Jones cautions Howard on passion comments: Be careful what you say

LA Galaxy and U.S men’s national team midfielder Jermaine Jones insisted that Tim Howard has to be more careful in his choice of words, following the goalkeeper’s comments that some players in the national system lack passion and dedication.

Howard clarified his initial comments on Wednesday, stating that he was not directing his comments in the sole direction of foreign-born or raised players.

This clarification did not seem to interest Jones – one of the few players Howard praised in his initial quotes – who insisted that the veteran should not be pointing fingers at any one specifically as the fault for recent failures lies in the team, not the individuals.

“It’s dangerous stuff where you have to be careful what you’re saying,” Jones said, as reported by ESPN FC’s Doug Mcintyre. “With all the respect for Timmy, I feel it’s not if you’re half American or full American. It’s more what you have in here (taps his chest).

“If you go on the field and you give everything for this country, then of course sometimes there’s a situation when you’re not playing good.

“But it’s normal. That can happen to everybody, and that’s what you have to understand.”

The Americans are in a qualification rut, as they have lost their opening two fixtures, prompting a change of manager that sees former Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena take the reins.

But Jones said people need to be less hasty in criticizing the team as it is in no way out of contention just yet.

“People, especially in this country, they always try to figure out what the mistakes (are),” said the man who recently signed for the LA Galaxy.

“Now, where everything goes wrong and we lost the first two games, we say maybe the German-Americans are the problem.

“But when we played the World Cup, I scored. (John) Brooks scored, and it’s ‘oh, the German-Americans are American boys.’

“We played two bad games, yes. That’s a fact. All the criticism that comes from outside, that’s good. That’s soccer. It has to be like that.

“But you have to see the bigger picture, and that’s the whole team. There’s not an American guy and a German-American. The whole team played bad, so that’s the fact. To put it on this guy or this guy, I think it’s not correct from nobody.”