This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Despite Real Salt Lake's early end to 2015, Kyle Beckerman said he could be found at America First Field in Sandy in a quest to stay fit in case the call came for the U.S. men's national team upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

It did. The 33-year-old captain is still in the mix.

Beckerman was named to Jurgen Klinsmann's 23-man roster Friday morning for a home World Cup qualifier against St. Vincent & The Grenadines at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Nov. 13 and the road against Trinidad & Tobago on Nov. 17 in Port of Spain.

Beckerman is one of 11 players from the 2014 World Cup roster to start the road to Russia. Despite his recent success at the national-team level, he's participated in just two previous WCQ campaigns, appearing in six matches. He made nine appearances for the USMNT in 2015.

The U.S. have been drawn into Group C of the semifinal round for World Cup qualifying, along with St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and Guatemala. RSL defender Elias Vasquez was called in for qualifiers for Guatemala while Jamaican defender Demar Phillips received another nod as well.

Vasquez has 36 career caps with the Guatemalan first team. Philips has 62 caps under his belt for the Reggae Boyz.

Notable inclusions by Klinsmann are Portland midfielder Darlington Nagbe, New York Red Bulls center back Matt Miazga, D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid as well as the likes of Jordan Morris, Bobby Wood, Miguel Ibarra and DeAndre Yedlin.

Nagbe became a U.S. citizen in September. This call-up was his first with the national team at any level. Miazga played with the U-20's during the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament at Rio Tinto Stadium in October.

Seattle striker Clint Dempsey, long the main scoring threat for the U.S., is a notable omission from this WCQ round.

(Q&A on U.S. Soccer website with Klinsmann can be seen here).

U.S. WCQ roster:

» Goalkeepers (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Tim Howard (Everton)

» Defenders (8): Ventura Alvarado (Club America), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC)

» Midfielders (7): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Miguel Ibarra (Club Leon), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland)

» Forwards (5): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Alan Gordon (LA Galaxy), Jordan Morris (Stanford), Bobby Wood (Union Berlin), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)

***

» Nick Rimando, Justen Glad undergo surgery

The Year of the Meniscus continued into the offseason for RSL. After defender Chris Schuler underwent knee surgery to repair a meniscus tear in April, goalkeeper Nick Rimando and defender Justen Glad had successful menisectomies performed by team surgeon, Dr. Andrew Cooper.

Both are expected to be healed and ready for the start of RSL's 2016 training camp in January.

Rimando, 36, picked up the injury while with the USMNT during this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament. It hampered him throughout the following months. In his ninth season at RSL, Rimando had a 8-9-7 record in goal in 2015, including eight shutouts. His two starts in CONCACAF Champions League were shutouts, too, which brought his personal shutout streak to 526 minutes dating back to RSL's last CCL tournament in 2011.

Glad made seven appearances at RSL, six of which were starts. The 18-year-old RSL academy product started one CCL match as well as seven starts for the Real Monarchs.

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani