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Sandy • Kyle Beckerman could go on and on when it comes to Will Johnson. The Real Salt Lake captain did earlier this week when describing his longtime midfield mate and keeper of the Portland Timbers' armband.
Johnson, who suffered a horrific leg break last September, underwent a follow-up surgery on Oct. 1 to have two screws removed from his right tibia. The 28-year-old is out indefinitely.
Johnson was traded to Portland by RSL on Dec. 3, 2012, in exchange for allocation money.
"Will gives them the bite," Beckerman said. "He's super competitive, so he's one of those guys that you want on your team. He makes sure that everybody's on that same page. He's so competitive and he kind of puts it on people [to follow]."
After playing in at least 25 games in every season since 2009, Johnson only played in 12 in 2015 in his return from injury.
For five seasons, Johnson's versatile role in the RSL midfield backed the likes of Beckerman, Ned Grabavoy and Javier Morales. While Portland utilized a similar player in its starting lineup Wednesday in Diego Chara, Morales said Johnson would be a loss for the Timbers.
"The most important thing is Will's personality in the midfield," Morales said.
Beckerman, Rimando back in the XI
RSL icons Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando returned to the club on Sunday a day after the U.S. men's national team lost to Mexico 3-2 in the CONCACAF Cup in Pasadena, Calif. Beckerman started the match and played the full 120 minutes in the Southern California heat.
Four days later, he was in the RSL starting lineup against Portland. Rimando, too.
"They know how to manage the game," RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. "There's going to be times where we're going to need to speed it up, there's times when times when we need to slow it down and they recognize those times."
Allen gets nod in defense
With Demar Phillips out due to yellow card accumulation and Abdoulie Mansally on his way back from national team duty, RSL faced a shortage of outside backs against the Timbers. Not surprisingly, Cassar tabbed Jordan Allen to return to the right back spot, moving incumbent Tony Beltran to the left.
Wednesday was Allen's 10th start of 2015. The 20-year-old has started as a forward, midfielder and defender this season for RSL.
Twitter: @chriskamrani