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Would be amazing if people would support american soccer.
Hope Solo said it best: It's just too damn expensive in the US to put a kid through soccer. When one can play basketball, football, baseball competitively at a fraction of the cost of high-level youth soccer, it's no wonder. We are alienating generations of talent due to this, while third world countries are able to produce top players.
Hope Solo said it best: It's just too damn expensive in the US to put a kid through soccer. When one can play basketball, football, baseball competitively at a fraction of the cost of high-level youth soccer, it's no wonder. We are alienating generations of talent due to this, while third world countries are able to produce top players.
Can you Americans stop with the "third world" bull****?! America is "third world" in many ways too.
Can you Americans stop with the "third world" bull****?! America is "third world" in many ways too.
Is what I said not a fact? It is. Soccer here is expensive as all hell, whereas anyone can get into basketball, football and baseball leagues. This is not the case in poorer countries. Everyone can and does play. Why does what I said bother you so much? Does the typical Senegalese parent pay $10+k per year for their child to play competitively?
America's best athletes do not play soccer. They play football. They play basketball. They play hockey. They play baseball. That is the reason the US is not dominant in soccer.
A typical great soccer athlete is under 6 ft, and a typical great athlete in main American sports is taller. Obviously plenty of exceptions, as there are many great tall soccer players and there are great little guys in basketball, football, hockey and especially baseball, but the point is, soccer favors a different type of athlete. I now googled that even MLB average height is 6-2, that's very tall in soccer.
So I think that other sports taking top soccer athletes in the US is probably not a big issue.
Common sense would suggest that there must be many great athletes in the US, that just aren't considered great athletes in traditional American sports due to lack of height but are premier athletes for soccer.
However, to be a great soccer player you have to put in a lot of work. Being a great athlete is a small part of it, this isn't cycling.
Top soccer countries tend to have cultures that are obsessive about soccer. Kids dive into soccer pre-school and don't get distracted.
In the US, kids try soccer but get distracted by other options. So technically they can't catch up.
If Messi grew up playing some soccer, some football, some basketball, some softball and some lacrosse, he wouldn't be Messi.
Lithuania has 3 mil people and often makes top 4 in basketball world tournaments, because basketball is an obsession, it's what all kids in Lithuania play all the time - at school, at home after school. Finland has 5 mil people and it's usually top 4 in ice hockey for similar reasons.
In soccer, you have nations of 20, 50 mil people or more that are similarly obsessed with soccer.
Is what I said not a fact? It is. Soccer here is expensive as all hell, whereas anyone can get into basketball, football and baseball leagues. This is not the case in poorer countries. Everyone can and does play. Why does what I said bother you so much? Does the typical Senegalese parent pay $10+k per year for their child to play competitively?
I think he's probably offended by the term "third world" country. Not sure why, it's simply a technical term. Some people use "developing" country now instead, but I get the sense he'd be equally offended by that. Some people are just touchy, especially about the truth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chukcha
A typical great soccer athlete is under 6 ft, and a typical great athlete in main American sports is taller. Obviously plenty of exceptions,
Clearly you're not familiar with American sports, particularly football. The "rugby" roles that don't involve passing (blocker, running back, etc) height is actually a disadvantage, you want a lower center of gravity. Frankly, it's my opinion that that athletes with "agile feet" tend to end up playing American football as running backs, tight ends, and cornerbacks, rather than going the soccer route. There's a LOT more money in being an NFL running back or tight end, so you can hardly blame them, but that's to the sorrow of soccer development in the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chukcha
So I think that other sports taking top soccer athletes in the US is probably not a big issue.
Common sense would suggest that there must be many great athletes in the US, that just aren't considered great athletes in traditional American sports due to lack of height but are premier athletes for soccer.
Other than my statement above, I think the big thing that soccer requires versus most of our other sports is endurance, and it's really unique to soccer. The only sport we have that requires similar endurance levels is basketball, but people get subbed in and out of basketball games at a relatively high rate in order to rest (among other reasons), while soccer only allows 3 total subs per game, meaning most players have to go for a full 45 minutes at a time. So really from the beginning most of our sports programs don't necessarily encourage the necessary stamina and endurance for soccer athletes.
Granted, but when you look a the main sport, there's only a couple (max 3) for each country. For most of the world, Soccer is #1, with Rugby or Cricket landing #2 (the two seem to be exclusive outside of the UK), and hockey coming in just behind, unless you live in Canada or Russia, where it ties with soccer for #1. But in the US it's Baseball and Football at #1 (which exactly is #1 will be argued forever) and Basketball and Hockey fighting for #2, with soccer being a distant 5th. It's not the only country where soccer takes a back seat: the Phillipines barely bothers with it, focusing on volleyball and basketball, and India is almost exclusively cricket country.
Putting in things like motorsports and golf is silly. We're talking about team sports leagues here, and those are a completely different animal. Anyway, back to the US: MLS tries hard, very hard, but they're essentially 5th in line for athletes after MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL. I don't think there's any country out there where the local soccer league is actually 5th in line...unless it doesn't exist in the first place. Most of the world actually considers MLS to be a developmental leage for EPL, Bundesliga, and Liga MX.
Rugby is a very popular sport, in relation to union and league, and compeitions such as the six nations and Rugby World Cup are very well watched. Union is of course the more popular of the two types of Rugby.
The big difference in relation to American Football, Baseball and Basketball is that they lack the major international competitions that other sports such as Soccer (Football), Rugby and Cricket enjoy. Whilst Hockey and even Basketball doesn't get much coverage as a sport in many countries.
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