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U.S. eliminated from 2018 World Cup

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by LongTimeListener, Oct 10, 2017.

  1. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Unless I have a totally misguided view of other countries, soccer is the sport of choice for nearly every kid.

    Let's say we could identify the 500 best 10-year-old athletes in England. How many of them are playing soccer? 450?

    Now do it in the U.S. How many of them are playing soccer? Fewer than 50. ETA: Actually I'd go so far as to say fewer than 25.

    The U.S. has a veritable ton of upper-middle-class kids, mostly white, whose parents have created a soccer cocoon for them. The sport has no presence in poorer communities where football and basketball draw so many of their athletes. U.S. soccer doesn't do much in the immigrant communities either.

    I'm starting to think you really believe there's some inherent soccer gene that Landon Donovan had that fellow 1982 baby Chris Paul didn't.
     
    YankeeFan likes this.
  2. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    Well, if they had more forethought, it wouldn't be a terrible economic decision for them. Soccer players make big money, and their careers can be far longer. And far fewer of them end up shooting themselves in the chest or in wheelchairs at 50.
     
  3. Donny in his element

    Donny in his element Well-Known Member

    How many 4.4 athletes are in the NBA? Straight line speed like that isn't so valuable in basketball, particularly with a ball in your hands and 90 feet of playing surface. The same with soccer and the ball at your feet.

    I understand the point, and maybe 4.4 is shorthand, but using that data point is a disservice to your argument.
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    You're right about this. But they presumably are thinking about how you make money here, domestically. Soccer is out of sight, out of mind.
     
  5. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    "US soccer doesn't do much in the immigrant communities either."

    You don't think that's a problem? That doesn't say something terrible about the program?

    As to your larger point, I have no idea if you took Chris Paul at 6 and made him play football and only football whether he'd be a good football player. Maybe? But I think it's hard to say definitively. There are good all-around athletes out there. But even though I've played most sports, I'm better at certain sports. I'm a decent football player. I am a terrible tennis player. I don't think anyone could have made me into a great tennis player, or even a good one. I don't know why.

    I mean, if your point is true, why aren't there more two-sport stars? Why was Bo Jackson such an anomaly? Why won't Tim Tebow play in the majors?

    I think certain athletes are better suited to certain sports. I don't think a great athlete could be a star in six different sports.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Wait a second. In the world's most popular sport, renowned for its strategy, we don't have a good answer for why being tall is a disadvantage for forwards and midfielders?

    We're just guessing, and we've just done this all along?

    That's absurd.
     
  7. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    Well, like I said, I would guess it's because tall people aren't as good with their feet.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Maybe there's a "Moneyball" angle to this. Someone should start fielding a team of 6-foot-7 soccer players and let it ride.
     
  9. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Only one of the following statements is true:

    1. The US could be doing better at soccer if more of its best athletes chose the sport AND it had a better development system to nurture that talent.

    2. The US has so many superior athletes it could take a bunch of back-up SEC corners, give someone Alabama's football budget to train them intensely for 3 years, and they would own world class soccer players. Because those global athletes, while perhaps blessed with the unicorn dust of innate artistry, are not as athletic as our scrubs. USA!

    That many of you put forth the false one is where this became an exercise in nonsense.
     
  10. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Insanity.
     
  11. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    Dude, do you think America has a monopoly on tall people? Have you ever been outside the United States in your life?
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    There are 323 million people living in the United States and 81 million living in Germany.

    But more importantly, soccer fans are very resistant to acknowledging the truth of (1), and that is staggering.
     
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