Real Salt Lake: Johnson making impact in middle

Finding a silver lining about a seven-game winless streak isn't easy, but Will Johnson's emergence in his new position might be one of the best things to happen to Real Salt Lake this season.

Johnson played the game of his life Saturday night against the Los Angeles Galaxy, occupying one of two holding midfield roles in RSL's 4-3-3 formation. His dominant evening enabled the attacking players in front of him to do their thing, and the result was the team's first road win of the season.

"Honestly I feel like that's the best soccer game I've ever played. Which is great, I love playing in there. I love getting on the ball, guys love finding me with the ball they're confident with it," said Johnson.

As well as he did with the ball at his feet, Johnson was even better we he didn't have the ball. He was a ball-winning force in his defensive midfield role going in hard on every tackle, no matter the player. He meant business and proved it in the opening minutes when he put a crunching tackle on L.A. midfield enforcer Dema Kovalenko.

"He was everywhere tonight; he came up with some really big tackles that we needed early to set tone of the game," said Clint Mathis. "He kept the ball really well made some good decisions, some good passes. You can't give him enough credit what he did tonight with his work ethic, he was all over the place."

Johnson, the lone RSL player to play every minute this year, has lined up almost exclusively as an outside midfielder since joining the team last summer. That's never prevented him from roaming around the midfield, but inevitably his responsibilities forced him back to the wings.

Johnson seemed to thrive on never leaving the middle against the Galaxy.

"I'll play wherever Jason wants me to play, but that seems like a good fit to me," said Johnson, who made his debut in the week before against Colorado with Kyle Beckerman's suspension.

Against the Galaxy, Beckerman shared the defensive midfield duties with Johnson.

"He does real well, he covers a ton of ground. He's a constant work horse, and it's great when you have that in the middle," said Beckerman. "Mix it with myself and we can cover a lot of ground. Tonight it worked out and we've got to build on that."

Performances like what Johnson turned in over the weekend virtually guarantees he'll get the call up to the Canadian National Team for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup that runs from July 3-23.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com