re: Jermaine Jones switches from German to US Mens National Team

I have mixed opinions about all of this. Jones is probably one of the top 5 or 6 players on the US roster already and he plays in a position of need.

However, I have hated how naturalized players have become so prevalent lately in international soccer. The French and Dutch teams have been criticized for this kind of stuff for over a decade, and in the past few years teams like Portugal (Deco and Pepe), Spain (Senna), Turkey (Aurelio and Kazim Richards), Croatia (Eduardo), and Poland (Olisadebe) have joined this group.

The US had some players like this in the '90s (Thomas Dooley, David Regis, Earnie Stewart). Both Stewart and Dooley have very similar situations to Jones. While they might have American sounding names, these guys all grew in Europe, played in the youth set-up of their home countries as well as their domestic leagues, fully identified themselves as Dutch/German before getting snubbed from the national team.

However, Jones is definitely the best of the bunch, and if everyone else is doing it, I guess it's fine for the U.S. as well.