IT WOULD REASON THAT STEFFI JONES' LATEST American adventure, as a star midfielder for the WUSA's best side, offers her the opportunity to explore her American-ness.

She's the Frankfurt-born daughter of a black American GI and a blue-eyed, blonde German, and she's been entranced by her American roots – largely hidden – since she was a child.

''I always felt proud to be half-American,'' she says. ''I really would have loved to be all American if I could, but I can't. I'm half-German, I live in Germany. But I sure could be half-American.''

That half was enough to count as all in the WUSA, making Jones – a critical reason for the Washington Freedom's record over the past year – arguably last season's most important foreign acquisition, Marinette Pichon and Birgit Prinz notwithstanding.

''She's one of those players who manages to win,'' says Freedom coach Jim Gabarra. ''She does great things for us in midfield … and it was a big turnaround for us when she arrived.''

The Freedom, 8-16-5 before Jones, 30, came aboard, has been 15-3-4 since, romping into last year's Founders Cup final and winning five of its first seven games to pull ahead in the standings this season. She's relishing her WUSA experience.

''Here you have so much fun because you really don't know who is going to win,'' she says. ''In Germany I was always in a dominant team, so the teams we played against always just built up those walls in defense, and it's no fun to play against them.''

Jones knew she was different than the other German children she grew up among – ''I'm mixed, I'm 'chocolate,' I'm black and white,'' she says – and felt special because of her roots.

''Everybody in my childhood – everybody – wanted to be American,'' she says. ''That was, like, the best. I was a star.''

The Washington Freedom is 15-3-4 with former German national team star Steffi Jones on the field.

Links to her paternal homeland were severed when she was 4 and her father, a Texan named Ray Jones, took off for home. There was a reunion of sorts in 1999, when Jones was Germany's defensive anchor at the Women's World Cup, but it was brief.

''I just love my mom – she's the best,'' Jones says. ''My dad made promises he didn't keep. I don't feel I should talk to him much. It's not like I don't love him. But he has his life, and I have my life.''

by Soccer America Senior Editor Scott French