As the scoreless match stretched into the 74th minute, Sigi Schmid needed to do something to inject his suddenly ascendent Sounders with an extra jolt of energy. And he turned to a most unlikely source to get it.
First, let’s set the scene. May had not been particularly kind to Seattle, which had lost three games in a row at the close of the month and sat just off the cellar in the Western Conference. A D.C. United match in the nation’s capital on June 1 offered the chance for some respite. Seattle was on the precipice of a two week break in play and a near three week layoff from MLS action. A win would be vital for confidence, if nothing else.
D.C. United began the game brightly but faded as the second half stretched on. Seattle, meanwhile, drew strength from its midfield but couldn’t find the breakthrough despite a bevy of chances. So it had gone in 2016.
In the 74th minute, the game still scoreless and the Sounders desperately grasping for three points, Schmid turned to an unlikely attacking option. With Andreas Ivanschitz running out of gas on the left flank of the 4-3-3, Schmid inserted Joevin Jones at left mid. Jones has spent pretty much his entire MLS career playing as a marauding left fullback, but he’s played in the midfield for Trinidad & Tobago.
Why not give it a try?
The gambit paid off, and perhaps faster than anyone anticipated. Five minutes after subbing on, Jones overlapped on the left flank inside the box and smashed a far post shot that Bill Hamid pushed back out into the box. Jordan Morris was waiting for it and crushed the rebound back into the empty half of the net. Jones’ speed and guile created the chance, and Morris duly finished it.
Four minutes later, Jones got on the scoresheet himself, pinching in from the left-center and finding some space in the net behind Hamid. In 16 minutes, Jones created the danger that led to the Sounders’ first goal and put in the second himself. Seattle went sprinting into its break with a vital three-pointer.
The Sounders’ next game wouldn’t come until two weeks later, and yet again Jones rode in to more massive influence. And out of the midfield.
Yet again, Jones entered into a scoreless match, and yet again his outsize influence ripping down the left was the ultimate difference.
Kitsap Pumas offered Seattle a stirring challenge in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup on June 15 at Starfire Stadium, and by the time Jones entered in the 63rd minute the Sounders had yet to break the deadlock. Thanks in part to his field-stretching ability, the Sounders broke the ice in the 71st minute through a flicked Cristian Roldan goal from close range.
Jones wasn’t far behind with the insurance. In stoppage time, Jones broke loose of Kitsap’s high press, got in behind the back line and finished coolly to set the final scoreline at 2-0.
Two matches, 43 minutes off the bench, two goals, two wins. Perhaps there’s something to this Joevin Jones-as-a-midfielder thing.
Jones got his first start in this role in a 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls last weekend. Jones looked good at times, and it was clear he has a fair amount of experience playing there from his career past. Jones couldn’t reprise his previous two stints off the bench and failed to get on the scoresheet before being taken off in the 68th minute. That doesn’t necessarily mean an end to the Jones-as-a-midfielder gambit, but it might’ve made it a bit more realistic in the end.
The problem Schmid’s run into on the flanks is that he has plenty of options who’ve shown flashes in sub stints but few who’ve shown an ability to go a full 90 minutes as impactful wingers. In turns, Joevin Jones, Aaron Kovar, Oalex Anderson and Herculez Gomez have looked good in spurts, but rarely have they been as immense as, say, Marco Pappa was when he was in good form.
Ivanschitz has largely filled that role in a first choice setup when everyone’s been healthy, but Ivanschitz isn’t a natural wide player and tends to come centrally to connect with the rest of his midfield. And he’s not the most fleet of foot player either, leaving Seattle open to counters and breaks off their left flank.
Jones would seem to be a good fit in that position with a quality left back like Dylan Remick on the roster, and it’s still early days with the experiment. Jones has certainly shown good things in space, and few MLS fullbacks have the agility to keep up with his stabbing movements. But he’ll need to prove he has the ability to do it over 90 minutes - and that his utility to the team isn’t better served on the back line as an overlapping wing back - before that position is assuredly his.
If anything, the Jones experiment is proof that Schmid is still working over a lineup that’s currently ninth of 10 teams in the Western Conference as the summer stretch arrives. Jones is another arrow in Schmid’s quiver, and we’ll have to wait and see if it flies straight.
