FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Revolution midfielder Jermaine Jones wouldn’t be surprised if the New York Red Bulls target him and try to get him upset with the referee.
He didn’t seem to care, either.
“Maybe,” he said on Wednesday. “They tried it a little already on Twitter.”
Jones, who played for the United States at this past summer’s World Cup, scored 85th minute to give New England a 2-1 victory over the Red Bulls Sunday and put his team within a draw of the MLS Cup championship.
The teams play the second leg of the aggregate-goals series on Saturday at Gillette Stadium. The Revs need only a tie to advance and face either Los Angeles or Seattle.
Asked why he thinks the Red Bulls may be attempting to disrupt him via Twitter, Jones didn’t seem bothered.
“I have no idea,” he said.
When pressed a bit further, he said he didn’t care what people think about him on the field.
“I have no problem with that,” he said. “In a different way, I have no problem when people start to hate me. If it’s outside in the stadiums where we play in, I can take that. I try to win my games with my team and that’s more important to me.”
The Revs have done just that since they signed him on August 24, winning 11 of 13 matches with only one loss.
The victory in first game puts them in good shape for their first MLS final berth since 2007, but they don’t plan on sitting back and trying to protect the lead.
“Be aggressive,” coach Jay Heaps quickly said when asked what was the game plan for Saturday. “When we’re aggressive we’re a better team.”
Jones agreed that it would be dangerous to try and protect the lead.
“We have to go out and play the same game we played in New York,” he said. “We can’t sit back. I think the best we can do is try and play the whole game.”
Revolution balance demands of art, war in win >>
Thumbnail photo by Andy Marlin/USA Today Sports Images
