Real Salt Lake defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 4-0 in a rather colorful affair at home on Wednesday to move forward in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Kyle Beckerman scored twice, while Yura Movsisyan and Andy Williams also added goals to send RSL into the next round of play against Columbus on May 27. Salt Lake has not had a spot in the official Cup tournament since 2006.

Real, clad in green kits to commemorate Earth Day, pressed forward early, challenging San Jose goalkeeper Preston Burpo with several early scoring chances. The Quakes were also dealt a major blow only a few minutes into the match when Ryan Cochrane and Jay Ayres collided in the air and had to be taken off the field with head injuries.

Quakes coach Frank Yallop said, “It shocked us a little; it was a pretty bad collision, to be honest. I was sitting close, it was loud and I think it disturbed a few of our players. We just have to see how they are. I think Jay Ayres is worse off than Ryan Cochrane, but they’re both pretty concussed and in the hospital at the moment, so hopefully they’ll be okay.”

RSL was able to take advantage of the substitutions quickly off a corner kick in the 21st minute, when Beckerman ran onto a loose ball in front of the San Jose goal and slotted it home for the first goal of the match. Just12 minutes later, Beckerman struck again on an unassisted long strike to put Real up 2-0.

Salt Lake’s third goal came just seconds later, when Yura Movsisyan collected a pass from Matias Cordoba and caught the Quakes defense off-guard.

Beckerman said of RSL’s third goal, “I was like ‘Whoa, hey man, we’re about to score again.’ We were just focused and we made sure that after we scored the second one we were right on top of them again and not giving them any breath, so it was good to get a third.”

The weather became a huge factor in the second half, as wind and snow swirled through Rice-Eccles Stadium and made conditions difficult. Match officials had to introduce bright orange balls for visibility, much to the delight of the cheering crowd.

Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis also made a number of substitutions, and play was fairly stagnant for large stretches after halftime. Williams got a long-anticipated fourth goal for the home side, however, in the 90th minute, scoring his third goal in four Open Cup home games on a pass from substitute Tino Nunez.

Kreis was expressed his pleasure at his team’s performance after the match, stating, “They were very up for it, very bright in the first 20 minutes, and also were rewarded at the end of those 20 minutes by capitalizing and getting a goal. We’ve gone through a lot of times this year where we’ve had that mentality and we’ve been bright and done a lot of things in their half and walked away with no goals, so it was nice that they ended up that period with a goal.”

However, RSL is also preparing for its first match of the season with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday, something which Kreis also addressed. “We had a very set idea of how we were going to handle this game and Saturday night’s game compared to each other and, yes, it was a bit of a trial for some of the guys,” he said.

The Galaxy should prove to be a formidable test for a Real defense which gave up four goals last week at DC United. Landon Donovan currently leads the league in scoring, and David Beckham will be an enormous challenge for Salt Lake on the flanks. However, Carlos Ruiz is still out with a knee injury, while midfielder Alvaro Pires is doubtful with his own knee injury.

Meanwhile, RSL has a number of injury questions going into the match. Nathan Sturgis is out with the hamstring he suffered last weekend, while his replacement, Carey Talley, has been struggling with a knee problem. Striker Fabian Espindola’s hamstring injury has not yet fully healed, but defender Ian Joy is likely to play through his ankle injury.

Saturday’s match will take place at 7 pm Mountain Time at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Scoring Summary:
RSL — Kyle Beckerman 1 (Matias Mantilla 1) 21
RSL — Kyle Beckerman 2 (Andy Williams 1) 33
RSL — Yura Movsisyan 1 (Matias Cordoba 1) 33
RSL — Andy Williams 1 (Tino Nunez 1) 90

Real Salt Lake — Chris Seitz; Tony Beltran, Jamison Olave, Matias Mantilla, Chris Wingert (Dustin Kirby 64); Andy Williams, Matias Cordoba (Javier Morales 58), Kenny Cutler, Kyle Beckerman (Captain) (Dema Kovalenko 45); Yura Movsisyan (Tino Nunez 75), Robbie Findley

Substitutes Not Used: Kyle Reynish, Kenny Duechar, David Horst

San Jose Earthquakes — Preston Burpo; Adam Smarte, Ryan Cochrane (James Riley 14), Jay Ayres (Jason Hernandez 15), Eric Denton; Shea Salinas, Ramiro Corrales (Captain) (Ivan Guerrero 45), Joe Vide, Ryan Johnson; John Cunliffe, Peguero Jean Philippe (Ned Grabavoy 63).

Substitutes Not Used: Joe Cannon, Kei Kamara

Misconduct Summary
SJ — Eric Denton (caution; Professional Foul) 43

SJ — Peguero Jean Philippe (caution; Diving, Exaggeration) 62

Referee: Yader Reyes
Referee’s Assistants: Tyler Ploeger, Feliciano Palomino
4th official: Alex Krelo
Time of game: 1:53
Attendance: 10,761
Weather: Cloudy/Snow Showers and 46 degrees