Insider Notes: Jones finds home with Rapids; Pulisic's Dortmund status
The big MLS news late Friday was Colorado acquiring Jermaine Jones from New England for a first-round pick in 2017 and allocation money. Jones had reached a stalemate with New England, but he wanted to move closer to his family in LA, and this move gives him that opportunity.
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Jones is signing a one-year contract worth a guaranteed $550,000, which is less than the offer he turned down from New England. He’ll be suspended for the first six games of the season after a playoff incident with referee Mark Geiger last year.
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Pulisic still on track for Dortmund
Saturday was the fourth straight game that U.S. 17-year-old Christian Pulisic has been left off Dortmund’s game day roster after he had made his first Bundesliga start against Leverkusen and went 45 minutes.
Pulisic has been playing again with Dortmund’s Under-19s, but I’m told that this is part of the plan for the club, which has communicated clearly with Pulisic all along. Dortmund wants Pulisic to still be playing 90 minutes from time to time to stay sharp, even at the Under-19s, and getting 10 to 20 minutes with the first team wasn’t something they wanted him to keep doing non-stop.
They wanted Pulisic to know that what’s happening now isn’t any sort of punishment.
Leadership future for Wambach?
On Monday, Abby Wambach will participate in a star-studded lineup of speakers at the FIFA women’s soccer conference in Zurich. Gender reform is finally happening at FIFA, which passed rules last week to require more women in FIFA leadership. And Wambach is interested in being influential, having gone on a listening tour recently where she spent time with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and feminist leader Gloria Steinem. Now that she’s done playing, Wambach wants to have a big impact on equality in a number of fields, including women’s soccer.
