Despite losing Eddie Johnson, FC Dallas has a quartet of forwards that could be the best group in the league. Three of them played last weekend in a 3-2 comeback win over Chicago; Kenny Cooper and Roberto Mina scored, and Carlos Ruiz set up one of the goals.

Defender Greg Vanney believes this trio and Abe Thompson, who sat out the game with an injury, will cause teams a lot of problems this season with their myriad talents.

Interview by Ridge Mahoney

SOCCER AMERICA: Carlos Ruiz is no mystery, but the others have their abilities, too. Mina started less than half of the games last season, yet he scored seven goals. What does he give this team?

GREG VANNEY: Roberto's actually very similar to Carlos, he's very strong and he likes to play with his back to goal. He wants balls into his feet so he can either lay them off or turn and try to take guys on.

SA: Abe Thompson was a rookie last year and scored four goals in 18 games. What's his style?

GV: Abe plays a little bit with his back to goal, but his work rate is second to none. He'll chase down any ball that you'll play, he'll pressure defenders to the end and he's a very good finisher. He's opportunistic and he works his tail off.

He maybe doesn't have the physical attributes of Carlos and Roberto, in terms of strength and size, but then he does the other things that those guys don't necessarily do. He's a good complement and so is Kenny [Cooper].

SA: OK, how about this 6-foot-3 son of a former Dallas Tornado (NASL) goalkeeper who cut his teeth with Manchester United's reserves?

GV:  He's a big guy, but he likes to work and run and get himself into good positions to create opportunities, to take people, and try to get shots off. He's also developing his game, finding out who he is and what he's going to be most successful at.

You look at Kenny's size, you expect him to be a post-up player, and he's good at posting-up, but he really wants to run and create problems getting behind you. 

We have a group of forwards, you see so many different things from them it's going to be hard to defend. These guys are obviously talented. As defenders, we play against these guys every day, and we try to push them and encourage them.