re: I know it’s cliche, but our best athletes would dominate Soccer.

Dennis Bergkamp wasn’t even average when it came to speed but he’d make you look like you had never touched a ball before. The game is so much more than being “really really fast and athletic”.

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Yes I’m sure that fricking Bo Jackson could never be near the player that some random Norwegian is if he started playing soccer at 14. He just couldn’t figure out how to deal with Jurgen Bunblefrick who is 5’8 145 pounds.

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Correct. Also, the random Norwegian everyone is talking about is bigger than Bo Jackson was and is the son of a former Norwegian national team footballer and hero. Bo would be what he was: a great athlete. Maybe he could have gotten good enough to make a team on sheer athleticism, but if you watched the US team play last night and didn’t see how they couldn’t pass like the Belgians, receive a pass like the Belgians, dribble like the Belgians, shoot like the Belgians, or find open space like the Belgians, I don’t know what game you were watching. And that’s the result of being drilled on skills from the age of 4. European kids do not really even play games. They drill. They may scrimmage but they don’t do these fricking tournaments every weekend.

That goes for soccer and basketball. It’s why France and Spain and Italy and some of the Eastern European countries are starting to find themselves playing in the NBA and kicking the shite out of our “athletes.”

While you were posting that LovethatMoney just pointed out that these other countries start playing soccer at a young age

Who knew?

Kobe Bryant played soccer once and was not great

I think the argument is that having prime Russell Westbrook out there last night instead of Weston McKennie or prime Ed Reed instead of Tim Ream would still have resulted in a 4-1 loss even if Westbrook and Reed started playing soccer at the same age as McKennie and Ream.

The training / coaching is the issue. If the training and culture improved to compete with the best of Europe, then Russell Westbrook vs Weston McKennie might matter. Until that happens, it doesn’t.

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. If the training and culture improved to compete with the best of Europe, then Russell Westbrook vs Weston McKennie might matter.

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this is the literal argument

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I really don’t get it

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as do I that yall cant seem to grasp that we aren't saying throw 11 NBA or NFL players out there. Frankly I think yall are literally just doing a bit at this point cause there's no way yall are this obtuse

And the counter argument is while Russell Westbrook isn’t enough to overcome deficient training, Weston McKennie is more than enough if it’s sufficient.

You don’t need Westbrook.

Idk. Norway seems to be enjoying having a once in a generation physical beast

Can the retard Americans even do technical or skills if they are taller than 5’9?

Europe plays soccer since they are babies