New England Soccer Today

Jones Makes Return

Photo Credit: Jeff Bernstein

Photo Credit: Jeff Bernstein

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For the first time in over two months, Jermaine Jones was back on the field for the Revolution.

After re-aggravating a groin injury on May 31st in a 2-2 tie against LA Galaxy, Jones was sidelined for New England’s past nine league games, a span that the Revolution went 2-6-1.

Jones appeared as a substitute, replacing Daigo Kobayashi in the 76th minute and playing the final 15-plus minutes. In that span, Jones has 20 touches on the ball and completed 93.8% of his 16 passes.

With New England up 3-1 at the time of Jones’ sub and Toronto down to 10-men, it was a good time for Jones to get his feet wet again.

“I was happy that like, you could say that the game was already finished,” Jones said. “In baseball you have that guy who finishes the game. It was a great game for both teams. For me, I’m happy to be back and I had to wait a long time to come back. Today was the day, I got to kick some balls.”

It was a similar situation for Jones, who made Revolution debut just over a year ago in the 65th minute on the road against Toronto. New England also scored three goals in that game but posted a shutout.

“Excited,” Jones said of how he feels to get back. “You can see the support from the fans was there. I think this is what every guy wants that plays soccer. These are the moments that you play. It was nice to come back on the field with this team and I always say its nice to be a part of this team.

“We have a good team, I say that always but we have to believe in that,” Jones continued. “Sometimes we don’t believe in that and we try to play maybe not like a team and we lose games. If we play like a team like today, what we did, there’s not a lot of teams that can beat us. I’m a part of the team and I know that I can help maybe come back to the MLS Cup Final.”

Jones will have plenty of time to recover as New England has a bye week before returning to play on Aug. 15 against Houston.

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