Ah, the ever-ready "Euro-snob" card is being played with such glee. But I'll stick to my assessment of Pat Noonan nonetheless. And, believe it or not, I think that John Wolyniec, whom you brought up, is a smarter player than Pat. I'll give Pat credit for often being in the right place at the right time near the goal line but I have never found him to be a presense on the pitch. His play is one of the major reasons why, sans that semifinal against the DCU, I found the Revs to be unwatchable this past year. Maybe it's more due to Nicol's coaching but, whenever I watched Pat, he showed no dribbling, shooting or running-into-space skills worthy of mention. Once again, John Wolyniec - to say nothing of other US born forwards like Ante Razov, Alecko Eskanderian, Edson Buddle, et. al.- showed much more.
Actually I'd heard Noonan could get a Berhalter-esque Irish passport. I have no idea if that's true. Somewhat doubtful because I heard the same about Gaven and according to Eddie that isn't true.
The story I remember is that the Irish FA expressed interest in Noonan, but he doesn't have recent enough ancestry to qualify.
Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, Kevin Kilbane, Andy Reid, Pat Noonan, Aidan McGeady, Willo Flood, Stephen Elliot, Clinton Morrison, John Macken, Steven Reid pick the odd one out......... He's a good player, but really the FAI??? we dont need him, I rate Morrison + Macken higher. But i agree he's more suited to Europe than Wolyniec or even Ching. He'd definitely do better.
Here's the article... http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=285807&cc=3888 No idea if he would've ever gotten a shot, but as we've seen in this thread, he tends to be one of the most under-rated US players on these boards.
I agree he is very underrated, but i wonder why tehre is no interest in Ronnie O'Brien, but supposedly there was interest in Noonan. But I think he could cut it in the EPL for someone like Charlton.
O'Brien is known by the powers that be over there but they just don't rate him. He played for Ireland at youth level with the likes of Robbie Keane. But his career never took off despite being at Middlesboro, then Juventus and eventually Dundee United. For for Noonan, he is not eligible for Irish citizenship if his closet connection to Ireland are his great-great grand parents. One great too many. Berhalter's mother is from Tipperary if I recall correctly.