Johnson named to All-Star team; Kreis shown red card

SANDY — Will Johnson got an exciting phone call Friday afternoon from MLS headquarters.

With New England's Shalrie Joseph unable to participate in this Wednesday's MLS All-Star Game at Rio Tinto Stadium, All-Star coach Dominic Kinnear decided to replace him on the 18-man roster with the Real Salt Lake midfielder.

He joins RSL teammates Javier Morales and Kyle Beckerman for the match against Everton FC.

"The kind of work that I do for this team a lot of times doesn't get recognized by a lot of people, but I don't think it's undeserved and I couldn't be more excited," said Johnson.

Johnson's coach believes it's deserved as well.

"Very, very pleased. I was a hard worker as a player, and I expect my players to work extremely hard and I don't think there's anyone on our team who works harder than Will Johnson," RSL coach Jason Kreis.

HOPPING MAD: Kreis vehemently disagreed with referee Ricardo Salazar's decision to award FC Dallas a penalty kick in the 71st minute. Before and after the penalty kick he spewed an expletive-laced tirade in the direction of fourth official Tyler Ploeger, later admitting that he perhaps went a bit far.

"I got a little ridiculous there," said Kreis.

The RSL coach said he wasn't intentionally trying to get himself ejected, but he knew it was probably coming which it ultimately did in the 73rd minute when he was red carded.

Ironically enough, the ref originally showed the red card to Clint Mathis. Salazar corrected the mistake a minute later after realizing he misunderstood which person Ploeger said had been verbally abusive.

Kreis was forced to watch the remainder of the match from the locker room, which wasn't all bad considering the team scored twice in the final 17 minutes.

It was Kreis' second red card as Real Salt Lake's head coach, and he's also been suspended for three additional games for critical comments about officiating.

NOT LOOKING GOOD: Robbie Russell is scheduled to have an MRI on his injured left hip on Monday. Russell injured himself on a sliding challenge in the fifth minute Friday, and after trying to play through the pain was eventually replaced in the 10th minute by Tony Beltran.

Asked to provide a quick update after the match, Kreis said, "I think it's bad."

It seems unlikely that Russell will be available for RSL's next match at Chicago on Aug. 1.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com