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re: If other U.S. sports stars would have chosen soccer as their primary sport
Posted on 6/16/12 at 10:10 pm to StarSaint
Posted on 6/16/12 at 10:10 pm to StarSaint
quote:
I guess what you are saying is that in the "formative" years for many of these athletes, in the US these kids focus on baseball, football (american), basketball more than soccer. In other countries, it's probably soccer from day one.
Right. Which could explain why many of our better players seem to get better with age.
Pretty much what I'm saying in regards to the entire topic is this: the VERY BEST or close to the best of what we have in terms of athletes, coaches, facilities, tv analysts/journalists, new ideas and innovations of the game, everything, are not involved in soccer, but other sports. A sport that is probably about 4th in terms of popularity in a country will yield the 4th best results in terms of all the things I mentioned. All that being said, the game seems to be gaining popularity pretty rapidly. ESPN's investment in it really helps, even though all the snarky comments from non-soccer dudes on sportcenter piss me off sometimes.
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Posted on 6/16/12 at 10:51 pm to crazy4lsu
quote:
you see the more technical, disciplined teams winning over teams with excellent athletes, save for a few exceptions. If we can raise our technical standards to be on par with the rest of the world, then we can use the athletes we do get to their fullest potential.
Technical standards come with time, exposure, playing, coaching, all of it.
As long as guys would rather play basketball or football, or hockey, they wont get any good at soccer. In the northern tier, they play hockey, not soccer.
in the south, they play football.
in the cities they play basketball.
The hope for soccer in the USA is not only the suburbs, but Latinos. Latinos have several leagues in my town. From teeny kids to adults in their prime.
FWIW, we also have premier fast pitch softball women in our town. won state. little girls 10 years old are out in the street pitching to dads.
we also have lacrosse, boys and girls.
so we have a lot of sports for kids to play.
little league of course, too.
just saying, we are in fact split in our attention, and its pretty much up to the Latinos to carry the ball if soccer in the USA is going to compete with your pictured guy, Diego Forlan.
After all, Forlan's grandfather and father both played for the Uruguay team at the highest level. THAT's how you get guys like Forlan. they played when they were 2 with a national team dad.
We have that, but in baseball, basketball and football.
You see guys on LSU who are sons of players.
There is another Hilliard about to hit the very very big time as did his uncle.
This post was edited on 6/16/12 at 10:55 pm
Posted on 6/17/12 at 12:03 am to dgnx6
To participate, Rajon Rondo. Build an entire team around him.
Yet, he was the Golden Ball winner of a U17 World Championship and Best Young Player of WC 2002
He was hardly a terrible talent, and he did it while being unable to participate competitively in an NFL combine
quote:
I just dont see landon donovan as one of the top athletes in our country, im sorry i just dont.
Yet, he was the Golden Ball winner of a U17 World Championship and Best Young Player of WC 2002
He was hardly a terrible talent, and he did it while being unable to participate competitively in an NFL combine
Posted on 6/17/12 at 9:21 am to joey barton
quote:
I just dont see landon donovan as one of the top athletes in our country, im sorry i just dont.
quote:
He was hardly a terrible talent, and he did it while being unable to participate competitively in an NFL combine
Right on both counts. He is a great talent, but hardly one of the best America has to offer. If we devoted the same percentage of our resources towards soccer as the Euro/South American powers we would dominate the world's game like no one ever has. No one churns out athletes the way we do. Imagine Chris Paul being groomed his entire life to play attacking midfield instead of PG. He would make Sneijder look like Feilhaber. I know it's a dumb thing to talk about, but it's cool to think about what if things were different.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 9:29 am to mynamebowl
quote:
Right on both counts. He is a great talent, but hardly one of the best America has to offer. If we devoted the same percentage of our resources towards soccer as the Euro/South American powers we would dominate the world's game like no one ever has. No one churns out athletes the way we do. Imagine Chris Paul being groomed his entire life to play attacking midfield instead of PG. He would make Sneijder look like Feilhaber. I know it's a dumb thing to talk about, but it's cool to think about what if things were different.
And that is precisely the general idea of this thread.
Although we'll never know, I could see guys like him and Reggie Bush having a very good chance for their skill sets to translate to the game of soccer.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 10:03 am to StarSaint
Randy Moss is one American athlete I would have loved to see as a soccer player. He had quickness as well as top end speed. His balance and hand-eye coordination were unquestioned, and he could jump with the best. I picture him as a Fernando Torres in his prime type player with more athleticism.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 10:56 am to StarSaint
I would want Cam Newton somewhere on the pitch. 
Posted on 6/17/12 at 11:33 am to mynamebowl
quote:
Also, technical ability and skills are developed over a lifetime of playing and honing those skills.
Yes and no. Most astute scouts can tell you whether a player has the technical skills to play professionally by their teens. Theo Walcott started playing soccer at 11, and his technical skills suffer for it. It's only his elite athleticism and world class coaching that allows him to be successful.
We do an absolutely terrible job teaching the sport to kids from 8-12, even though we have plenty of kids who are playing it. Our technical ability isn't going to magically improve by having better athletes. It doesn't work that way. We've made some steps in the right direction, but we are still way far behind. Not only that, the type of athlete that soccer needs is one that isn't necessarily sought in other sports, so this sort of argument doesn't really hold water. It should be a discussion about how technical ability is formed, rather anything to do with the athlete.
This post was edited on 6/17/12 at 11:34 am
Posted on 6/17/12 at 11:39 am to mynamebowl
quote:
The truth is, if more of our best athletes played soccer: our country would invest more into it financially and culturally, we would have a deeper pool of athletes to choose from, and we would have better coaching/training methods to develop that better pool of players. So IMO, better athletes = better USMNT
What? You are going to argue that our technical skills would improve if we had better athletes? Then please explain Marvel Wynne.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 11:45 am to dgnx6
quote:
would think not. yeah italy and holland are smaller countries, but their best athletes always have and will play soccer.
But their best players are not always their best athletes. Pirlo and Totti are good examples for Italy. Outside of Robben and some other players, the Dutch NT isn't full of elite athletes either. They do have the best training program for young players in the world, though, which helps them work around the fact that have a very small population.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 12:04 pm to crazy4lsu
quote:
You are going to argue that our technical skills would improve if we had better athletes?
No, I'm arguing if our elite athletes played soccer then our country would invest way more into it and the results would show it. Just because Spain and Italy don't field elite athletic specimens and are successful doesn't mean that is the only way to do it. Our country is the best there is at developing athletes with new ideas and innovating the sports we actually care about. The problem is our greatest sporting minds aren't involved in soccer and IMO that's where we suffer the most. The next couple of generations of soccer players that we develop should improve dramatically w/ the increasing popularity of the game.
And yes, our player's technical skills would increase if we had better athletes playing soccer. Like I said, we would invest more into it if more of our best athletes were involved and the coaching and teaching of the game were better for our younger players.
This post was edited on 6/17/12 at 12:08 pm
Posted on 6/17/12 at 12:13 pm to crazy4lsu
quote:
Not only that, the type of athlete that soccer needs is one that isn't necessarily sought in other sports, so this sort of argument doesn't really hold water.
I don't buy this. Good athletes always translate with the right coaching/training. Just because Europe's elite athletes don't look like ours, doesn't mean that our athletes wouldn't translate to playing soccer. The reason they don't look like ours is because they don't have anywhere near the type of athletes that we breed over here. Again, my point is if we gave a shite and invested more into it, nobody would be close.
This entire conversation is a huge what if scenario and it will likely never happen, at least not in my lifetime. But it's fun to talk about so whatev.
This post was edited on 6/17/12 at 12:16 pm
Posted on 6/17/12 at 12:35 pm to mynamebowl
I think Doug Flutie would have been a hell of a soccer player.
Posted on 6/17/12 at 1:41 pm to joey barton
quote:
Yet, he was the Golden Ball winner of a U17 World Championship and Best Young Player of WC 2002
im talking today, if we had the talent pool to pick from, younger guys would have already come and gone and pushed guys like oneywu out and Landon wouldnt be relied upon as much.
A guy like tyrann mathieu would be a beast at soccer. think about it.
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