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Thursday Kickoff: No progress for Jones, United wins Manchester Derby and more

Jermaine Jones (Reuters)

While Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu are making quality progress toward recovery from serious injuries, one potential U.S. World Cup player is not.

Jermaine Jones is still on the sidelines for Schalke 04 and there is still no timetable on his exact return. Schalke 04 press officer Thomas Spiegel told ESPN.com that Jones is no closer to returning to action.

"Unfortunately nothing has changed regarding Jermaine Jones," Spiegel told ESPN.com. "He's still injured and doing his rehabilitation."

Jones has struggled with pain in his surgically-repaired leg, which had a metal plate implanted before persistent pain led to having the plate removed. Jones delayed rehab, coupled with a reported rift with Schalke 04 manager Felix Magath, leaves his future in doubt even if he is able to regain health.

Here are some other stories from Wednesday:

UNITED WINS MANCHESTER DERBY

Carlos Tevez managed to score yet again versus his former club, but Wayne Rooney provided a reminder of who truly is the best striker in Manchester.

Rooney's 90th-minute header gave Manchester United a 3-1 victory and 4-3 Carling Cup semifinal victory over Manchester City on Wednesday. Manchester United will now face Brad Guzan, Brad Friedel and Aston Villa in the Carling Cup Final on Feb. 28.

Here are the highlights:

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ESPN ANNOUNCES WORLD CUP SCHEDULE

The United States-England World Cup opening match will be shown on ABC at 2pm on June 12 as one of the marquee matches highlighted in ESPN's World Cup schedule, which was released on Wednesday.

South Africa and Mexico will kick off the World Cup on June 11 on ESPN. The U.S. team's other matches are Slovenia (June 18, 9:30 a.m./ESPN) and Algeria (June 23, 9:30 a.m./ESPN).

The World Cup Final will air on Sunday, July 11 on ABC at 1:30pm.

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MLS ODDS & ENDS

San Jose is set to break ground on a new practice facility. The news comes after the Earthquakes re-signed forward Chris Wondolowski.

Chivas USA changed the date of its home opener from Sunday, March 28 to Friday, March 26. Chivas USA faces the Colorado Rapids at Home Depot Center.

FC Dallas has waived back-up goalkeeper Ray Burse.

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AWARD TIME

For those of you who may not have heard, the folks at Soccerlens have nominated me as a finalist for the Best Football Writer award. It's a flattering honor to even be among the nominees and SBI readers are more than welcome to cast your votes for me (or for any of the finalists you prefer).

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What do you think of these developments? Starting to lose hope of seeing Jones play in the World Cup? Think Wayne Rooney is the best player in the world right now? Looking forward to watching the entire World Cup in HD?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. During the International window, if Bob calls him they have to let him go, if he chooses to. But, I don’t understand why Schalke wouldn’t want him to get well.

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  2. Yeah, but we don’t have someone with killer instinct like him. Someone who’s not afraid to go in for a hard tackle and to pull the trigger on a shot.

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  3. based on that video we can do without jones. we’ve already got plenty of guys who can miss long range shots, commit bad fouls, and get sent off.

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  4. Screw ESPN insider. You mean I can watch constantly streaming commercials and read a soccer the occaision soccer headline??? Can subscribe to my local paper while I’m at it? Or maybe I could just hire an old-timey sports herald to shout updates at me. ESPN, please get with the new model of content delivery.

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  5. It’s to pull the whiners out of the woodwork.

    Amazing what two easily ignored words can produce. Like digging for worms in the compost heap.

    It was started “back in the day”, when the people who whine about it were still navigating the prepubescent life-stage.

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  6. USA fans need to stop with the Jermaine Jones pipe dreams. Between Bradley, Rico, Benny, Joe Frank Towers, and Mo Edu we are pretty much set at CMF.

    I called it months ago, and every day it comes closer to fruition… Jermaine Jones will not suit up for the US this cycle. If he had been healthy by last month, maybe, but now, there is no chance Bob would upset the team chemistry by bringing in a foreign player.

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  7. Combo b-b-b-breaker!

    Happy to hear about the San Jose practice field. Perhaps Lew is prioritizing the Quakes over the A’s. It sounds like the team is here to stay and the mentality in the locker room is upbeat, if we can move into our own SSS in 2012 even, I think it would be a boon to the team. Go Quakes!!!

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  8. yeah, could germany or shalke interfere with Jones’ rehab or keep him from seeing jim hashimoto? If so, perhaps Bradley should call him in for an upcoming friendly just to be able to get a good medical & physical look at him to see whats possible.

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  9. Ives, what would you say the realistic chances of him playing this World Cup between Bradley picking him and he being healthy? 25%? 60%? I think if he is healthy enough to sit on the field he has to be on the roster. To win a competition like this you have to gamble. I’d rather have a 60 minute match shape Jones wreaking havoc and making connecting passes in the midfield than a fully fit Klejstian getting run over by the Gerrard and Lampard and disappearing for long stretches. This conservative approach landed us 1 point in WC 2006. Gambling in WC 2002 and the Confederations Cup (after our back was against the wall and we had no choice) paid off. Am I the only one sick of seeing long balls over the top all game long? We have to control and work through the midfield to compete with the best and that starts with a guy of Jones’ caliber.

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  10. what tha hell is going on with Jones’ rehab? it shouldn’t take this long to heal a stress fracture. i think the problem is with Jones vs. Germany, probly related to the same problem that led him to ditch Deutschland for the USA in the 1st place? Germans can be notoriously strict and reactionary when it comes to any kind of indiscipline or dissent, especially with Fussball. that might be the problem. i think Jones needs to get the hell out of Germany and finish his rehab with the USMNT…

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  11. Are you guys sure Kenny Cooper Sr. is his agent? In the 2nd link Ives provided it said:

    “”A loan move to Plymouth is a possibility,” said Cooper’s agent, Kon Schramm.”

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  12. GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED!

    Figured I would break the chain of the ongoing Jones discussion as it tends to go nowhere after 10 posts.

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  13. Wish I wasn’t in school all day…gunna have to record the games. But for some reason everybody starts caring about soccer when world cup comes and will start telling me the scores…ugh!

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  14. Well if Jones doesn’t play, let’s hope that Clark’s time at Frankfurt will turn him into the type of player Jones is, at least half as consistent and less boneheaded. I think that’s what Jones would bring the most: consistency.

    If Clark could turn into the type of player that can sit back, then that would free up Bradley. I’m banking on him starting with Bradley (for at least one game). Let’s hope he gets some playing time. I like Clark more than most I guess.

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  15. Yeah, but we can’t guarantee that he will be back to form by then and also his injury could get aggravated or not heal completely and it could wind of being worse.

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  16. While I firmly believe Jones would step in and be an instant upgrade in the midfield, I think it would be better for him to wait till next WC cycle. There’ll be more opportunity to integrate with the team, and at 32 he’ll be the same age as Landon for Brazil.

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  17. becasue dempsey is not coming off a setback riddled rehabilitation from a rather serious surgery. Dempsey is merely rehabbing what appears to be a sprained knee or strained ligaments. Entirely different and less to worry about

    Reply

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