Traded from Kansas City to Real Salt Lake while he was with the U.S. national team in Southern California, midfielder Chris Klein came on as a sub in both the Canada and Norway games. He scored his fourth international goal to polish off the Norwegians, 5-0.

Interview by Ridge Mahoney

SOCCER AMERICA: You came on at halftime against Canada and tried to get in crosses while playing right back as well as right mid. You and everybody else looked a lot sharper against Norway. How much different were your roles in those two games?
CHRIS KLEIN: [Against Canada] I played out of the back and [against Norway] I went into midfield, so you do what you can when you're called upon, but I thought overall we played very well [against Norway].

We look at it and can learn a lot from those games. Bruce [Arena] was right, [Canada] wasn't a bad effort, we just weren't as sharp as we could have been.

SA: Most of the guys in camp are on the bubble. Doesn't the prospect of playing in the World Cup distract you?
CK: You can't think of it on every touch but I think it would be naive to say you don't give it some thought. We know there aren't a whole lot of spots available, so you do whatever you can every chance you can just to make his decision difficult. That's where a lot of us stand.

I evaluate my own performance no matter what, even if I'm playing for my club team. Ongoing, you can't get into numbers and think, "I stand here, I stand there," because at the end of the day you really have no idea. There are so many factors that go into picking a team.

SA: Did the trade to Salt Lake surprise you and is this just of case of a team and a player moving on separately?
CK: I have to think of it that way. I'm obviously going to miss Kansas City a lot. I've made a lot of great friends and I have a lot of great memories there. At the same time I'm very thankful to move on to a wonderful organization like Salt Lake and play for a great coach like John Ellinger.

I heard about it once it got closer to the deal getting done. It's always a surprise, to be honest, when you get traded. You have mixed feelings at first but in our line of work you have to make the most of it, so that's what I'm looking forward to do.

There was no falling-out. I think they made a decision on what they needed to do to make their team better and Salt Lake did the same. Salt Lake is going to get good value in me and I'm going to give them everything I have.