{"id":28338,"date":"2014-10-06T21:47:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T01:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=28338"},"modified":"2014-10-07T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T15:09:10","slug":"the-talented-charismatic-mr-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=28338","title":{"rendered":"The Talented & Charismatic Mr. Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

Jermaine Jones has turned into a jack-of-all-trades player, and he\u2019s making it\u00a0look all too easy.<\/p>\n

His performance against the Columbus Crew on Saturday night vaulted the Revolution to a 2-1 victory. In\u00a0a match brimming with postseason implications, the Revolution midfielder sent a pin-point pass to Teal Bunbury on the right flank leading to Lee Nguyen\u2019s opening score in the 19th minute while his placed header off a Chris Tierney free kick bounced into the net for the game-winner late in the second half.<\/p>\n

It’s early, but he\u2019s had a pivotal role in every game he\u2019s played, and it’s one of the reasons why\u00a0the Revolution are 5-0-0 when he starts, and have taken full control of second place in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

But predicting that he\u2019d have success so early on wasn\u2019t a sure-man\u2019s bet. He may have the skill to\u00a0manage the\u00a0speed and physical play of MLS, but culture shock is another challenge altogether.<\/p>\n

Many foreign-born players to join the Revolution have struggled on and off the field with differences between their homeland and the U.S. A new language, customs, style of play, and playing surfaces have all had their role in limiting the contributions of players from abroad. But Jones, who was born in Frankfurt, has made a seemingly easy transition.<\/p>\n

Gillette Stadium\u2019s turf is the first artificial surface he\u2019s played on since his teenage years in Frankfurt. But he said he\u2019d be able to play on it in his introductory press conference, even if it\u2019s not ideal, and has so far lived up to his promise. The fake grass was even less than ideal on Saturday thanks to heavy rain that made the surface play even faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d Jones admitted. \u201cYou have to change your whole game. Sometimes you feel like you can\u2019t take the ball easy down, sometimes it goes so fast. Yeah, it was my first time on turf raining. Now, I know how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He chuckled when asked about playing on NFL lines for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time\u2014no the second, I was in training already,\u201d he said, quickly correcting himself. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit confused sometimes, so you have to look where is the lines. But I can look and see what is yellow and white.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amount of access the American media enjoys is new to Jones, too.<\/p>\n

In Europe, where he played the entirety of his 15-year career before he arrived in New England, reporters have zero locker room access and have to schedule interviews well in advance to speak with players. Clubs\u2019 public relations office select a few players before the game to speak at a mixed zone after the game, during which dozens of reporters cram behind a metal barrier and ask about five questions. European journalists can only gawk at other players as they walk by\u2014other players are not required to stop and answer questions, even if they had a profound impact on the match.<\/p>\n

Here in the States, access is the name of the game.\u00a0MLS clubs are required to\u00a0open the locker room doors to the media 15 minutes after the final whistle. Win, lose or draw, players\u00a0are used to having reporters hover around their lockers. Reporters can also talk to whomever they want for however long they want. To no one’s surprise,\u00a0Jones\u00a0has drawn a large\u00a0press audience after every home game since his late-August arrival.<\/p>\n

For many foreign stars who’ve come to MLS, such as New York\u2019s Thierry Henry, the level of access is deemed an annoyance, and as such, media requests are often brushed aside. But Jones seems to have accepted it,\u00a0having\u00a0answered every question with a substantial and honest answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really thought of it that way. I think Jermaine is worldly. His experience is across continents, across countries, he played in Turkey, he played in Germany, he played for the national team of the United States,\u201d said Revolution coach Jay Heaps in the locker room after Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me or you, it might be difficult, but for Jermaine, he\u2019s seamless and he\u2019s very charismatic, so he\u2019s able to carry that,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cIt\u2019s natural, it\u2019s not put on. His ability on the field, in the locker room, in handling hard questions, is just a part of his good nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Heaps nor the Revolution staff has had to help him acclimate to the new environment. Rather, Jones has taken all of the changes around him in stride, according to Heaps.<\/p>\n

The most influential Designated Players are those that can be jacks-of-all-trades on and off the field. They can perform well and be marketable and charismatic with fans and the media. But some can\u2019t handle it. It\u2019s not easy\u2014even if Jermaine Jones makes it seem like it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had game-winning assists, game-winning goals. It not only gives us a lift on the field\u2014that\u2019s special, the things on the field\u2014but what he does off the field for me is really important,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cHe\u2019s here early, he\u2019s talking to the young guys, he\u2019s watching film with us, he\u2019s buying into everything we\u2019re doing. When a guy with his ability and his charisma, when the [players] see that, they dig in harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julian Cardillo can be reached\u00a0at julianccardillo@gmail.com. Follow him on twitter @juliancardillo<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jermaine Jones’ ability to quickly assimilate to a new team and a new league has had a profound effect on the Revs’ late-season fortunes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28344,"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\/10\/Jermaine-13.png?fit=480%2C259&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28338"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28357,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28338\/revisions\/28357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}