By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
  1. Dan Loney

    Dan Loney BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 10, 2000
    Cincilluminati
    Club:
    Los Angeles Sol
    Nat'l Team:
    Philippines

    USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

    By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
    So last week MLSsoccer.com’s Matt Doyle used the Jermaine Jones-Mike Bradley pairing against Panama as a chew toy. Yesterday, Jermaine Jones took some very bad advice, and responded. jj.PNG

    Full disclosure – I have known Matt for several years. He is, without question, the most insanely evil person I’ve ever met, seen, or heard of. He feasts on the flesh of the innocent, and washes it down with puppy blood. Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I saw ol’ Matt guzzling down puppy after the other. “You sure can go through the puppies,” I said to him once. He just smiled and grabbed another puppy.

    So anyway, Jermaine Jones got wind of Matt’s article, and shrugged it off as just part of the ups and downs of being a professional athlete.

    Just kidding! Comedy blog! Wakka wakka wakka! No, he reacted as if – well, as if Matt suggested taking away a huge chunk of his livelihood. I wouldn’t like it if Matt went to my place of employment and slapped the clown makeup out of my hands.

    Jermaine Tweeted his resentment, promised and reconsidered an Instagram rebuttal, and got himself a yellow card against Vancouver. Order seemed restored…until Max Bretos and Herculez Gomez decided to give him a call.

    You have probably read the quotes by now. They read like Jermaine took an ego trip to a pity party, but his tone of voice wasn’t quite as bad as it looks on the screen.

    …not that they look great.

    "To the haters, you know, I am not hating. I don't care if they hate me or not," said a man who went on a podcast to complain about criticism. “I have played over 15 years in Europe in high level, not 10, not five years, not one year. Sometimes it's tough to look at numbers. I want to prove people wrong, but I think if you look [at] the numbers, there is nobody who can say, 'Oh I played over 30 Champions League games in club level' and that is important. And if you look at the numbers, you can not lie.”

    This isn’t a debate, Jermaine. I’m not here to debate you. Ain’t nobody on the Panama team played 15 years in Europe or in 30 Champions League games, either. And not to put too fine a point on it, but Trinidad isn’t calling up Dwight Yorke anymore. Mexico keeps snubbing Hugo Sanchez. It’s not Jermaine’s decision in the first place, and we’re not going to wait for Kellyn Acosta or whoever to play 15 years in Europe before Jones is out. Jones is seizing on a very specific set of statistics to refute criticism he claims he doesn’t care about.

    I’d also prefer it if the best player on the team didn’t give podcast interviews where “My talent entitles me to be a locker room cancer” isn’t the subtext AT BEST. Sure, he may have been genuinely sincere with his respect for Christian Pulisic playing in Europe. He may not have even imagined that he was slighting Jordan Morris in particular, and damn near every other teammate except Tim Howard in general, with those cracks about playing fifteen years in Europe. I may be the only man, woman or child in the nation who is making that inference.

    But most of the articles I’ve read about Jermaine’s remarks cut out a pretty significant phrase. Cue it up to 31:03, where Herc interrupts Jones, recipient of targeted allocation money and a formerly-retired jersey number from the highest profile team in MLS, complaining that he is unable to be sold as a product because he is German-American.

    “Jermaine, do you think you don’t get the respect you deserve?”

    “Oh, definitely!” said the man who two minutes before claimed being hated was a sign of fear and success. “If you see what I did? Definitely. ….You say that people always say that me and Michael don’t fit together. At the end of the day, the criticism is always on me. Everybody tries it, if we lose the game, they always try to find the next guy who can play for Jermaine. It is never somebody else, it is always me.

    "And sometimes, I'll be honest, it pisses me off. I say, wait a minute! When we play the big tournament, I am almost always the best player on the field for this country, but then, end of the day, they try to kick me out when we lose games? That is not fair, you know? I cannot change it. I know what it is."

    Now, Herc asked about Michael Bradley two separate times before this, and of course Matt Doyle’s article may have mentioned Bradley and Jones’ teamwork in passing. So it’s understandable that Bradley was in Jermaine’s thoughts on the topic.

    But best player on the team or not (and remember, this is in response to a growing pile of evidence in favor of not), you can’t have this. For one thing, it isn’t true. Michael Bradley has been one of the most consistently criticized national team players over the course of his career. You would have to try very hard not to notice that.

    For another thing, Jermaine is accepting the premise that he and Bradley are garbage together. He just wants us to blame Bradley for it. That is about as unacceptable as it can get. Better players have been dropped for less. And if we take Jermaine’s word for it, the various Powers That Are have already been trying to dump him, only to be stymied by his superior talent. This is basically the Hope Solo approach – well, give or take a couple of felonies.

    This was an avoidable, unforced crisis brought on by Jermaine’s sensitivity towards criticism. If it wasn’t an issue within the national team before, it certainly is now. And if it was a private issue before, it just made Bruce Arena’s job unnecessarily more difficult.

    The good option here is Jermaine walking all this back – better still, quick cantering all this back. Otherwise, Arena will have to put in a less talented player for the sake of chemistry…or drop Bradley in favor of the next guy who will have to worry about being thrown under the bus the next time Matt Doyle writes a column.

    I would elaborate on what all this unpleasant whining would portend for Jermaine’s continued work at his club level, but my head seems to have exploded.
     
?

Who is the biggest pain in the ass on the USMNT right now?

  1. Jermaine

    39 vote(s)
    60.0%
  2. Deuce

    3 vote(s)
    4.6%
  3. Michael

    8 vote(s)
    12.3%
  4. Tim Howard

    4 vote(s)
    6.2%
  5. Jozy

    2 vote(s)
    3.1%
  6. Bruce Arena

    4 vote(s)
    6.2%
  7. Field

    5 vote(s)
    7.7%

Comments

Discussion in 'Articles' started by Dan Loney, Apr 4, 2017.

    1. Paul Calixte

      Paul Calixte Moderator
      Staff Member

      Orlando City SC
      Apr 30, 2009
      Miami, FL
      Club:
      Orlando City SC
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Completely unrelated to this article: do you think Matt has shinguards nearby?
       
    2. JasonMa

      JasonMa Member+

      Mar 20, 2000
      Arvada, CO
      Club:
      Colorado Rapids
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      He'd get more respect if he didn't send tweets like this while the fans were still in the stadium after playoff elimination:
      "Now it's time to enjoy family and in a couple weeks getting back to work! We will see where!! FREE AGENT BABY"
       
    3. PJohnson

      PJohnson Member+

      DC United
      Dec 16, 2004
      South Dakota
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Gee....maybe Tim Howard was onto something after all. It was just that people, including Jones, were too busy crying Xenophobia to notice. Jones does not come off as a "Team" guy here. So how committed to the group is he?
       
    4. AndyMead

      AndyMead Homo Sapien

      Nov 2, 1999
      Seat 12A
      Club:
      Sporting Kansas City

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Yeah! I can comment on BigSoccer blogs again without logging into some other site! Woot!
       
      RafaLarios, JJV1994, AlbertCamus and 9 others repped this.
    5. westcoast ape

      westcoast ape Member+

      Nov 27, 2000
      Portland, OR

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Making a comment just to see if what AndyMead said is true.
       
    6. AndyMead

      AndyMead Homo Sapien

      Nov 2, 1999
      Seat 12A
      Club:
      Sporting Kansas City

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      It is. Everything I say is true*!
       
      russ, Deep Wilcox, Dan Loney and 3 others repped this.
    7. barroldinho

      barroldinho Member+

      Man Utd and LA Galaxy
      England
      Aug 13, 2007
      US/UK dual citizen in HB, CA
      Club:
      Manchester United FC
      Nat'l Team:
      England

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      It's not Matt Doyle's fault that JJ has all the positional discipline of a Missionary that's just discovered the Karma Sutra.
       
    8. MayaDempsey

      MayaDempsey Member+

      Jul 29, 2014
      Club:
      Michigan Bucks

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      JJ and Bradley both play exactly like there personalities. Mike plays nice on and off the field. JJ is the exact opposite. If in fact they can't play together, I'd take JJ's team spirit on the field over Mike's off the field. That's what you're talking about, right, the precious locker room harmony that is shattered because JJ doesn't seem to be the hand holding type.
       
      JJV1994 repped this.
    9. barroldinho

      barroldinho Member+

      Man Utd and LA Galaxy
      England
      Aug 13, 2007
      US/UK dual citizen in HB, CA
      Club:
      Manchester United FC
      Nat'l Team:
      England

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Respectfully disagree.

      If JJ wasn't 35 then there would be a serious argument for selecting him over Bradley. However, he's at the point where his all-action "hero mode" requires more "give" than "take" from his teammates. He doesn't have the stamina to do that regularly anymore without surrounding him with a team that allows for that.

      Setting the side up to accommodate a guy who's surely approaching international retirement (at least) feels like a fools errand at this point.
       
      Dan Loney repped this.
    10. The Franchise

      The Franchise Member+

      Nov 13, 2014
      Bakersfield, CA
      Club:
      Real Salt Lake
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Does he believe his pairing with Bradley looks better than other midfield choices? Or that it lives up to the talent on the field? Since most observers answer 'no,' criticism occurs. From my perspective, more of it on Bradley than Jones, but plenty to go around.
       
      JJV1994, Burr and barroldinho repped this.
    11. Stan Collins

      Stan Collins Member+

      Feb 26, 1999
      Silver Spring, MD

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Yeah, and even then there's some nuance due to the near total lack of tacticality in his play (ie he plays exactly the same regardless of what the coach's instructions were or what the other guys are doing), which means that even at his best, he would probably have been inappropriate against some teams (probably the weaker opponents, where we're looking for more fluidity rather than players who break up more play than they create).
       
    12. schlomo

      schlomo Red Card

      F.C. Dallas
      United States
      Apr 6, 2017

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Eh...I've read Doyles stuff. The reason i have read it is because he is obviously a devoted observer. But he does strike out in strange directions at times and he doesn't always see from all angles. I think this is one of those times.

      He seems to want to dump bigsoccer into a hot pot with mls and then stir. Its predictable.
       
      JJV1994 repped this.
    13. gunnerfan7

      gunnerfan7 Member+

      San Jose Earthquakes
      United States
      Jul 22, 2012
      Santa Cruz, California
      Club:
      Arsenal FC
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      I don't know why I need to choose between JJ and MB with the blame game. In Panama, there was plenty of poor play to go around. Besides, I want to see both of them take a seat on the bench for a change. Try out Acosta, Roldan, EPB, anyone else, for a change!

      As to the article, boo hoo. I don't care that JJ has a high opinion of himself. He'll either play better, and play more as a consequence, or play worse and then not get selected.

      This whole spiel about "locker room cancer at best" and all the other stuff is way overblown. JJ's always been a gritty, heart-on-sleeve guy, and when he plays well, nobody says anything. When he doesn't, you get the chicken-littles freaking out that he's a bad locker room presence.

      It's time to move on from both of those guys anyway. MB's been mediocre for years now, with neither the attacking prowess of a 10 or an 8, nor the defensive chops of a 6. And JJ looks like he needs a cane, which, coupled with his disregard for formations/roles within a team, makes him a liability. Not to mention, either one or both could be hurt, so we need to explore other options.
       
      JJV1994 repped this.
    14. Honore de Ballsac

      Oct 28, 2005
      France.

      USMNT - Studs-up Tackle into Dignity

      By Dan Loney on Apr 4, 2017 at 1:52 PM
      Michael Bradley didn't ask you to.
       

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