O’Brien Is Back in Town

It takes about half an hour to get from Playa del Rey to Carson. It took John O’Brien 12 years.

Long regarded as one of the most gifted soccer players America has produced, the 28-year-old free-agent midfielder signed with Chivas USA on Tuesday, finally bringing him back home after spending his professional career in the Netherlands.

O’Brien, who was a starter for the U.S. at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2002 World Cup, is now a key piece in the increasingly interesting jigsaw being assembled by Coach Bob Bradley.

O’Brien could be to Chivas USA what Landon Donovan is to the Galaxy -- a player who can take them all the way to a Major League Soccer championship.

They are different, Bradley conceded, but very comparable.

“As far as just his soccer brain and the precision with his passing,” O’Brien is ahead of Donovan, Bradley said. “Landon is a little bit more dynamic, just with speed, in getting through or getting behind the defense. Landon can produce some of the very special plays that determine a game.”

However, Bradley said, it is “not a surprise” that O’Brien was snapped up as a teenager by Ajax Amsterdam, one of the world’s leading teams.

O’Brien is expected to make the U.S. World Cup roster and was called in for next week’s game against Jamaica at Cary, N.C., the final friendly before Coach Bruce Arena selects his squad.

He joins a Chivas USA midfield that already features Ramon Ramirez, Juan Pablo Garcia, Francisco Mendoza and Jesse Marsch, among others.

“John is a complete player,” Bradley said. “He can play an attacking role in the midfield, he can play more of a defensive role, he’s a two-way player. So in that regard it makes the decisions harder.

“In terms of his thinking and his passing and the way he sees the game, I think he’s pretty special.

“Adding a top player to our team is only going to take us closer to really competing with the best teams in MLS.”

O’Brien will make his Chivas debut on Saturday at D.C. United.