{"id":27591,"date":"2014-08-28T23:50:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T03:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=27591"},"modified":"2014-09-19T14:06:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T18:06:13","slug":"season-saved-with-jones-in-fold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=27591","title":{"rendered":"Season Saved with Jones in Fold?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s safe to say it was the biggest weekend of the season for the New England Revolution. A 1-0 home win over Chivas USA on Saturday, was followed up by the signing of United States international Jermaine Jones on the following day.<\/p>\n

The major signing helps put the Revolution back on track at the perfect time, returning optimism for the future of the organization.<\/p>\n

With the 2013 MLS season seeing huge progress for the team, 2014 was met with higher expectations.<\/p>\n

New England looked like an early Eastern Conference front runner, with a massive 5-0 victory over Seattle in May highlighting the true potential of the young team.<\/p>\n

However, New England under-performed during an eight game losing streak through June and July. Injuries, and a less-than-favorable schedule, left the team with decisions to make going forward.<\/p>\n

The actual pursuit of Jones was a surprise to many. \u00a0New England\u2019s front office has historically gone for less expensive signings in most transfer windows. They generally choose to spend more money on youth development, which has produced players like Diego Fagundez and Scott Caldwell out of its youth academy.<\/p>\n

“We thought Jermaine was the best player for the U.S. in the World Cup and we are excited to welcome him to New England. Robert and I have always said that any major DP signing would need to make an impact, on and off the field, and we believe the addition of Jermaine will do just that,\u201d said Revolution owner Jonathan Kraft in a press release. \u201cWhen we learned that he was interested in signing with MLS, we immediately informed the league of our interest. He is a dynamic player and is certain to have a tremendous impact on our team and in our community. We look forward to his many contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from being arguably the biggest signing in club history, Jones will bring a wealth of experience to a midfield in desperate need of a true box-to-box midfielder. The 32-year-old can add much needed physicality to an undersized midfield, helping the team compete in a chippy Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Head coach Jay Heaps will now have more options tactically, with the team\u2019s default 4-1-4-1 formation being less effective as of late.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are a lot of different roles within that center midfield that we see him playing,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cTactically, we can change the way in which we pivot the triangle. He plays a lot of those roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heaps went on to state how Jones seems like the perfect fit with the team’s current personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fits exactly what we we\u2019re looking for in a ball-winning midfielder,\u201d Heaps said. (He has) a great presence in there, and so our philosophy stays the same in how we want to coach the team. Now, we feel that we have a really big piece of the puzzle, right down the spine.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the recent offensive struggles, Jones will allow Heaps to play with just four in the midfield, creating more chances to play with two forwards. Recent acquisitions of former US youth international Tony Taylor, and Dutch striker Geoffrey Castillion, compliment the team’s need for finishing, and add more potential pairings for in-form striker Charlie Davies.<\/p>\n

Currently sitting in\u00a0sixth place, the team is a mere three points outside of third placed Toronto FC. With both teams meeting at BMO field this weekend, defender Andrew Farrell was optimistic following the victory over Chivas,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to build on this, it is really important to go onto Toronto and get a good result,\u201d Farrell\u00a0told New England Soccer Today<\/em>. \u201cWe knew that after the tie against Portland, tonight was a must win.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of New England’s remaining opponents are in the Eastern Conference, meaning that each game will have an added since of importance. The addition of Jones could give the team a badly needed edge,<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t wanna get ahead of ourselves, but I think we can do big things this season and playoffs are something that\u2019s very attainable and I think we\u2019ll have to take it game by game,\u201d said Davies. ”\u00a0I think he\u2019ll fit right in and I think he\u2019s just the player that we were missing, really, that bite in the midfield, that experience I think everyone looks at us and thinks this team is pretty young, but his experience now, it really puts us as contenders so I\u2019m excited definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

As New England looks to find its early season form,\u00a0Jones will first be tasked with getting match fit.\u00a0 His last game was with the\u00a0U.S. National Team against Belgium, which came\u00a0nearly two months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a long break, it\u2019s not easy to come back, but I will work hard to come back\u2026it\u2019s not easy to find out (right away) which runs the guys do, but it\u2019s a process that will need time,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n

Once Jones returns to the field, the Revolution could be running on all cylinders ahead of the most critical stretch of a very long season. The Bundesliga veteran feels that the places are in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only 10 games left in the season,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI think it\u2019s tough, but you have to have talent and I think we have a good group. They have a great roster, they have good players that are really young and we will see what happens. I try to be one of those leaders\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent signings show that New England is trying to put the pieces together to be strong at the right time of the year. \u00a0With the front office taking full advantage of the situation at hand, it may be a new era for an organization many have written off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Jermaine Jones on board, the Revs could be position to reverse their recent run of poor form – and not a moment too soon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":27593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[847,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Jermaine-1.jpg?fit=492%2C258","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27591"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27596,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27591\/revisions\/27596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}