I'd been kicking this around for a while, but wanted to look at O'Brien's career in more context. https://andthenthehex.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/dreaming-of-john-obrien/ Yes, he only had 30ish caps and less than 100 games professionally, but his skill set still seems unique in our player pool. Most impressively, at age 23, he played 71% of the possible league minutes on a double-winning Ajax team that included Ibrahimovic, Van Der Vaart, Chivu, Heitinga, and Stekelenburg!
John played high school soccer at Brentwood. Another John, Thorrington played as well in the same league. Donovan played a few years later. Interesting to see as many people have a disdain for HS ball.
Quantifying O'Brien's matches played with the national team: 6 Olympic matches (6 starts) in 2000. (technically speaking, the U-23s, Friedel, Hejduk and Agoos) 2 qualifiers (1 start) in 2000. 4 qualifiers (2 starts) in 2001. 5 World Cup matches (5 starts, played every minute) in 2002. 6 Gold Cup matches (5 starts) in 2005. 1 qualifier (1 start) in 2005. 1 World Cup match (0 starts) in 2006. 13 friendlies spread out among 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Landon specifically said the same thing around that time "as far as soccer player, John is our best player". That goal that rocked Portugal so early on and as mentioned, that lob pass to Cletus versus the Koreans!
In a way,he was so good,you didn't realize it.No extravagant skill displays,just the most simple and effective play. Sucked he was injured so often.
Uh... John O'Brien was IDed by Co at 14 or 15 (like 1991?) and went to Ajax at 17 in 1994. And that was over 20 years ago. Brentwood's affect on his soccer ability was a best incidental. That's a weird post. Lot's of US soccer players (used to) play in HS. What does it have to do with their abilities?
I watched a lot of JOB back in those days. While it was always most fun to watch in 01-02 when JOB got to play all over the Ajax midfield from LWF to LM to CM to RM, I also loved watching him play LB with Chivu in the middle. While it restricted his final 3rd attacking contribution, it was a really interesting way to play - he was a kind of holding midfielder from the midfield line. Ajax in those days played mostly with an overlapping RB (Trabelsi) and Chivu, Pasanen (or Bergdolmo) and O'Brien all had very good ball control and when Trabelsi would overlap they would swing into a kind of "flat 3" that was confident with the ball. He played a lot of really gorgeous through balls and "incisive" passes from that "quarterback" position. Sadly his Achilles heel was, actually, his Achilles heel.
Club coaches constantly tell HS students to only play club ball. That HS ball "stunts their growth" as players. It's silliness really.
This is not the place for this discussion, but again. John O'Brien was on Ajax' radar at 14 years old. They signed him at 17. Had he not been American he would have been in the Ajax academy at 14. Others who had graduated from or would have gone through the Ajax academy when JOB would have been there include 6 of the players who started the 1995 European champs game v. Milan: Van der Sar, Blind, Rijkaard, the De Boers, Seedorf, Davids, Litmanen, Overmars, Kanu and Kluivert. Kluivert is an Amsterdamer but did not do Jong Ajax. They won the Euro in 95, lost in the final the next year. Ah, the lovely pre-Bosman Ajax days... JOB could have at least been watching close up, maybe even practicing with, and learning from a few of the younger guys (and experiencing Van Gaal in his prime) Of course, JOB was much better served being forged in the hot fire of the Brentwood/Vally Christian rivalry or enduring the drive to Pasadena to suffer through the hostile atmosphere of the "enfer de Marshall!" Wow, dude. I just really don't know what to say....
a few stops on your trip down memory lane... this one is fun as it is one of the few Utrecht JOB highlights I could find (and Mols actually scores a goal! wow) JOB gets a goal late in the highlight - around 4:30 enjoy.
Pretty sure it was Ibra Didn't JOB start both legs of the CL semifinal vs Milan where they lost 0-1 overall or was it 1-1 on away goals? That was a good Ajax team and JOB if not for injuries would go down as the best US midfielder to date. The two big keys on our best performances (2000 Olympics, 2002 WC) were Friedel's keeping and JOB in the midfield. We haven't had players match those performances. JOB had the first goal against Portugal, the assist on Mathis goal against Korea, and the pass diagonal to Lewis who crossed to Donovan for the 2nd goal against Mexico. He also possibly prevented a goal with his hand against Mexico for whatever that is worth. Even in some of the lead up games like against Italy that year and Holland JOB showed that with him and Reyna in the midfield the US could possess against some of the better teams in the world. He'll never be an all time best 11 US player because of his injuries, but he would have been.
If you think about the TIPS model, it starts with a broader pool of players with a high Technical standard, and acquiring skills at a younger age. Better Technique also enables better Insight into the game - more possibilities exist when you can do more things with the ball. Broadly speaking, Speed and Personality haven't been an issue for the US. In terms of improving our chances of developing more players like O'Brien, Technical training is the largest opportunity area.
For those who didn't see O'Brien play, Iniesta is a good comparison for how O'Brien attacked 1 v. 1 situations (Iniesta obviously the optimum of that type of player.) He seemed to glide past players with economical movement.
Send them to Ajax at 16? We need at least competent academies, then eventually great academies... then it will happen way more often.
As a Milan fan, I remember these well: yes, O'Brien started both legs (it was the quarterfinals) at left mid. 0-0 in Amsterdam, and Ajax was at 2-2 and set to go through before freaking Jon Dahl Tomasson scored a last minute goal after Inzaghi received a long ball in the box and chipped the keeper. In true Pippo form, he celebrated as if the goal was his...
This. It's just insane that JOB was considered even WORTHY to get at the level he did at 16. That says something about him. Reading this just, especially aroudn the time he was there, emphasizes how special he was. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?_r=0 How TOUGH it is to make it at Ajax at that age, to be so complete...it's just shocking.
Its more common than you might think. Former MLS player Eric Quill was invited to go to Ajax at 16, but didn't.
It is more common - but to "make it" as BolivianF mentioned is much more rare. If you go look at the list of players that were coming through the Ajax Academy just before, after and during JOB's time there, it is a fairly elite bunch that ever got long-term minutes for "big" Ajax. It is really too bad his injuries caught up with him (and there were some questions of Ajax' treatment of him - although I don't know if anything was ever made concrete.)
Going by heritage it us micks that really trained hard and brought it for our Ol' Glory! O'Brien McBride Dempsey Donovan Dooley ...our micks Reyna Ramos Bocanegra ...our latinos Pope Howard ...our brothas Mathis ...our Archie Bunker hahaha!!! E pluribus Unum's all time XI imho: ----------------McBride-------Mathis ------------------------Ramos ---Donovan----O'Brien-----Reyna-----Dempsey ---------Bocanegra---Dooley----Pope -----------------------Howard