photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com
By FRANCO PANIZO
WASHINGTON D.C. – Even before Jermaine Jones officially joined the U.S. men's national team, much was expected of him. An upgrade in technical ability, an enforcer, a never-ending motor, and nastiness that few in the pool could lay claim to were just some of the things Jones was expected to bring to the table.
Jones hasn't always been able to combine those well since making his U.S. debut in October of last year, but on Sunday night at RFK Stadium he brought all of that. And then some.
Playing in his ninth game for the U.S. team, Jones put forth his most complete performance for head coach Bob Bradley in a 2-0 quarterfinals victory over undefeated Jamaica. That Jones scored his first ever goal in a U.S. jersey, the first of the two American tallies, was just an added benefit in a dominating display from a player that is still adapting to his new surroundings on the international stage.
"We've seen in recent games that the understanding in the center of the field with Jermaine and Michael (Bradley) has been good," said Bob Bradley. "In different moments you see each one on the move, the other one thinking about cover.
"This way also plays into, on certain days, when we're starting to play out of the back, who is getting the ball deeper and that kind of thing. Certainly, Jermaine has a good engine and has the ability in certain moments to get forward and be a threat and that was nice to see."
Along with helping stymie a Jamaican side full of world class pace with timely tackles, Jones had two standout offensive moments where he got forward well, and both ended up being vital parts in the game.
In the 49th minute, after Jermaine Taylor headed a ball out of the penalty area, Jones raced onto the ball and hit a volley that deflected off of Taylor and into the back of the net. The goal sent Jones and the Americans into a frenzy, and Jones celebrated the goal with a salute.
The second time came 18 minutes later when Jones raced onto a loose ball near midfield, kicked it into high gear and looked to be free on goal before Taylor nipped him from behind, earning the Jamaican defender a red card. Jones clearly embelished the foul but there was contact, and Taylor's ejection gave the Americans a man-advantage that helped Clint Dempsey score an 80th-minute insurance goal.
Those two plays by Jones, combined with the rest of his strong showing, earned him Man of the Match as voted on by media members in attendance, meaning Jones would have to, by rule, talk to the media following the game. It was one of – if not the – first times Jones spoke to the media during this past month, as he has turned down interview requests unless they're conducted in German or with a translator.
"The first time you score with the national team is always special," said Jones about his goal through Steve Cherundolo, who translated Jones' response from German to English. "Most of all it was a very important goal for us tonight."
As strong as Jones' game was on Sunday, it wasn't flawless. On one instance in the first half, Jones missed a would-be goal as he slipped when anxiously trying to knock in a rebound from close range, resulting in the ball hitting off his knee and rolling out of bounds. The other was when his temperament got the best of him; he drew a yellow card for an unneccesary frustration foul in the Reggae Boyz's own half with the Jamaican attacker facing away from goal.
Jones will have to be wary in the semifinals not to pick up another card or he'll miss the final, assuming the United States gets that far.
But that fearlessness is part of what Jones' teammates like about him.
"He's one of the midfielders that's not afraid to lose the ball and take chances," said Juan Agudelo, who shares the common theme of relative newcomer to the U.S. team with Jones despite the age difference between them. "On long balls he's always looking forward and that's great as a forward because some midfielders lack looking forward and taking chances on through balls. I really enjoy playing with him."
That's probably the case for the rest of the U.S. team as well, especially after he produced his most complete performance to date on Sunday.
Or better still Roberto go check out men’s diving… you might also enjoy their short-shorts
Couldn’t agree less, I’m an American sports fan.
How is someone who prefers straight-up, strength-on-strength fair play a whiner? I can’t tell you how whiney you sound with your “Oh he did not cheat, wah wah wah! Any anyway everybody cheats, wah wah wah!”
But anyway KC, a lot of people think the defender did enough to unfairly foil a breakaway goalscoring opportunity, which would make it a red card regardless of JJ’s histrionics.
You previously posted that US players “don’t dive” – perhaps you meant “have a reputation for diving” because clearly they do it as you acknowledge. The Dempsey comment was directed to “other posters”. I have no quarrel with those who are consistent. I do agree with your comments on FIFA’s reluctance to solve the problem when they could have easily done it a long time ago.
Uh, the reason why is that Michael Bradley was getting bashed based on unreasonably negative assessments of his play skill, whereas Jones is getting bashed based on assessments of his level of sportsmanship. I think his play skills are fine.
The only way you could shoehorn this into some kind of prejudice angle is if you leap the logical chasm “diving = German, therefore anyone who hates diving must be anti-German.” Which is ludicrous, partly because it’s an implied slur on Germans who DON’T dive, but mostly because disliking a characteristic is not proof of prejudice just because it’s slightly more prevalent in one group than another.
I don’t hate diving because I hate Germans, I hate diving because it turns soccer games into ridiculous farces decided primarily on histrionics and what the referee saw, and not on actual play skill.
Whatever the reason is… I was extatic to get this guy as I was always aware of his power seeing him with Shalke. Before his injury he was considered top 3 CDM in the Budesliga. He is just a step above anything we have seen here. What about all of those amazing runs during the game. Forza Jermaine Jones. A “World Class” talent!!!!
There’s a possibility of a Jones vs Torrado clash in the final. Bring bandages.
Not sure if I’ve ever seen it in soccer. I know I’ve seen matching penalties given for a foul and for diving in hockey, though. And I approve of that practice.
In any case, I’m really not sure why the failure of referees to actually enforce the rules is an argument in favor of not enforcing them, as opposed to just a restatement of the is-ought fallacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is-ought_fallacy) …
Dude, what part of “diving is a joke and should be carded” implies anything about “but only if they’re not a USMNT stalwart”?
Anyone who dives should be punished for it. I mean, isn’t this pretty obvious given the fact that I, a fan of the US team, am here saying that a US player should have been carded for it? Yes, it is a disgrace every time it happens. I’ve been disgusted by Dempsey doing it on multiple occasions.
Taking the “moral high ground” wouldn’t be necessary if FIFA and its referees would actually enforce the frickin’ rules of the game.
(And that applies to fake injuries, too. That problem would EASILY be solved if the fourth official actually kept track of time lost to play stoppages, like he’s, you know, supposed to, and didn’t sit around for 90 minutes and then just pull whatever number he feels like out of his @$$ at the end of the game. Or if soccer woke up and did what every single other sport on the planet does, and didn’t run time off the clock during play stoppages.)
exactly. just because there was contact in the first half it doesn’t mean you get to fall down in the second.
Jones took a few steps before deciding to take a dive.
+1. And moreover, even if Jones embellished, he didn’t pretend to have been shot in the face or anything like that. He went down and sat up asking for the call. He didn’t pretend like the defender went after him maliciously.
I know it was a foul. Read the rest of the thread. The red card was correct.
Nothing in the above prevents the referee from handing out a separate card for unsporting behavior.
I disagree; at top speed it can go either way. FWIW, I like to think I would’ve kept my footing, and I do think Jones embellished, but contact at that speed can trip you up, and there WAS legit contact.
This certainly wasn’t Luis Hernandez in the ’02 WC or Davies last weekend.
I think you mean F-A-R-C-E.
I have nothing against Jones or Mexico. But that was a dive. The existence of contact does not rule out the possibility of a dive dive, it’s whether there was contact sufficient to bring a player down. This can be a tricky question in many circumstances, as players differ in balance, but this was a clear cut dive. Watch the video – how Jones falls is so unnatural in relation to his momentum. What’s also clear is that he dives only after he has overhit the ball. The ref bailed Jones and the USA out. I don’t think this would necessarily have changed the outcome of the game, and I don’t think Jones is the only player who would have dived in that situation, but it does not sit well with me when my team wins and a player on it dives.
To think of it another way, imagine two players are running shoulder to shoulder and one goes down. There is contact, and a player went down, but that does not mean it was not a dive.
If one doesn’t “go down” “posthumously” then one is a zombie. Hopefully real zombies are fast, not like those Romero zombies.
Come. on.
A clear dive. He went down because he completely overhit the ball on the break and knew he wouldn’t catch up.
Not hating on Jones, but let’s call a duck a duck.
‘That one player that doesnt go down is Messi because God would actually send Angels to carry him into the 18’
Way too funny, and true. The rules of gravity don’t apply to Messi.
Common the real problem is that a German is on our team….
The guys father served the country, I have no clue why the same posters that defended M Bradley when he was getting bashed turn around and attack Jones. Thats the real disgrace.
Go ahead be my guest. We are much tougher, and have much more common sense than the “mighty” Americans give us credit for. By us I mean us Mexicans! Find me anywhere a more blatant dive than Jones’s from a Mexican player in an official tournament…I dare you!
And your comment would pass as funny if it weren’t for the fact that you were gifted by a Mexican ref with what the large majority here think was a correct call, which enabled the US to dominate Jamaica towards the end and score a second goal to be in the semis.
If it would’ve been the other way around you probably would’ve hated it also, and if it would’ve been a Mexican player and an American ref in that situation, I can’t imagine what the comments would be.
Get off your high horse, holier than thou attitude that the whole world despises. It’s just a big F-A-R-S-E!
I think the fact that the replay shows clear contact, and the Jamaican player just walked off, knowing he made contact, shows it wasn’t a dive. Now did Jones embellish a bit, yes. Call was correct, and it feels good to get a call like that, when so many go against the US.
Yes, anyone could have kept their balance there.He looks like friggin’ Qwop in that video.
If someone taps you on the shoulder and you jump back 3 feet, it’s a dive even if there’s contact.
I’m putting this link so that those readers can see the video evidence of the ‘clip’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbDD-6zHsI
35 seconds in.
Then think of yourself running at that speed and what would happen if you were similarly clipped. Could he have regained his balance..? maybe. (could you?) But the clip was a foul and as the last man back on a breakaway a red card. Good Call. Good play
Well, congratulations on the win. If we keep developing like this we should be tossing bags of piss from the stands in no time.
See 35 seconds in…if you still think it is a dive….then I don’t know what to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbDD-6zHsI
embellishment? maybe. Dive? no.
Dude, he turned the fortunes of Blackburn around when he arrived…had you kept the same team intact, you would be playing in the Coca-Cola next year.
You should thank your stars that Blackburn managed to pry him away from Schalke for the 1/2 season, ‘stubby kinda passes’ or no.
It is obvious that the chief reason the same handful of posters keep getting on every thread and clamoring about a disgraceful dive, but are then either too ignorant or lazy or both to watch the replay that clearly shows contact, is because they hate Jermaine Jones. Period. They are the same idiots that talk about how he can’t pass, even though it was apparent from the very first half of the very first game he suited up for us that he has the best vision and the most dangerous long passing that the USMT has ever seen in a D-mid.
Why do they hate the guy? I suspect the answer to that is the real disgrace.
I watched this in 1/15th speed (of the already slow-motion replay on the broadcast) on my DVR and without a doubt there’s contact, and as noted at full speed it’s definitely enough to throw off his balance. I guess people are missing it as there’s one step before he goes down..anyway, definitely contact. ZERO argument from Jamaica either.
Have to agree with the idea that you should be a ref. You’ve got a knack for missing things. I’m guessing we were onside on the later play w/ Donovan and Kljestan too?
Yes, really.
This clip is a better clip of the action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbDD-6zHsI
35 seconds in.
Reading all these posts on how Jones is a cheater reminded me why I hate most of you on here…a bunch of soccer snobs. waaaah waaahh. Hes a diver. He cheated. The Jamaican tackled from behind. Jones had no one in between him and goal. THERE WAS CONTACT (which can’t be debated at this point) Embelish? Sure. But don’t act like this is the 1st time that has happend. The ref made the right call, the Jamaican knew it, Jones embelished which is fine by me, and most importantly he had a hell of a game AND WE WON!
I remember not long ago when players that dived were despised in America…..now they are national heroes.
Have you ever seen a yellow card given to the victim of a red card foul? Have you ever seen a card given for diving (or flailing or whatever) to a player that was, in fact, fouled? Have you ever seen a card given to a fouled player who did nothing in turn to any opponent?
I like Blackburn so I understand what you mean about Jone’s performance so far.
But let’s be clear about a few things.
Bundesliga to Premiereship is a big step up.
Give him time to get more accustomed to the pace and the technical level.
As far as journeyman– I strongly disagree.
He was captain at Frankfurt.
He was all set up to be captain at Schalke, but injuries slowed him down.
Then he got into some kind of tiff with Felix Magath (not uncommon by any means). And that hastened his move to greener pastures.
I’m sure Schalke will be happy to have him back. I don’t think Rangnick has a problem with him.
+1
While it is not as prevalent in US Soccer as it is in other teams, US players do dive. The current team has several players who have dived in this tournament (one got a card for it!). If you leave out the dive part, I will agree whole heartedly with your comment. I give the US guys props for not rolling on the ground faking an injury or pulling a Portillo (bad Sonny Liston impression). I do agree that our resistance to acting is something that we can take pride in and is representative of our sportsmanship; however, we need to get off the moral high ground on diving. We do it and we will continue to do it. We currently have (and are continually adding) more and more players from diverse backgrounds where diving is not only accepted, but practiced. I ask other posters if they have venom for Jones and his “diving”, then be consistent and call Dempsey a “disgrace” the next time he does it.
Amen. The ends justifies the means in my book. I could care less if the team wants to roll around for 10 minutes to secure a win. A win is a win. Period.
Dive-whiners are out of their F-ing minds. Get over it…everyone giving the “holier than thou” lip service needs to play the sport competatively before they sit on a couch and complain about how it ruins or cheapens the sport. There is a difference between getting contact on a shoulder shove(then diving) and getting contact on a tackle from behind (which is a bookable offense). Cardinal sins…give up possession in your own half…and be the last man to foul the oponent. 9 out of 10 players in the best leagues would have gone down.
That one player that doesnt go down is Messi because God would actually send Angels to carry him into the 18.
Jones, Bedoya and Davies…..Gold, Silver and Bronze diving medals in the next Olympics. They’ll make America proud.
Uh, if you’ve never heard someone say they respect the US because they don’t dive, you haven’t watched many games. Plenty of people have referred to the US team as a positive example of sportsmanship in a sport riddled by cheating and cynical behavior.
The red card was correct, yes. The Jamaican player was properly sent off.
What was NOT correct was the failure to yellow-card Jones (and, because it was his second yellow, send him off as well) for unsporting behavior. The game should have been 10 v 10 for the duration.
Wait. Let me see if I get this straight.
If you don’t like pretending to be hurt and rolling around in mock agony, or pratfalls that would make Buster Keaton envious, go watch WOMEN’S soccer.
I always thought it was supposed to be (in the stereotype, anyway) women who were the crybaby wimps. Now we have to look to women to actually play like, you know, men?
Jones should have been yellow-carded for that ridiculous display, and coupled with the idiotic earlier yellow, sent off.
Maybe he was just trying to fit in with Bedoya. At least there was some contact when Jones went down. Bedoya got carded earlier in the tournament for his blatant dive, yet people like you are only targeting Jones. Do you not have anything better to do than to find something to bitch about? Can’t you just be happy we won and advanced?
Yes. I used to love moral highground for things like this, but that doesn’t win matches. At this rate, I’d rather win than be above doing something the everyone else does, albeit at usually a much higher rate than we do.
Hmmm, if you substitute the word Mexican, Russian, Greek, Chinese, or Indian for American, you get labeled (correctly) as a bigot.
Yet when the word is “American”, crickets….
Spade? For a second there, I was afraid that spaid was the past tense of spay (Yikes!)
I hope to see them both in the midfield at the same time as well. Same formation as the Jamaica game except the five man midfield is Donovan, Bradley, Holden, Jones, Dempsey and keep Agudelo up top because I think he plays in this style better than Jozy. Then at the back we have Lichaj, Boca, Goodson, and Chandler hopefully but if not then Dolo. That to me is putting all of our best players on the field at once and we can boss the midfield this way. Our mids score more than our forwards anyway so why not load it up.
Agreed, quit whining here, it is part of the game!! in hockey and other sports it is not. Just look how the Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadians are looked at!! Diving cheaters. I applaud Jones for it as it secured our victory!!!!
welcome to the DIVE club guys….. good job jermaine.
a Jones-Holden midfield looks good.
best US player me thinks with dempsey
+2. I am missing something here. Some of the posters above call Jones a “disgrace” and “we are better than that”. Who appointed you (or the US for that matter) as the soccer moral police? What “standard” are we trying to uphold? Please point out any country that looks up to us in soccer . . . for any reason. I have yet to hear from any foreign person “Oh, I respect the US because they don’t act or dive”. Never happened and never going to happen. Truth is, Jones got clipped – if you can’t see it, well, you are just ignoring the truth. Don’t call the guy a “disgrace”. If you want to call someone a “disgrace” – save it for that Portillo guy for Honduras, far more deserving.