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

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Look, I’m not one of these people who pretend athleticism doesn’t matter in soccer. It does. But it’s also a highly technical sport.

That’s the reason why a Norwegian guy and Jurgen Bumblefrick can play. Because it’s true that it’s not just about athleticism.

Athleticism would give the U.S. a great advantage that many other countries don’t have. However, because it’s a highly technical sport, they’d need to start from a young age or else they’ll be so far behind they’ll never catch up.

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The other aspect is Americans are obsessively individualistic in their thinking of talent/success.


A lot of the successful European nations actually bring up their youth under a common national philosophy/style.

This is one of the reasons people say Germany has been so bad the last 3 world cups....they failed to enact a particular style of play they adhered to in their more successful years. The talent is there...they just cannot execute at a team level.

It turns out soccer is not just a technical sport, its a very team sport, and this is hugely difficult for Americans to wrap their heads around. It bothers them a great deal that soccer doesnt work like USA basketball.

If the supremely athletically gifted players cannot play within a system competently then it makes no difference what advantages their athleticism gives them....there's no one good enough to just take over a game like NBA basketball.

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it's about skill and touch

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My high school won a soccer state championship my freshman year. Our best player walked on to play football at Florida State and was a practice squad warm body for 4 years. I don't wanna hear it.

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Bolt is 6'5 and has more athletic gifts than anyone in football or basketball

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Bolt has one skill.


Running fast.




Elite football players and elite basketball players have elite spatial awareness. Elite agility, change of direction. Elite leaping ability and timing.


Which apply to soccer.

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There's a reason even now our best national team guys have deep international connections and play in Europe.

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I hope nobody is arguing the MLS would dominate soccer.

These conversations always try to focus on the elite of our Tier 1 (like the Lebron Jameses), but we could dominate without touching that tier, or even tier 2, or even probably tier 3.

We have so many athletes of the typical soccer build playing college sports at relatively high levels. We see these kids every year in college football and college basketball. There are so many WRs, CBs, Ss, PGs, SGs, etc. playing for shitty football/basketball teams with no chance of going pro. Hell, even if we just limited the pool to 1AA and D2, we'd have an incredible assortment. Then add in all the amazing high school players who don't even get those shots for being 5-7 - 5-10.

These college players who are successful show you they have the proper mentality to develop as an athlete. The discipline, coachability, effort, etc. shows they can be trained.

Now the high school pool obviously doesn't show the same level, but that population is so large you'd probably get even more out of it.

And we wouldn't need all of them. 10% of that population being steered towards soccer probably sets us up as elite. 20-25% and we're France, capable of producing multiple elite squads.

It's a numbers game, and we have the potential numbers, sports culture, money, etc. to do something on a level soccer hasn't seen.

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Yeah. Turns out it's not particularly viable unless you're an exceptionally rare case

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You underestimate how many "exceptionally rare cases" we produce.

And you seem to be under the impression that we'd be taking kids at like 15-16 who had never played soccer and trying to train them, in this scenario.

Dude it’s a simple numbers game. We have 350 million people in a diverse population with first world resources second to none

If it was our top sporting priority we would be absolutely dominant. How in the frick can you or anyone honestly argue against that?

Brazil is the most populated country in South America. They lead the world with 5 world cups

Germany is the most populated soccer country in Europe (only Russia has more people). They are second all time in world cups with 4

This isn’t a coincidence, mate. We have their population combined….

Would have lebrons, Russel Westbrook’s, Jamar Chase, Christian McCcaferies, etc

We would have all fricking kinds

We would have freak 5’7” people too….

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If it was our top sporting priority we would be absolutely dominant. How in the frick can you or anyone honestly argue against that

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You say this like Argentina didnt just tie Cape Verde.

Cape verde population is 500k. Argentina prioritizes soccer and still couldnt beat them in 90 minutes.

Its a game of teamwork and effort.

Brazil just got knocked out by Norway. Its not because brazil has a smaller population or doesnt care. Its because 11 players from Norway beat the best brazil could offer up

Ocho cinco was a baller arse soccer player.

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No colleges in the south seem to have a men's soccer team so no NIL money going around.

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Well that would be because it’s effectively federally illegal

(I’m being 95% serious by the way; this is a negative consequence of Title IX)