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Jones banned eight weeks for stomp

Jermaine Jones 2 (Getty Images)

Jermaine Jones may have issued an apology for his stomp on Marco Reus' injured foot, but the German Football Federation (DFB) is having no remorse on the U.S. international.

The DFB has handed Jones an eight-week ban for his actions in Schalke 04's 3-1 loss to Borussia Moenchengladbach in the German Cup Round of 16. The incident had been under investigation by the DFB since it took place two weeks ago.

The lengthy suspension is affective across all competitions and means that Jones will miss six league games.

Jones will not be available for selection for Schalke until it plays SC Freiburg on March 2.

Comments

  1. Unfair political decision? Are you kidding? Did you actually see it? He runs around him from behind and deliberately stomps on his right foot while the play is dead. Those are the facts and circumstances. Please tell me you are kidding, right?

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  2. The run at the top by Schalke can be measured by Jones’ insertion into their starting line-up. Although the ref was just two feet away, no foul nor card was issued on this ‘STOMP’. Reus never falls down and runs away quite easily. It appears to be a unfair political decision based on reputation and not the facts and circumstances.

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  3. uh, they absolutely do. in fact, ESPN had an entire 30 minute piece before the Giants/Cowboys game last weekend re-calling a previous meeting of those two teams. E. Smith had landed awkwardly on his shoulder and left the game. when he came back (it was a big game they had to win), the Giants were hitting him as hard as they could. in their own words, they knew a RB couldn’t really shield a shoulder. so they kept hitting him hoping to slow him down. turns out it didn’t work and he basically won the game for them in OT, but the point was, your opponents absolutely target your weakness.

    i understand that the difference is the ball was not in play with the Jones incident happened. so it’s not “apples and oranges”, but maybe “honeycrisp and gala”.

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  4. Look, my comment was partially tongue-in-cheek. It’s been a long time since he had chronic disciplinary problems.

    But it wasn’t reds that were the problem – he racked up quite a few yellows, making the US vulnerable in the middle of the pitch due to the threat of a second yellow. Someone else will have to look up the numbers, though.

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  5. Yes. The incident is all over Youtube. Pretty indisputable evidence considering Jones’ eyes track Reus’ foot for a while as he moves in for the stomp.

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  6. i like jones and i agree that this was NOT a stomp. i think this punishment is way too harsh.

    also, that picture had nothing to do with the incident. that was when he got his second yellow and was sent off. and #10 in the photo was the biggest baby ever. complete dive pretending to be head butted when he got in jones’ face.

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  7. I like Jones and what he brings to the MNT. MLS would do him no good. Championship side that’s promotable, the SPL, Dutch or Italian leagues might be a good fit for him.

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  8. i think Dempsey’s elbows are pretty hard, don’t you?
    yeah it was a dirty play but no way it was worth 8 weeks. i think this is coming from Jones’ reputation and a little bit of old-fashioned German racism. he should get the hell out of Germany, maybe back to Blackburn?
    or, do you think Jones is worth a designated player spot???

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  9. Meh. Obviously he has some attitude problems. Remember he was exiled from Schalke for a while. But the MNT needs some hard players. Pre-injury Gooch and maybe Bradley are the only hard players we had until Jones.

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  10. Even if he was our best center mid, I don’t want to see him on our team again.

    There’s playing hard, and then there’s making a deliberate attempt to end another player’s career. Stomping a guy’s already injured foot off the ball is sub nigel de jong territory.

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  11. I don’t think his red card tally tells the whole story. I think he gets the bad boy image for dumping every more skilled player who gets around him to the ground.

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  12. Just because he is banned from playing for eight weeks doesn’t mean he can just skip going to work and training with his team. He hasn’t been banned from training and participating. He still has a job to do.

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  13. You are right about the red against Canada. I forgot about that one. I still think this idea of him being a bad boy is vastly overrated. He may have been hot-headed in his past but this behavior is mostly in his past. I have no issue with him getting in Wynalda’s face. Wynalda is a punk who thinks the game began and ended with him. Bradley gets a bad rap for his behavior which, in recent history, has been no issue at all.

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  14. I agree with your assessment on his cards, but this case says something pretty disturbing about Jones. Normal players don’t carefully seek out an opponent’s injured appendage and try to damage it more. This incident has made me conclude he’s a thug, and I wouldn’t call him in to the USMNT anymore. He’s too risky.

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  15. Agreed. Klinnsman should consider extending an invite to Jones to the January USMNT training camp and friendlies

    OR

    Schalke should consider loaning him

    OR

    sell him.

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  16. actually, he also was sent off from a bad, bad tackle on Julian DeGuzman in the 07 Gold Cup semifinal vs. Canada. That left the US with 10 men and, had the apparent tying goal for Canada not been wrongly ruled offside, we would have gone into OT shorthanded. (As it was, Bradley missed the win in the final that qualified the US for the 09 Confed Cup).

    I love Bradley and think he gets a raw deal too often, but the reality is that his normally calm and steady play has been punctuated over the years by many incident of rage, on and off the field. Besides these red cards, he was involved in the postgame brawl with the Uruguayans at the 07 U-20 World Cup, and he got in Wynalda’s face at a team hotel over comments that Wynalda made. Plus, he went looking for the ref after he was sent off vs. Spain.

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  17. Jones might as well come to camp Cupcake. He can get in a few games and possibly use the time to get fully integrated as THE DM for the US. Not taking sides in the whole Edu/Bradley/Jones thing, but it could definitely give him a leg up!

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  18. That’s not precise at all. It IS an eight-week ban. If a game was rescheduled out of that period and outside of that eight weeks he could play in it. It’s not a six game ban at all. What’s hard to understand about that?

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  19. I didn’t say he was too old. I said he’s 30 years old and on the other side of his career. He’s not the player he was prior to his injuries and his performances for the USMNT have been unimpressive, at best. I don’t think there is ANY argument that he is our best CM. I don’t believe he is even close.

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  20. To be more precise, it is a six-game ban, not an eight-week ban, although six games might compute to eight weeks.

    And, KenC, no way Jones is going to get transferred. Press reports put his contract at 4 million (count ’em) euros a year through 2014. I can’t see another team taking on that expense. he must have a great agent.

    I just learned that Jones is married to a former Miss Germany. Here is the link:

    http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/schalke/so-tickt-der-schalke-treter-21736910.bild.html

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  21. Strongly disagree. Given his soccer resume, he is arguably our best CM. But JUST LOOKING at his performances for the US NATS and the fact that there’s a an adjustment period, he could easily rate as our 2nd best CM (after MB of course). And 30 yrs old being too old? really?

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  22. agree that he has a dirty streak, but he has actually had very few red cards, or even second yellows. He piles up yellows like crazy, but is rarely sent off.

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  23. That’s always been an unfair statement on Michael Bradley. He’s had 2 red cards in 7 years. One for the U.S. in the 2009 Confed cup againt Spain and one for Herenveen in 2008. That makes him a bad boy?

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  24. players know they can bait Jones seems to me. Same thing in last year’s Gold Cup, all those team’s trying ot bait him into doing something personal stupid that hurts his team. He handled it pretty well last summer but clearly does not always handle it well. I have not seen this specific incident

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  25. 1) Franco, please stop referring to this as a “stomp.” That’s just irresponsible journalism. 2) I watched this match and the replays of this incident. I believe Jones probably stepped on Reus’s injured foot intentionally but I don’t know how anyone proves that? An 8 game ban is absurd. 3) If anyone from this match deserves further punishment, it would be De Camargo for his blatant efforts to get Jones (successfully) and Papadopoulos sent off.

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  26. I agree. He’s impulsive and fouls a lot and is already 30 years old and nowhere close to the player he was before his injuries three years ago. I never understood the fan’s fascination with him and now, after having seen him in a USMNT jersey, I don’t see that he has much use for us. Good riddance.

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  27. I recall that this is not the first instance of petulance by Mr. Jones, and a big reason why he was not called up by Germany before making himself eligible for the US.

    Jones might be a good player, but he is a victim of Roy Keane’s red mist too often for my taste.

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