FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s been a bit of a crash course in MLS for Jermaine Jones since arriving in New England less than two weeks ago.
Already gearing up for his third game since becoming the New England Revolution’s Designated Player, Sunday night against the Chicago Fire (7 pm ET, MLS LIVE), Jones is getting comfortable thanks to being pressed right into action.
“I think it’s the best to come straight to the pitch and play so much games,” Jones told MLSsoccer.com. “I prefer that than to wait and play from weekend to weekend. It’s no problem for me.”
Also helping his comfort level is having had the opportunity to have gone up against some USMNT teammates over his first two matches, facing off against Michael Bradley in his debut, then Matt Besler and Graham Zusi this past Wednesday.
“It’s always nice to see those guys,” Jones said. “For me it’s nice that I beat them, that we win, we have the three points. We had a nice summer together at the World Cup and made something happen when nobody believed in us. It’s always cool to see the guys back on the pitch.”
In his debut against Toronto FC Jones logged 25 minutes coming off of the bench, and he showed his ability to range east, west, north and south in a short span of time.
This past Wednesday he made his first start, this time at holding mid, a position many believe he was brought in to play based on his past there, although if Jones had his druthers, he’d play more of the wide-ranging central-mid as he had in his first game for the Revs.
“I like to play more in front, more 8 and not 6, but I was happy to be on pitch,” said Jones about his 45 minutes of action against Sporting Kansas City. “When I play No. 6 I have to work forward and back. Still you can see that we don’t play so much games together, we have to find us. It’s a normal process and you have to train that. Game for game, we’ll be better.”
Knocking down three matches in an eight-day span will help speed up that process and Jones is already sounding as if things are coming together nicely.
“It’s starting to really become my home,” said Jones. “Step by step, everything is going good.”
Craig Forde covers the New England Revolution for MLSsoccer.com.
