Do you think if the best US athletes played soccer instead of basketball/football/baseball etc we would be pretty good? We suck because we don't play, not the other way around.
I agree with this point (although I disagree that the U.S. National team sucks). There is a lack of blacks that play soccer and hockey. Imagine how good the U.S. could be on a worldwide scale if we could get more minorities involved in those sports.
Not necessarily. Soccer requires a different set of skills and body type than playing basketball, football and baseball. Most basketball players would be too tall to play soccer. Most football players would be too fat to play soccer. And most baseball players would be too slow to play soccer.
I have to respectfully disagree. There are many tall strikers (very good ones) playing for nat'l teams and excelling in the club level as well. See Ibrahimovic, Crouch, Toni Luca, Koller - I believe they are all over 6'3 and have amazing skill on the ball. All American football players aren't fat...Wide receivers and running backs would make excellent soccer players. The problem is that soccer is a mental game as well. You have to understand the intricasies of the game. You have to understand give and gos, making runs, seing the field, dribbling, passing, when to attack, when to possess, offsides traps, defending..all these things that you have learn and the very best just seem to be born with it.
How is that a problem? Soccer isn't the only game in which you have to play smart. Basketball uses similar offense and defense. Football has so many different looks on both sides of the ball that it is ridiculously confusing. I feel sure that even us dumb americans could figure out soccer if we were as passionate about it as we are our other sports.
So a running back/cornerback/wide receiver who is 5' 10"-6' 2" and 210-230 pounds and can run 100 yards in 9.8 seconds can't be a soccer player?
Do you mean too fat or too big? People playing those positions usually have exceptionally low bodyfat %. If they quit lifting weights and spent their time on endurance running I think they'd have no problem whatsoever.
Sorry, I didn't phrase that correctly. My intention was not to say that americans are too dumb to figure it out. I was meaning to say that you could not stick in a great athlete from the NBA or NFL onto a soccer field and expect him to be good. Believe me, I love basketball and american football and do not think they are easy and/or lack strategy or mental aspects. I should have phrased it better.
SIGNATURE MATERIAL : KingCheetah, where's that "Classic Moments potential" image when I need it...? I know what you mean, yo. But you know you're shooting yourself in the FEET everytime you keep saying these things, right...? You won't be able to play A SPORT, much less soccer in the office (with paper clips, trash, etc.) after that...
Gotcha. I agree that you couldn't just stick them in another sport and expect them to dominate. This is my first year to really get into World Cup and hopefully (but not likely) we can see some changes in how soccer is portrayed in the US. I'm actually hoping that I can go to the next World Cup. Has the location already been decided? Also about the seeding. I actually wonder if FIFA put the US in a super tough group as a way of sticking it to us since we aren't the most well liked country in the world right now. I'd think that they would want us to do well and at least advance to the tournament. The more exposure the US gets the more money they can get from us.
I think the point is that if the U.S. could get these talented athletes into soccer instead of football/basketball, the overall state of the national men's team would improve immensely. It would be difficult to take someone like Reggie Bush and put him on a soccer field at this point in his life, but if you took him at 14 and pushed him into soccer, he may be a very gifted player and would have learned the intricacies of the game.
