OT: If soccer was the #1 sport in USA

[peZt]

I’m just laughing at the notion that 5 foot nuthin Messi is genetically gifted.

He is a freak. There's no other player with his combination of quickness, strength and deacceleration ability. His first step is out of this world and his strength and balance is incredible given his size, super hard to get off his feet. His physical gifts are just as big of a reason for him being the GOAT than his skill level.

[Illmatic12]

Is there any good training available in the states, relative to the top countries? How do you know who is qualified?

I'd like to put my kid into soccer when he's older, but I know zip about soccer and don't want to be swindled.

if he shows signs of being good get him tried out in HOLLAND.
they are GREAT at developing young players.

If the kid looks like he could be good enough to go pro and make money from playing, 100% get him out of the US and have him try out for an overseas academy.

Iirc FC Barcelona and PSG also have established academies in the US, so maybe he won't have to go overseas altogether. But I would say that going down the usual path of American travel team -> HS soccer -> college soccer will NOT maximize his prospects.

Even if your aim is to get him a free ride through college, because of Title IX many universities don't even give full scholarships for soccer so that's not even worth it.

[peZt]

I’m just laughing at the notion that 5 foot nuthin Messi is genetically gifted.

Messi is meant to play soccer as he is Argentinian of Italian & Spanish descent, & technically perfect but he had issues when he was a kid as he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.

His health issues are common knowledge but where he grew up is cultural influence, not genetics. Soccer might be the sport least reliant on superior athleticism of any of the majors. Messi, Iniesta... shoot, that entire Barca squad. Modric, fat Ronaldo, etc. Mo Salah isn’t much athletically and he’s tearing up the most physical league in the world. There’s a position, team, and league for just about every body type.

I'm not trying to side with that racist dude at all don't get me wrong, but your notion that athlecism doesn't play a big part in Soccer couldn't be further from the truth. All the guys you mentioned are incredibly gifted athletically in their own way. Iniesta and Modric incredibly agile and quick, Fat Ronaldo still quick and strong. And Salah just like Messi is extremely fast and also strong.

Just because some people don't have jump out of the gym type of verticality, doesn't mean that they aren't athletes.
Soccer requires a different type of athetlicism than Basketball, but that doesn't mean that these guys are less athletic as a whole.

[Oscar9992]

If soccer was #1 sport in usa this board would even exist

i am from Europe and trust me,you dont want soccer to become as popular as it is here..It leaves no freaking breathing space for other sports.It dominates like NFL in Usa only 20 times worse..I'm kinda pissed it's getting so popular in Usa.

Soccer dominates in Europe because in other sports European countries are not that good/great, if we compare with the 5 most popular sports in USA, Europe only beats them in soccer and not every Europe National team.
Basketball Europe have great National teams, but USA is better;
Ice hockey USA and Canada are better;
Baseball and Football, Europe don't have that.
So of course soccer dominates in Europe, Europe and South America are soccer continents. North America is not a soccer continent. And to tell you the truth would be weird if was the other way around. lol

To be fair Sweden, Finland & Russia are good as USA if not better in Hockey... Canada is in league of his own.

While Baseball & American Football are almost non-existant in Europe, but they are popular in Korea & Japan though.

USA prefers their own sports (Football, Baseball, Basketball etc.)... Hockey is not that popular there as in Canada.

[dosun]

I’m just laughing at the notion that 5 foot nuthin Messi is genetically gifted.

He is a freak. There's no other player with his combination of quickness, strength and deacceleration ability. His first step is out of this world and his strength and balance is incredible given his size, super hard to get off his feet. His physical gifts are just as big of a reason for him being the GOAT than his skill level.

Physically CR7 is a bigger freak, but of course Messi's skill level is better too bad that skill level chokes away when he plays with Argentina.

[Lalouie]

How good would we be? Considering all the top athletes would grow up to play soccer instead of basketball/football.

the usa has a population difference that is overwhelming. but soccer is a smaller man's game is it not? not sure. anyway forget the football players forget the basketball players too

but it's not the size of the population so much as it is the dedication to the sport. people in the usa are not as dedicated as the peoples in other countries, so the population difference is negated. look at jamaica in the sprints or kenya in the distances.

[dosun]

If soccer was #1 sport in usa this board would even exist

i am from Europe and trust me,you dont want soccer to become as popular as it is here..It leaves no freaking breathing space for other sports.It dominates like NFL in Usa only 20 times worse..I'm kinda pissed it's getting so popular in Usa.

Soccer dominates in Europe because in other sports European countries are not that good/great, if we compare with the 5 most popular sports in USA, Europe only beats them in soccer and not every Europe National team.
Basketball Europe have great National teams, but USA is better;
Ice hockey USA and Canada are better;
Baseball and Football, Europe don't have that.
So of course soccer dominates in Europe, Europe and South America are soccer continents. North America is not a soccer continent. And to tell you the truth would be weird if was the other way around. lol

To be fair Sweden, Finland & Russia are good as USA if not better in Hockey... Canada is in league of his own.

While Baseball & American Football are almost non-existant in Europe, but they are popular in Korea & Japan though.

USA prefers their own sports (Football, Baseball, Basketball etc.)... Hockey is not that popular there as in Canada.

Well i don't follow Ice Hockey that much, so i apologize to Sweden, Finland & Russia.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I think the US would have a very ugly but effective brand of footie if it were the number 1 sport in the US. Guys who are somehow 6'4 230lbs and ridiculously fast and hard to knock off their line when they have the ball, a lot of long ball with guys trying to use speed to beat the backline. Probably 20 offsides per match for the US lol. You'd have couple of players who are technically sound while the midfield is littered with large athletes who are just big, fast and can cover a lot of ground and win headers.

[NO-KG-AI]

If the US cared about Soccer, we'd dominate it so thoroughly that the rest of the world would choose some other sport to play, and try to make us feel like we should care about it more than the sport we own.

[CS707]

Messi is meant to play soccer as he is Argentinian of Italian & Spanish descent, & technically perfect but he had issues when he was a kid as he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.

His health issues are common knowledge but where he grew up is cultural influence, not genetics. Soccer might be the sport least reliant on superior athleticism of any of the majors. Messi, Iniesta... shoot, that entire Barca squad. Modric, fat Ronaldo, etc. Mo Salah isn’t much athletically and he’s tearing up the most physical league in the world. There’s a position, team, and league for just about every body type.

I'm not trying to side with that racist dude at all don't get me wrong, but your notion that athlecism doesn't play a big part in Soccer couldn't be further from the truth. All the guys you mentioned are incredibly gifted athletically in their own way. Iniesta and Modric incredibly agile and quick, Fat Ronaldo still quick and strong. And Salah just like Messi is extremely fast and also strong.

Just because some people don't have jump out of the gym type of verticality, doesn't mean that they aren't athletes.
Soccer requires a different type of athetlicism than Basketball, but that doesn't mean that these guys are less athletic as a whole.

Obviously all of these guys are world class athletes relative to the rest of us but athleticism is the least relevant aspect of what makes them world class. Sublime touch and overall skill with the ball combined with an extremely high soccer IQ or just the sheer relentlessness of guys like Salah and Suarez got them farther than their athletic abilities. Acceleration is just as much understanding what you want to do with the ball and having the requisite skill to do it as it is raw physical prowess. I’m not saying these guys don’t have some inherent traits that make them special but it certainly isn’t because they’re the the most freakish athletes on the field.

[Alatan]

If soccer was #1 sport in usa this board would even exist

i am from Europe and trust me,you dont want soccer to become as popular as it is here..It leaves no freaking breathing space for other sports.It dominates like NFL in Usa only 20 times worse..I'm kinda pissed it's getting so popular in Usa.

Soccer dominates in Europe because in other sports European countries are not that good/great, if we compare with the 5 most popular sports in USA, Europe only beats them in soccer and not every Europe National team.
Basketball Europe have great National teams, but USA is better;
Ice hockey USA and Canada are better;
Baseball and Football, Europe don't have that.
So of course soccer dominates in Europe, Europe and South America are soccer continents. North America is not a soccer continent. And to tell you the truth would be weird if was the other way around. lol

Lol, what an arrogant statement. Maybe USA dominates in basketball because they are not that good at soccer, the most popular sport in the world. (Of course not...) Besides nobody even plays baseball and american football except you guys.

[Carlos_Danger]

Watching the world cup every 4 years helps me put NBA acting antics in perspective. Yeah, it can be bad, but at least it's not soccer bad.

* Guy goes down like a sniper shot him
* Replay shows another player's foot grazed his heel

* Opposing player puts hand on player's back to get his attention
* Player throws his arms wildly into the air and falls forward

[Carlos_Danger]

Soccer should be required viewing for WWE performers. Take notes.

[Riko]

I think the US would have a very ugly but effective brand of footie if it were the number 1 sport in the US. Guys who are somehow 6'4 230lbs and ridiculously fast and hard to knock off their line when they have the ball, a lot of long ball with guys trying to use speed to beat the backline. Probably 20 offsides per match for the US lol. You'd have couple of players who are technically sound while the midfield is littered with large athletes who are just big, fast and can cover a lot of ground and win headers.

6'4 and above players are useless in football, their center of gravity is too high and they can't control the ball, they can't contain the first step of a 5'8 player and they get tired more easily (too much muscolar mass to carry around).
Usually the only usefull 6'3-6'4 players are central defender but the whole team need to cover their lacks with tattics otherwise they wuold be exposed...

[RGM_SU]

If the US cared about Soccer, we'd dominate it so thoroughly that the rest of the world would choose some other sport to play, and try to make us feel like we should care about it more than the sport we own.

Big words considering the US failed to make the World Cup against competition like Panama. A nation with 1% the population of the US where football isn't even the number one sport.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I think the US would have a very ugly but effective brand of footie if it were the number 1 sport in the US. Guys who are somehow 6'4 230lbs and ridiculously fast and hard to knock off their line when they have the ball, a lot of long ball with guys trying to use speed to beat the backline. Probably 20 offsides per match for the US lol. You'd have couple of players who are technically sound while the midfield is littered with large athletes who are just big, fast and can cover a lot of ground and win headers.

6'4 and above players are useless in football, their center of gravity is too high and they can't control the ball, they can't contain the first step of a 5'8 player and they get tired more easily (too much muscolar mass to carry around).
Usually the only usefull 6'3-6'4 players are central defender but the whole team need to cover their lacks with tattics otherwise they wuold be exposed...

I think the US has a different class of athletes as seen by their dominance in the Olympics, if it were the number 1 sport in the country I think they'd have one of the taller teams in the world (average height for Germany is 6'2) with some unique players.

De Gea, Pogba, Lukaku, Zlatan are all between 6'3 and 6'5, the combined population of their 4 countries is 1/3 of what the US population is. Just numbers alone and the US would produce some taller players IF the country cared about the sport like the rest of the world and had the academies but it doesn't, this is all hypothetical since the NBA & NFl get all the development money in the US and soccer is viewed as a rich persons sport there.

[WalterBenjamin]

Nothing would happen. You have more "athleets" in Nigeria playing soccer than the US has and nothing happens. If the argument is about people of colour playing soccer then the whole argument is just wrong.

Alphonso Davies is probably one of the best athletes in soccer in the whole world at age 17. We will see wher it gets him.

[RGM_SU]

De Gea, Pogba, Lukaku, Zlatan are all between 6'3 and 6'5, the combined population of their 4 countries is 1/3 of what the US population is. Just numbers alone and the US would produce some taller players IF the country cared about the sport like the rest of the world and had the academies but it doesn't, this is all hypothetical since the NBA & NFl get all the development money in the US and soccer is viewed as a rich persons sport there.

Population size can be an advantage, but does not necessarily mean you'll automatically be successful if you pour money into it. Belgium has one of the best rosters in the World Cup and the country has a population of 11 million. Uruguay has produced some great players like Suarez, Godin or Cavani and they have a population of 3 million. It's not only about developmental money, it's about a tradition and a culture. From a physical standpoint there is no reason why Germany for example could not produce better basketball talent or talent for the NFL. But there is not only a lack of infrastructure, but more importantly a lack of culture.

[NO-KG-AI]

If the US cared about Soccer, we'd dominate it so thoroughly that the rest of the world would choose some other sport to play, and try to make us feel like we should care about it more than the sport we own.

Big words considering the US failed to make the World Cup against competition like Panama. A nation with 1% the population of the US where football isn't even the number one sport.

I wouldn't know, nor would 99.9999% of the US population.

[TheGOATRises007]

US do care about Soccer.

The problem is people overstate athleticism with soccer. There's plenty of great athletes in soccer who are terrible players.

Even if it was the #1 sport, I doubt there would be much difference.