What American Athletes Would Have Been Great Soccer Players?

[Fudge Nuggets 19224]

4 hours ago, futureman said:

he’s a russian citizen.   good try though.  

Only because of a decree from Mad Vlad himself.  But I see your point, it's more difficult to play for a different country in the WC than Olympics; guess it's just not totally impossible.

Olympics are ridiculous in the way they handle it.  I think if you can find the country on a globe then you qualify.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Fudge Nuggets

[futureman 22546]

6 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Only because of a decree from Mad Vlad himself.  But I see your point, it's more difficult to play for a different country in the WC than Olympics; guess it's just not totally impossible.

Olympics are ridiculous in the way they handle it.  I think if you can find the country on a globe then you qualify.

he’d lived in russia for five years before becoming a citizen.  

[Catdaddyhorn 3447]

22 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

What is it about the women that the US is in the top tier for international soccer?

Relative to other countries  sports in general, and in this case with soccer, the ability for girls to play isn't riddled with hurdles and cultural obstructions to prevent them from developing their skill to a high level.  If we take it back to the topic at hand the U.S. would do well to not make soccer so cost prohibitive for many kids to develop their skills at a high level.  We don't have the benefit of soccer being a primary sport where the game is learned through pickup games with kids just playing by themselves, so like @naija said we need to take the other route of academies and high level development. Unfortunately the system we have now requires a lot money for kids to even participate once they get to a certain level.  

[Napoleon 8700]

23 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

What is it about the women that the US is in the top tier for international soccer?

Title IX

[Catdaddyhorn 3447]

Thought this video provided good color on how France became a soccer power. 

 

 

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

On 7/11/2018 at 10:19 PM, Catdaddyhorn said:

Relative to other countries  sports in general, and in this case with soccer, the ability for girls to play isn't riddled with hurdles and cultural obstructions to prevent them from developing their skill to a high level.  If we take it back to the topic at hand the U.S. would do well to not make soccer so cost prohibitive for many kids to develop their skills at a high level.  We don't have the benefit of soccer being a primary sport where the game is learned through pickup games with kids just playing by themselves, so like @naija said we need to take the other route of academies and high level development. Unfortunately the system we have now requires a lot money for kids to even participate once they get to a certain level.  

In working class England, the motherlode for dudes who play for top clubs and the national team, girls playing soccer is considered unfeminine. The equivalent over here is if you have a son who binge watches Project Runway and makes dresses out of bits of cloth. While things might have changed in the last 20 years, in the 1990s it was pretty much the sole preserve of lesbians, and there was still a stigma to that to some degree.  My ex-wife grew up in that culture and she would have created a scandal in her family if she ever demanded to play football. Same went for all of her friends, so they played rounders, field hockey, and netball instead.

 

She brought that attitude with her to the States so she never encouraged our daughter to play, either. 

[ousux 5602]

I think we'll get to find out inside 20 years give or take..

Regretfully, for those of us who love the other football that is.

[Napoleon 8700]

4 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

In working class England, the motherlode for dudes who play for top clubs and the national team, girls playing soccer is considered unfeminine. The equivalent over here is if you have a son who binge watches Project Runway and makes dresses out of bits of cloth. While things might have changed in the last 20 years, in the 1990s it was pretty much the sole preserve of lesbians, and there was still a stigma to that to some degree.  My ex-wife grew up in that culture and she would have created a scandal in her family if she ever demanded to play football. Same went for all of her friends, so they played rounders, field hockey, and netball instead.

She brought that attitude with her to the States so she never encouraged our daughter to play, either. 

You basically just summed up the plot of "Bend It Like Beckham", except with a Central Asian twist.

They even had a gay best friend who couldn't come out while at the same time the female soccer players were being pegged as dykes by the other characters in the film.
 

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by Napoleon

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

7 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

 

I was surprised to see England ranked so high in the FIFA polls, but that tends not to mean much. They were terrible when I lived over there. 

[Napoleon 8700]

2 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

I was surprised to see England ranked so high in the FIFA polls, but that tends not to mean much. They were terrible when I lived over there. 

They've been on a run plus they cut a lot of old dead weight.

They're still not really Top 8, but they're significantly better than they have been for about 20 years and their youth teams won the U-20 & U-17 World Cups last year, so they have some talent in the pipeline.

They still haven't figured out their midfield situation yet, nor how to make mid-game adjustments to shore up their weaknesses, but that can be said for a lot of teams.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Napoleon

[Mileslong 4728]

Ones that had great balance, foot eye coordination, start-stop-start quickness, but most importantly...
GREW UP IN A SOCCER CULTURE! Were exposed to soccer by the age of 5, if not earlier, had access to a field where they could play for hours on end, and had exposure to knowledgable coaches (preferably from other countries) and players of a high level of skill so that they could watch and learn.
Allen Iverson, Darrell Green, and Spud Webb would have been amazing if they grew up in another country. Perhaps Mugsy Bogues & Michael Vick as well. (Vick would have had to lose 40-50 pounds.)
Barry Sanders would have had to lose about 50 pounds and he still would have towered over Maradona and might have been taller than Pele as well.

Pele and Barry Sanders are both 5’-8”

[Spartan52 151]

Announced today here in Australia that Usain Bolt is trialling for one of the teams in the A-League, not sure if its just a gimmick or whether he has a real shot at playing professional football.

[Napoleon 8700]

11 hours ago, Mileslong said:

Pele and Barry Sanders are both 5’-8”

 

If Pele is listed as 5'8", then he isn't 5'8".

Most soccer players are listed 1" to 2" taller than their actual height. Some, like Freddy Adu, are listed 3" to 5" above their actual height.

Not that it matters... but whatever.

[Guest]

On 7/13/2018 at 8:15 PM, ousux said:

I think we'll get to find out inside 20 years give or take..

Regretfully, for those of us who love the other football that is.

Talking shit response:

I have been hearing this for 40 years... There are about 20 of us in my immediate workgroup, 6 of whom are less than 2 years out of college.  We were eating lunch together on Monday and TWO people watched the World Cup.  At least double that will watch the boring ass MLB allstar game tonight.

 

That isn't to say soccer isn't growing, but the imminent takeover has been discussed since my childhood.  We're still waiting for soccer to be exciting...

 

Serious response:

Wes Welker played soccer as a kid and gravitated to football.  Maybe if he'd chosen soccer, he'd still be playing sports for a living. Soccer is fairly popular in Texas at the high school level. Why don't our kids continue on( yes, I know Welker is from OKC.)???

Edited July 17, 2018 by slorch

[FondrenRoad 4378]

4 hours ago, slorch said:

Talking shit response:

I have been hearing this for 40 years... There are about 20 of us in my immediate workgroup, 6 of whom are less than 2 years out of college.  We were eating lunch together on Monday and TWO people watched the World Cup.  At least double that will watch the boring ass MLB allstar game tonight.

 

That isn't to say soccer isn't growing, but the imminent takeover has been discussed since my childhood.  We're still waiting for soccer to be exciting...

 

Serious response:

Wes Welker played soccer as a kid and gravitated to football.  Maybe if he'd chosen soccer, he'd still be playing sports for a living. Soccer is fairly popular in Texas at the high school level. Why don't our kids continue on( yes, I know Welker is from OKC.)???

You know why. 

 In America, we have laws. Laws against killing, laws against stealing. And it is just accepted that as a member of American society, you will live by these laws. In West Canaan, Texas, there is another society which has it's own laws. Football is a way of life.

[Mileslong 4728]

If Pele is listed as 5'8", then he isn't 5'8". Most soccer players are listed 1" to 2" taller than their actual height. Some, like Freddy Adu, are listed 3" to 5" above their actual height. Not that it matters... but whatever.    

 

 

 That sounds like an interesting conspiracy theory, you should publish. 

 

As far as soccer popularity, the reason it isn’t in the US is because we prefer action and the excitement of either scoring opportunities or collisions. The problem with soccer is the lack of scoring opportunities.

 

The closest sport we have is ice hockey. Despite low scoring games it’s exciting to watch because they average over 30 shots on goal per game, that’s shots that hit the goal or goaltender, that doesn’t even count chances towards the goal or even ones that hit the pipes. If you included those shots it would double the chances number plus there is speed and violence.

 

In soccer there are only around 8 shots on goal per game per team which means when counting possessions of the ball they only shoot around 2% if the time. There isn’t any violence to offset the scoring chances thus most Americans find it boring.

 

The only way I can see really opening it up without radically changing the fabric of the game is to have a stationary offsides line like in hockey. That would at least open up the game and give more scoring chances with players streaking after long passes which cross the blue line prior to them entering the area creating a lot of one on one situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Napoleon 8700]

6 hours ago, Mileslong said:

 That sounds like an interesting conspiracy theory, you should publish.  (Re: HEIGHTS)

I frequently check heights of players. I also notice that sometimes a player is listed at 5'8" and is about an inch shorter than someone listed at 5'6". Even you could figure out that perhaps all listed heights are accurate.

I've found that after you get over 6'0", the fudging of heights lessens. And when two people are standing side-by-side and are the same height, but one is listed as 6'3" and one is listed as 6'1", I go with the one who is listed as 6'1" and that is the standard I set for comparing other players. 

So if the 6'3" guy is the same height as a 6'1" guy, then he is really 6'1". Then, you measure that guy against his teammates. And so on and so on...

It just takes watching the games.

And if you don't think that Freddie Adu is below 5'5", then you have either never seen him in person or never watched a pregame lineup of a game that he has started. I first saw him at a U-17 tournament in Lancaster, CA when he was "13" and he was absolutely tiny. He was already listed as 5'8" back then and who knows what his real height is, but I'd been 5'9" for about 15 years when I saw him on the field and chuckled at how tiny he was. I don't know if he ever grew another inch, but I would say that he was about 5'3" back then.

Lionel Messi is listed at 5'7", but I would say that he's 5'6" tops and maybe a bit shorter than that. But Carlos Tevez is at least an inch, if not two inches shorter than Messi (this is judged from pregame lineups when they are standing straight up and side by side, and yet Tevez is listed at 5'8". Again, even you could figure out that there is significant fudging when it comes to player heights.

Not a perfect photo, but here you have: MESSI (5'7") , AGÜERO (5'8") , TEVEZ (5'8")... Yeah, Agüero & Tevez are both definitely an inch taller than Messi. Right.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Napoleon

[Mileslong 4728]

Wow, just wow. Well after your extensive research is concluded you will find that Barry Sanders, at 5’-8”, (if that is his real height!) isn’t going to tower over any pro athlete so my point still stands...

[Napoleon 8700]

3 minutes ago, Mileslong said:

Wow, just wow. Well after your extensive research is concluded you will find that Barry Sanders, at 5’-8”, (if that is his real height!) isn’t going to tower over any pro athlete so my point still stands...

...except for Agüero, Tevez, and several Spanish players, Giovinco, Modric, France's Kante, probably Griezmann ...

So yes, you're still wrong. Your point is well taken.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Napoleon

[Mileslong 4728]

...except for Agüero, Tevez, and several Spanish players, Giovinco, Modric, France's Kante, probably Griezmann ... 

So yes, you're still wrong. Your point is well taken.

 

 

Lmao, you must be the love child of Drew and Derka.

 

So soccer players are the only athletes that fudge on players sizes?

 

You coming up with a handful of soccer players that are shorter than 5-8, (if thats his real height!!!). Doesn’t mean that sanders towers over Pele. Point is you’re horribly wrong

 

 

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Santi Cazorla is like 5'5". Juan Mata is a full inch taller than him. 

[WBT 20669]

1 hour ago, Napoleon said:

I miss MulletMessi

Edited July 17, 2018 by WBT

[Goo Punch 4275]