Author Topic: USA SOCCER: Myth or Fact  (Read 14847 times)

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Re: USA SOCCER: Myth or Fact
« Reply #30 on: July 11, 2018, 11:17:42 AM »

Offline Ogaju

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Being taller isn't a positive in soccer, so some of the best basketball and football players wouldn't be very good soccer players, however if all the great PG's, LB's, RB's, etc. (you know the 5'10" to 6'2" type athletes) focused on soccer from birth, the U.S. would dominate the sport.  That doesn't mean we would win every single time, but the U.S. would be the premier soccer powerhouse.

Imagine several of the super long, athletic basketball players who have really good timing playing as goalies.

You have that type of player all over the world, and they do not need a court with two baskets to hone their skills ... all they need is a patch of land, an object that can substitute for a ball, and other object to create a soccer goal and its on. Cheap and inexpensive way to start playing at a very young age. Imagine Olajuwon as a goalie.

Re: USA SOCCER: Myth or Fact
« Reply #31 on: July 11, 2018, 11:22:22 AM »

Offline Ogaju

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American football already in decline at youth level due to concussion issues. (Ironically doesn’t seem to affect soccer concerns).

Baseball gradually losing popularity, no longer America’s pastime. It has become a bore to watch for most young people.

Basketball, by and large, favors taller athletes at most of the positions, to the exclusion of the vast majority.

The interest in soccer here, as a spectator sport is palpable. I’m sure viewership of this World Cup in the States is at an all time high.

My guess is that eventually (20 years? 30 years?) soccer will eventually climb into the top 2-3 sports played and watched in the States. The more popular it becomes, the more the better, more motivated athletes will play it.

Dave Beckham once said that the best players in the world usually come from economically deprived areas, where soccer is the only means to escape poverty. Basketball is so ingrained in our city’s neighborhoods, wonder what it will take to get Those kids hooked on soccer?

Soccer in those country is way more than a means to escape poverty. It is a way of life.

Re: USA SOCCER: Myth or Fact
« Reply #32 on: July 11, 2018, 11:31:10 AM »

Offline Moranis

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Being taller isn't a positive in soccer, so some of the best basketball and football players wouldn't be very good soccer players, however if all the great PG's, LB's, RB's, etc. (you know the 5'10" to 6'2" type athletes) focused on soccer from birth, the U.S. would dominate the sport.  That doesn't mean we would win every single time, but the U.S. would be the premier soccer powerhouse.

I disagree you are extrapolating from US dominance in other sports, but you do not seem to consider the fact that US dominates in other sports because the rest of the world is primarily focused on soccer. If the rest of the world played basketball at the rate of the US you would not have the overwhelming dominance of US basketball players that you just tried to extrapolate to soccer.

The NBA is not just the primary basketball league in the world it really is the ONLY one that all players aspire to. In the few years that there has been increasing mobility of international players the dominance has been reduced. If kids the world over played basketball at the rate the US kids played basketball things would be more even.

Finally, there is no doubt that the US will use its financial, scientific, and coaching, advantage to train and excel but players of all nations will be exposed to this expenditure and opportunities and will return to play for their home countries. I do not see any picture where any country will consistently dominate the #1 spot in soccer.
I don't disregard that at all, but the US has a greater population then all but India and China.  the US has far more wealth then every other country (over 6 trillion larger economy than China which is nearly 10 trillion more than Japan).  The US also has a much more diverse population base then just about every other country, which helps a great deal in things like athleticism (natural selection has borne this out). 

The simple reality is that if the US devoted the resources to soccer and had its best athletes playing soccer from birth, the US would in fact dominate soccer. 
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Re: USA SOCCER: Myth or Fact
« Reply #33 on: July 11, 2018, 11:31:36 AM »

Offline footey

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American football already in decline at youth level due to concussion issues. (Ironically doesn’t seem to affect soccer concerns).

Baseball gradually losing popularity, no longer America’s pastime. It has become a bore to watch for most young people.

Basketball, by and large, favors taller athletes at most of the positions, to the exclusion of the vast majority.

The interest in soccer here, as a spectator sport is palpable. I’m sure viewership of this World Cup in the States is at an all time high.

My guess is that eventually (20 years? 30 years?) soccer will eventually climb into the top 2-3 sports played and watched in the States. The more popular it becomes, the more the better, more motivated athletes will play it.

Dave Beckham once said that the best players in the world usually come from economically deprived areas, where soccer is the only means to escape poverty. Basketball is so ingrained in our city’s neighborhoods, wonder what it will take to get Those kids hooked on soccer?

Soccer in those country is way more than a means to escape poverty. It is a way of life.

Beckham's point was that the best players tended to come from economically deprived conditions.  I think Brazil would be a good example of that.  Or England's best players are more more likely to come from a working class neighborhood than a posh area, no?

You see similar things in baseball, where the best players, in terms of percentage of a country's population, come from the Dominican Republic, which is an extremely poor country.  Likewise in basketball, the best NBA players often come from economically deprived situations.  Of course there are exceptions to this, but the general rule would still seem to apply.