Ronnie O'Brien

[tetsujin1979]

Ronnie O'Brien makes the MLS All-Stars squad to play Chelsea at the weekend. Didn't Celtic play a MLS All-Stars selection recently? I don't think O'Brien featured in that.

Celtic played in the States as part of pre season training, but not against the All Stars.
Sheffield Wednesday did, but O'Brien was not part of the opposition:
http://www.swfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page...69827,00.html?

[Stuttgart88]

Thanks Tets.

I knew I saw an All Stars team without O'Brien in a review of other Irish players' pre-season performances, just couldn't remember who it was.

[NeilMcD]

Yeah I know about Mulrooney due to Pro Evolution football. The commentary is of his name is fantastic. Its like Mul rooooooney. Kinda like John Motson when Wayne Rooney is on the ball.

[Metrostars]

Actually Celtic lost 3-0 to DC United a few weeks ago. And the team Sheffield Wednesday played was a USL All-Star team. USL is a league below MLS.

The MLS season usually takes a break from the Summer weather for about 10 days and an all-star team is selected to play some other famous team. Just a friendly really. But some skrew up with scheduling this year means that players from New England and Chivas USA are unavailable because they are playing each other the same day. That means players such as Clint Dempsey(USA's only positive player during the WC), Shalrie Joseph and a couple more are not playing the All-Star game.
All-Star team this year is mostly US players except DeRosario(Canada), Gomez(Argie), Moreno(Bolivia I think), and O'Brien. Also, Donovan(no harm there) and Mastroeni are out injured. As for Mulrooney, yes he has been capped by the US, so-so player, bit slow, late 20's now, probably wont play for the US again. The I think the game is live on ESPN2 on Saturday so I'll give a report after.

[geysir]

To cut a long story short, does it mean the kid did well to get on the MLS team?

[Metrostars]

To cut a long story short, does it mean the kid did well to get on the MLS team?

Yes. O'Brien has played consistantly well the last few seasons for Dallas.

[Metrostars]

O'Brien came on as a second half sub last night, did ok, almost scored but Terry came up with a good block on his shot. A few nice passes but got disposessed a couple of times by Diarra. Also set up De Rosario for his goal from a throw-in but it was really all-De Rosario for the goal:
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/sights/

[The Legend]

i think he's worth a call-up for a friendly.... not much else happening, so why not!

[dancinpants]

Actually Celtic lost 3-0 to DC United a few weeks ago. And the team Sheffield Wednesday played was a USL All-Star team. USL is a league below MLS.

I thought DC beat them 4-0?

[Dallasirish]

Ronnie Obrien is the best attackin midfielder Dallas have, he normally plays on the right and has speed and trickery. I would rate him in the top five of all MLS players and think he should be givin a go in a friendly. Considering what Staunton just included in our squad, there no reason he should not be included for a friendly. He has had some bad injuries while in dallas (broke his leg!) but has recovered well and is playing his best footall ever imo.

[geysir]

Whether Ronnie deserves it or not, it doesn't look likely that he will be called up. From accounts, he is at the top of his game and what else can he do. We are not blessed with natural right sided wingers.
Staunton picked a 24 member squad, I think Managers would just select 18 or so for a friendly. IMO because Stan picks the Newcastle O'Brien or Dixon doesn't mean he rates them as ready or better than R.O'Brien. Staunton thinks it makes good sense for these youngsters to spend time with the seniors.

[YankExile]

Figured there was a thread for him somewhere. Toronto FC (new club for him... new club for MLS, too) played a preseason friendly with Houston tonight and lost 2-0. Obviously, O'Brien didn't score. I didn't get to see it myself, but hear he wasn't at top condition. It's part of the Carolina Challenge Cup, which is an annual four-club preseason round robin tournament hosted by the USL Charleston Battery involving 3 MLS sides and the host team. There will be a game vs. Red Bull New York Wednesday, and one vs. Charleston next Saturday.

There'll be webcasts here: http://www.charlestonbattery.com/webcast.asp

[YankExile]

Toronto won 2-1 last night against New York, and O'Brien had assists on both goals. It was a good game to watch; TFC look like they are coming together well for a first year club. The fan support they are getting has been tremendous. 14,000 season tickets have been sold and the club has begun a waiting list for future seasons.

[danonion]

Give him a cap in May, logistics work out well

[tetsujin1979]

Give him a cap in May, logistics work out well

Not a bad idea actually, isn't there a defender in the states who declared for us as well? Might be still too young, but it can't hurt to bring him into the squad to get him used to the setup.

[Paddy Garcia]

& there was an earlier post about a hot young prospect at Notre Dame.

[tetsujin1979]

Joseph Lapira: http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=49333

[YankExile]

Ronnie set up the first goal in Toronto's 3-0 win over Charleston last night but wasn't given credit for the assist. TFC finished 2-1-0 in the Carolina Challenge Cup and lost the trophy to Houston (2-0-1) by one point. Not bad, finishing in 2nd place 1 point behind the defending league champions.

[YankExile]

The fact that he will be starting his season on Saturday may be why he isn't being called up. Better IMHO to call up players who are available with the fall-to-spring seasons ending soon rather than one who will be shuttling back and forth across an ocean.

[YankExile]

This caused quite a bit of teeth-gnashing, not to mention swearing at my computer screen, when I saw this:

TORONTO — Toronto FC has lost one of its most important players midfielder Ronnie O'Brien for 4-6 weeks with a strained and slightly torn knee ligament.

The injury was suffered during a team practice on Tuesday at BMO Field in Toronto.