If audacious cameos have helped the Bray, County Wicklow native develop into one of the stars of America's Major League Soccer (MLS), the other facets of his reputation were also on full display last Wednesday night. Though the prematch hype centred on America's international talisman Landon Donovan playing his final game for Los Angeles before starting World Cup warm-ups, O'Brien's effervescent performance dominated the post-mortems. One minute tracking back to cover Donovan, the next trying to spring the offside trap at the other end, the flighty teenager winger once signed by Juventus offered further evidence he has matured into the archetypal modern midfielder.

While Steve Staunton is to be commended for his openminded selection of Shelbourne's Jason Byrne and Spurs teenager Terry Dixon for the forthcoming Algarve training camp and Chile friendly, it seems pertinent to ask why O'Brien wasn't invited along? Has Staunton that many creative midfielders that he can afford to ignore a footballer capable of producing something special whether perched wide on the right or patrolling the centre? Excuses about the quality of the league in which O'Brien excels are certainly not valid.

Six days before Staunton's announcement, the United States' coach Bruce Arena picked 10 MLS players in his squad for Germany. Nine more of the American 23 who will be expected to emulate 2002's trip to the quarter-finals have spent significant portions of their careers in the domestic league. Another half dozen of O'Brien's peers will be togging out for Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Costa Rica next month.

Objective judges would opine that he's better than all but two of the entire MLS World Cup contingent.

Nobody is claiming the MLS is on a par with the Premiership but it certainly bears comparison with the English championship. Indeed, it could be argued the pace of play . . . slow, slow, quick . . . in America is much more akin to international football than the helter skelter of the English game. A cosmopolitan league with 45 current internationals spread over its dozen teams, O'Brien was the only player on last season's All-Star team never to have been capped for his country at senior level.

Even amid rumours that Arena was exploring his eligibility for the US, Brian Kerr resisted the chance to give O'Brien an opportunity against Italy last August to show he could bring his form across the Atlantic. Against Switzerland two months later, Kerr paid the price. O'Brien was exactly the type of creative player Ireland needed to come off the bench to try to break that deadlock. He can go past people, is an excellent crosser of a ball and capable of visionary passing under pressure. Has Staunton such an excess of riches that he too can afford to do without a player like that or is he just guilty of old world snobbery because O'Brien is based in America? Has he not seen how Brian McBride did since moving from the Columbus Crew to Fulham at age 30?

At times, it appears O'Brien has been the victim of both a difficult reputation garnered as a teenager and an unorthodox career path. As a youth international, he was thought unable to adhere to tactical instruction and fell out with Kerr. This truculent side of his personality has only manifested itself once in four years in America. A spat with the Dallas manager and former Northern Ireland international Colin Clarke earlier this season sparked rumours of an imminent move to the New York Red Bulls and caused him to miss his first start in 60 games.

That incident aside, he's a model pro who it seems can't be taken seriously back home simply because his career once went so far off the rails. Following his release by Middlesbrough and shock signing by Juventus, he became the first Irishman since Liam Brady to wear the zebra stripes in the 1999 Intertoto Cup. After playing alongside Edgar Davids and Alessandro Del Piero, he was farmed out on loan to various locations in Switzerland, Serie C and Scotland, was almost voted Time'sman of the century, and was reckoned to be never heard of again once he moved to Texas in the summer of 2002.

All of the above make him an even more impressive candidate for a senior call up. Here is a guy who suffered more vicissitudes than most and emerged a stronger, better footballer. Previously dismissed as an out and out winger, he has married an incredible work ethic to the mazy dribbling and rehabilitated a career once thought moribund. In the week when so many Irish players have been released by English clubs, his story should serve as a reminder there is always another path.

"It's always beneficial to be able to call on something different and hopefully Jason will be able to give us something we don't already have, " said Staunton about his selection of the Shelbourne striker last Monday Something different. Something we don't already have. Exactly what most American fans would say O'Brien possesses.