shorthanded tonight and might not even have a full 18 players at its disposal. With three players — Kyle Beckerman (USA), Will Johnson (Canada) and Jean Alexandre (Haiti) — still away for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, plus Fabian Espindola suspended and other players such as Robbie Findley who are recovering from injuries, RSL will not have a full bench.

RSL traded for forward Pablo Campos on Wednesday, which will definitely help the team’s depth. RSL  coach Jason Kreis said Campos isn’t likely to be in the starting lineup, but will probably get some minutes on the field.

Kreis also said that all the extra news surrounding the team may be having a positive effect, which was evident in its 1-0 win over Club America.

“I think all those disturbances that could cause teams to look this way or that way have caused us to come together,” Kreis said.

That’s one of the reasons why RSL is feeling good about itself. Another is its five-game unbeaten streak and the fact that it picked up four points — and was just a few minutes from earning all six possible points — in its last two road games. Real beat the Los Angeles Galaxy and then gave up a late equalizer at Houston before coming home and beating Toronto and then tying San Jose.

“I think we’re a confident squad right now and a squad that is together,” Kreis said.

The Crew (5-3-9) is unbeaten at home, winning four games and tying four this season at Crew Stadium, and may have some revenge on its mind from its trip to Rio Tinto Stadium earlier in the season.

“It’s going to be a different game than the first one (this season) here that ended 4-1 in our favor,” Mathis said. “Columbus is hard to play at. They’re the defending champs and they know how to win at home.”

The following is a letter from former RSL defender Ian Joy, who recently left the team to return to Europe. Joy entered his second season with RSL this year, but was injured not only most of this season but last season as well.