SANDY — Kyle Beckerman was back at it again Saturday.
Despite being dubbed "50-50" by coach Jason Kreis because of a sore hamstring, Real Salt Lake’s captain remained in the starting lineup against the Houston Dynamo.
Between his appearances with RSL, the U.S. national team and the MLS All-Star game, Saturday’s match was Beckerman’s 10th in the past 37 days — a staggering amount of wear and tear.
He said he’s trying to take it all in stride.
“I have no idea what day it is or what month we’re in. We just keep on going. They tell me what time the game is and I show up,” said Beckerman. “I just don’t really think about it. I just keep on trucking, keep taking care of my body and ready to go. We know the summer is when we play a lot of soccer.”
Beckerman started all 10 of those matches. Including Saturday’s win, Beckerman’s teams have gone 8-1-1 during that stretch — with the lone loss coming in the MLS All-Star game. The U.S. national team was 6-0 with Beckerman as a starter.
Kreis hopes to be creative in getting Beckerman some rest in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to attempt to get him that rest through training this week. That’s going to be my answer to that, because I think he’s too important to be resting in a match,” said Kreis.
LONG TIME COMING: When Real Salt Lake was awarded a penalty kick in the first half Saturday, you can bet Kreis was thinking, "It’s about time."
The penalty kick was the first for RSL against Houston since Kreis himself buried a penalty kick at Houston in June 2006.
Since Kreis’ conversion more than seven years ago, Houston had been awarded five PKs against Real Salt Lake over a six-year stretch, including two in the same game in 2010 and two in the same game in 2012.
All six penalty kicks in the rivalry had been called in Houston prior to Saturday.
DOMINATING DUO: Chris Wingert and Tony Beltran’s importance to RSL has never been in question — the record speaks for itself.
With Saturday’s win over Houston, Real Salt Lake improved to 10-0-1 when the two are in the starting lineup together.
Kreis said there’s many different reasons why.
“Just the little things they do, the yard here or there to put themselves in the right spot to take out something that might be dangerous, intercepting passes before they get behind our back four,” said Kreis.
After suspensions for each in the past month, and then international duty for Beltran, Kreis said he’s hoping for more lineup stability in the coming months, which would be great news for RSL.
Deseret News prep editor and Real Salt Lake beat writer.