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Sandy • Six hours after stepping off a plane at Salt Lake City International Airport, Kyle Beckerman stepped onto pitch at Rio Tinto Stadium to warm up for Real Salt Lake's crucial late-season showdown against the L.A. Galaxy.
The RSL captain returned to the club's starting lineup after being called into the U.S. men's national team camp for late-summer World Cup qualifiers against St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago. Beckerman started in the 6-0 road victory over St. Vincent on Sept. 2. Four days later, as the U.S. trounced Trinidad & Tobago 4-0 in Jacksonville, Fla., Beckerman stayed on the bench, allowing him to return to Utah Wednesday afternoon and start for RSL.
RSL coach Jeff Cassar said Tuesday that he'd spoken to both Beckerman and U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann about the possibility of Beckerman playing against the Galaxy on Wednesday night. Cassar said he wanted to make sure Beckerman felt up for the start after he returned to Utah after a long trip.
Turns out, the 34-year-old felt fine.
Beckerman didn't miss a match while on national-team duty as RSL had a bye last weekend. In RSL's 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids on Aug. 26, Beckerman became the league's all-time leader in minutes played by a field player with 33,145 minutes and counting.
Glad out, Wingert in
Starter Justen Glad was left out of the game-day roster against the Galaxy on Wednesday due to hamstring tightness he'd been dealing with this week. Glad is expected to be available for RSL's road trip to Portland this weekend. Chris Schuler, who started for Real Monarchs in USL action Saturday, was also left out of the roster due to general soreness.
With Glad and fellow starter Aaron Maund (toe fracture) sidelined, RSL turned to an old-school tandem. Defender Chris Wingert, typically an outside back, shifted into the middle to play alongside veteran Jamison Olave as the center back pairing.
Midfielder Sunday Stephen also returned to the RSL bench after missing the past 12 matches due to multiple facial fractures suffered in an on-field collision on June 22 against the New York Red Bulls.
Sandoval stuck in a saga in Oklahoma
There haven't been many dull moments at Rayo OKC this summer. And RSL striker Devon Sandoval has seen it up close.
The forward in his fourth year at the club is on loan to the NASL club for the remainder of the season, but during his time there, dramatics have swirled around the club.
Less than a month after coach Alen Marcina resigned amid administrative changes at the club, minority owner Sean Jones ordered the removal of 40 of the 92 artificial turf pallets from Rayo OKC's home field two weeks ago. Jones later released a statement saying he chose to partially remove the playing surface due to lack of communication from the club's majority ownership group, Rayo Vallecano in Madrid.
Since being loaned to Rayo OKC on July 12, Sandoval has one goal in five starts and has made eight appearances.
"This is one of those really unfortunate situations where no one could've predicted this," RSL general manager Craig Waibel said. "But trying to rectify it is a really difficult scenario. I've spoken to Devon quite a few times. I'm not sure there's much that anyone can do other than Devon just to keep plugging away and get on the field."
Twitter: @chriskamrani