The USA sucks because guys like Percy Harvin, Nate Robinson, and Russell Westbrook don't chose to play. If they started at a young age, it would be all over. No little Italian or Brit could hang with those guys.
I don't know. Soccer is a skill sport. Being a great athlete only takes you so far. That's actually the main problem with american soccer in my opinion, more than scouting or losing athletes to other sports (valid points though). The coaching isn't good enough in the US. American youths develop well physically and athletically, but they are not being taught ball skills enough. The national team is a good reflection of that. Always physical, always some fast players, always tough to beat, winning mentality, but at the end of the day they lack skills. I think there is something cultural here -look at this thread, you would never hear size arguments on a real soccer board.
Interesting post. One of my friend's little brother got sent to Florida to play for the Youth Academy. He ended up playing college soccer and he's now toiling in the minor leagues and playing professional indoor, basically bouncing from one gig to another. Why is the coaching so bad there? For a few years I tried to get into soccer, mainly because I enjoyed playing Fifa on Xbox. The US never seemed to have any goal scorers with any flair, so the skill argument makes sense.
The USA sucks because guys like Percy Harvin, Nate Robinson, and Russell Westbrook don't chose to play. If they started at a young age, it would be all over. No little Italian or Brit could hang with those guys.
I don't know. Soccer is a skill sport. Being a great athlete only takes you so far. That's actually the main problem with american soccer in my opinion, more than scouting or losing athletes to other sports (valid points though). The coaching isn't good enough in the US. American youths develop well physically and athletically, but they are not being taught ball skills enough. The national team is a good reflection of that. Always physical, always some fast players, always tough to beat, winning mentality, but at the end of the day they lack skills. I think there is something cultural here -look at this thread, you would never hear size arguments on a real soccer board.
This. We scout for bigger/stronger/faster when it should be skilled/quick/smart.
Yeah, but it's the worlds most popular sport and your just ignorant and feel this way because you don't understand it through your American-centric world view. And you're not very enlightened. Probably you're against free healthcare and retiring at 50 too.
Cowherd had a good line today when people kept telling him it's the most popular sport. Rice is the most popular food in the world, but I'd still take kobe beef any day of the week. It's popular because it's accessible and a team from the Ivory Coast or Ghana doesn't need expensive equipment to play it.
Bullshit. People in other countries have plenty of alternatives. They choose soccer, err, football because they prefer it.
for most kids, the cost of a football helmet exceeds their annual food budget.
That's because you don't need a helmet to play rugby. No one gives a fuck about American football outside of the US, whether they can afford it or not. Sorry. I think that may be the source of your jealousy.
Soccer is simply the sport Americans choose to fail at. Until the USA gets management to tell FIFA to fuck off, run it and fund it like winners, we will continue to lose... and soccer will remain a minor league sport in the US
Money has nothing to do with it. America is behind because it fails at scouting and developing talent. We send our best players to 4 years of college kick ball, while the rest of the world has players signing pro contracts at age 16. HTH.
Hello there. It's hard to scout and develop talent when your most talented athletes choose to play better sports.
Hope this helps.
Talent for football/basketball =/= talent for soccer
Not even close. The best soccer players in the world are 5'7".
Keep pretending you know what you're talking about, though. It's good for a laugh.
Have you ever heard of bing? I have. Germany is ranked #2 in the world, did you know that? I didn't. Did you know everybody on their roster is 6' to 6'6" ... with most being 6'2-6'4" ... with only two exceptions?
Bing sure did blow your fucking theory out of the water.
No. No I haven't?
Does Bing poast here?
He doesn't poast here but I'm sure he reads these boreds like the other recruits. I'm hearing he's going to shock the world and commit to UW, and when he does he'll be bringing his 5 star Long Beach Poly teammates with him. It's gonna get crazy in chat!
The USA sucks because guys like Percy Harvin, Nate Robinson, and Russell Westbrook don't chose to play. If they started at a young age, it would be all over. No little Italian or Brit could hang with those guys.
I don't know. Soccer is a skill sport. Being a great athlete only takes you so far. That's actually the main problem with american soccer in my opinion, more than scouting or losing athletes to other sports (valid points though). The coaching isn't good enough in the US. American youths develop well physically and athletically, but they are not being taught ball skills enough. The national team is a good reflection of that. Always physical, always some fast players, always tough to beat, winning mentality, but at the end of the day they lack skills. I think there is something cultural here -look at this thread, you would never hear size arguments on a real soccer board.
Interesting post. One of my friend's little brother got sent to Florida to play for the Youth Academy. He ended up playing college soccer and he's now toiling in the minor leagues and playing professional indoor, basically bouncing from one gig to another. Why is the coaching so bad there? For a few years I tried to get into soccer, mainly because I enjoyed playing Fifa on Xbox. The US never seemed to have any goal scorers with any flair, so the skill argument makes sense.
Why the coaching is bad is hard to answer without knowing how it goes into detail. I made this statement based on a survey I read from European technicians a few years ago who studied how soccer was taught in the US, and they were pointing out these kind of differences. They were saying from a young age, the coaching is different and some fundamentals are not emphasized in the US that they would have emphasized. It doesn't matter that you "import" coaches later, its already too late. To fix this, you would need to change how soccer coaches are trained, and that usually is decided at the highest level of the federation, and obviously it would take years before yielding results. I'm pretty sure they are well aware of that and making steps in the right direction.
The USA sucks because guys like Percy Harvin, Nate Robinson, and Russell Westbrook don't chose to play. If they started at a young age, it would be all over. No little Italian or Brit could hang with those guys.
I don't know. Soccer is a skill sport. Being a great athlete only takes you so far. That's actually the main problem with american soccer in my opinion, more than scouting or losing athletes to other sports (valid points though). The coaching isn't good enough in the US. American youths develop well physically and athletically, but they are not being taught ball skills enough. The national team is a good reflection of that. Always physical, always some fast players, always tough to beat, winning mentality, but at the end of the day they lack skills. I think there is something cultural here -look at this thread, you would never hear size arguments on a real soccer board.
This. We scout for bigger/stronger/faster when it should be skilled/quick/smart.
And to be fair it's not just the USA that makes this (or other) mistake. It's not an easy science.
The USA sucks because guys like Percy Harvin, Nate Robinson, and Russell Westbrook don't chose to play. If they started at a young age, it would be all over. No little Italian or Brit could hang with those guys.
I don't know. Soccer is a skill sport. Being a great athlete only takes you so far. That's actually the main problem with american soccer in my opinion, more than scouting or losing athletes to other sports (valid points though). The coaching isn't good enough in the US. American youths develop well physically and athletically, but they are not being taught ball skills enough. The national team is a good reflection of that. Always physical, always some fast players, always tough to beat, winning mentality, but at the end of the day they lack skills. I think there is something cultural here -look at this thread, you would never hear size arguments on a real soccer board.
Comments
Way too many soccer threads.
To fix this, you would need to change how soccer coaches are trained, and that usually is decided at the highest level of the federation, and obviously it would take years before yielding results. I'm pretty sure they are well aware of that and making steps in the right direction.
Tired of all the contrived interest in this shit, including the highlights of some fucking 150 lb twerp using his head on the ball.
TIA
See also, softball.
It's still not as fun to watch as football, basketball, hockey, or rugby
but it sure as shit beats baseball