While the off-season signings of Carlos Ruiz and Richard Mulrooney gained headlines, and the national team emergence of Eddie Johnson garnered even more attention, Ronnie O’Brien has been “magnificent” this season for Dallas, according to his coach, Colin Clarke. The FC Dallas stalwart notched yet another goal, a 25-yard blast, in his team’s 5 – 2 romp over Chivas USA. Andrea Canales caught up with the Irishman to get his perspective on how the MLS Western Conference leaders intend to stay on top.

You really seem to like teeing up these amazing shots from the outside.

Well, did you see my last attempt to finish before I was taken off? [O’Brien miffed a close-range shot late in the game against Chivas USA] It’s better I hit them from outside.

You’ve scored in two out of three games here in Los Angeles – are you enjoying the HDC?

Not just that. At the moment, I’m just enjoying playing. It’s a great team to play for. Great camaraderie. We’re going through a tough time with away games at the moment. We’ve got like one home game in nine games – the rest are on the road for us, so it’s a great result for us tonight. We showed that we’re a great team. We passed the ball really well. I’m just proud of everybody.

You’ve had to play multiple games in a week, yet you don’t seem to show any fatigue.

My fitness has always been a strong point. I always feel I get fitter as the season goes along and right now, I’m just feeling really good. I enjoy it. I enjoy just running all the time. I enjoy the battles – the fitness test against another player for ninety minutes. Hopefully, I’m fitter than him, and I can come out on top at the end of the game.

Do you feel an extra responsibility now that Mulrooney is gone for the season with his injury?

I think everyone does. I don’t think it just falls on me. I think the entire team feels it. Ritchie’s a big part of us. He’s a quality player. We’ve all got to go an extra ten percent to fill in for him. It doesn’t look like we miss him too much, perhaps, but we do. I think it’s a credit to everybody that we’re up there working hard and still getting good results.

How comfortable did you feel playing with the new players working their way into the FC Dallas line-up, like Pitchkolan and Mina?

Great. We have a great camaraderie. Our training sessions can be amazing. We’ve got some quality players. All the boys – we’ve got a good, deep squad this year, and I think we’re showing it at the moment. All the players coming in – Arturo [Alvarez], Ramon [Nuñez], Pichkolan, Mina – they’re all coming in and doing well. So it shows you have a good, deep squad. Hopefully, if we avoid some injuries, we have a good chance this year.

Are you crossing your fingers about anything? Who is especially crucial to this team?

Everyone’s crucial at the moment. You know, we’ve lost another good player in Carrey Talley. Carrey’s a hard worker for us. He brings a lot of experience to our team and he works his heart out every game. That’s two quality players we’ve lost out of the middle, so I don’t think we can afford to lose too many more players. We’re going to, though – with the World Cup (Qualifying) games. That’s when we have to show the depth of our squad and bring in the young players and let them mature and grow into the squad.

Is it a little hard luck for the team – losing players - right when you’re going on a long road stretch?

Yeah, but we’re rising to it, I think. We lost a couple of players, but our results are still coming in for us. We’ve got a good, deep squad and hopefully when the season ends we’ll have a lot of fit players back and we’ll do well.