San Jose Earthquakes' Pablo Campos, left, scores on a penalty kick past Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, of Jamaica, during the first half of an MLS soccer match in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, June 20, 2009. (The Associated Press)

Sandy » He has been with his new team barely a day, so Pablo Campos is still getting accustomed to what his soccer life will be like with Real Salt Lake. But the big striker already has a pretty good feeling about one thing:

"We're definitely going to make the playoffs," he said.

Certainly, the chances seem to have improved now that Campos has arrived in a trade from the San Jose Earthquakes -- if only because he has improved the depth on a team that expects to field less than a full 18-man team for its game at Columbus on Saturday because of a variety of absences.

But team officials are hoping for far more than just that, viewing the native Brazilian as the kind of target forward who can blossom into the dominant force that Kenny Deuchar never became.

Coach Jason Kreis never mentioned by name the Scottish striker whose abysmal touch in front of the goal belied his "Dr. Goals" nickname and doomed his short tenure with RSL, but he made clear that despite the similarities in size -- both are about 6-foot-3 -- Campos has a lot more going for him.

"You see a player with that kind of size, the automatic assumption is that he's a little bit clumsy," Kreis said. "But he is not. He's got a very good touch on the ball. Extremely good passer. Good dribbler. So he's got all the skills -- all the tools -- to be a big, big player in this league."

When, it's hard to say.

Campos

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won't necessarily jump right into the starting lineup, Kreis said, "but he is here to compete for minutes, and we think he's going to be a bright, bright star for this club for a long time." Already, he has scored twice this season, in 14 games for the Earthquakes.

For his part, Campos spent his first day of training with RSL going through some light shooting drills and running post-workout sprints with the coaching staff.

He said has initially surprised at the trade, but acknowledged that things weren't working out in San Jose because of the system the Earthquakes play -- RSL has adopted a 4-3-3 formation that better suits his style -- and said he was ultimately happy to wind up under Kreis, who had been pursuing Campos since playing against him during the 2007 preseason.

"After I sat and thought about it, it was great," Campos said. "I kind of like cooled down a little bit, because I knew it was a great team" that had acquired him.

mcl@sltrib.com