I saw some kids today playing baseball on the street with their Dad and again, in the park some more. When that turns into soccer, when the average white suburban kid is playing soccer on the street in the summer and playing kick (not throw) with the Dad, then the US has a chance to win the world cup. No, German imports won't win us a world cup, even if Julian Green or Zelalem turn out to be stars. No, it's not enough that the ethnic immigrant population is playing pick up soccer. The average kid needs to be doing it, in the suburbs, in the ghettos, in the barrios, everywhere. Then the country will be ready.
Yup, when our best athletes start playing futbol full time, then we are going to dominate the world. Can you imagine if LeBron James was a CB or a DM for us? Or if someone like Allen Iverson was a striker for us? We would smoke everyone with those types of athletes on our team.
Or when American no longer watch football....superbowl....etc.... Baseball isn't the reason why American don't like soccer, its football. A lot of American say soccer is slow and yet baseball is even worst.
I think that when the average kid is telling their Dad that Messi scored the best goal ever last week rather than what LeBron did, we are going to be on the right track. We only need 1/3 of the kids in the nation with this mindset before we can make some noise in the world I believe. Americans don't mind that baseball is slow. It stills reigns supreme on the street, in the park, unless you are in an immigrant or ghetto where bball reigns supreme. I rarely see football being played in the suburbs by white kids. It is always bball, or throwball, or hockey in the winter.
I play both soccer and baseball with my kids. Not so much the other sports. Honestly I do not believe that soccer needs to be the enemy of baseball or vice-versa. But I do believe that as many dads need to know how to teach their kids soccer as well as they know how to teach their kids baseball or basketball.
The world cup quarters were on. I went out at half time and I saw kids everywhere outside playing various sports, mainly baseball and hockey. I asked one what he thought of the match, and he looked at me like I had two heads !
I see this a lot, if LeBron James played soccer he would be horrible at it. Being good at soccer has nothing to do with athleticism. The only important physical attribute is stamina, which is a learned attribute, which means that you cannot really have an advantage. Everything else physical is a bonus but doesn't really factor in how good you are. Just because you are born with the ability to jump really really high it doesn't mean you'll win. The most important attributes are technique and the mental side (vision, decisions, flair etc) that's the stuff you cannot teach. In basketball its not the most creative players that have the advantage, its usually the most athletic. In american football only one person really makes decisions, the QB, everyone else just follows orders from the coach. Even the QB has limited decision making. This is what has to change for the US to actually become good at it instead of the robotic version of soccer currently being played. Its all about creativity and flair, that's why its called the beautiful game. Forget athleticism, if Ussain Bolt cant find a club forget others, focus on flair.
I don't know why people like to assert that soccer ability has nothing to do with athleticism. It has a TON to do with athleticism. I've known top soccer players who were also really good tennis players, for example (like good enough to recreationaly play with guys who play in major tournaments) and it's definitely not a coincidence. I'm sure this board is filled with anecdotes of high-level soccer players who were good multi-sport athletes. That is not to say that it's all about size and sprinting speed, either. But those are relative advantages, and it's silly to pretend that they're not.
Here there are tons of kids wearing jerseys. Yesterday there were tons of kids wearing Brazil and Colombia, for example. I suspect a lot of this is regional. What's more, last weekend when I took my kid and a bunch of his classmates to a minor league baseball game, two of the kids were wearing USMNT gear. These are not kids that I coach, either. All of them were talking World Cup as much as they were talking Yankees and Mets.
I don't see kids playing baseball in the streets where I live. They may all be indoors at batting cages though. I do see kids playing on soccer goals in backyards and basketball hoops in driveways.
False. You need talent to be great. Messi, Ronaldo,Neymar, Robben, Hazard... All of those guys are special athletes. Talent is in the wiring but skill is developed through training. If a person has no talent, all the training in the world won't take them beyond mediocre. If a talent goes untrained, then a similar result will happen. Mediocre, at best. Hockey? In July? Really? Hockey in July? You could at least put a little effort into your trolling. Saying the first thing that comes to mind in an effort to rile us up is actually pretty lazy.
In the 90s in LA people used to play rollerblade hockey all the time. I'd imagine in plenty of places people still do.
Maybe in the great lakes region or the northeast but I doubt that. I live near LA and there is no hockey going on in the streets right now. Come on, aqua is trolling us.
The biggest inhibitor to the progress of the national team is (in my opinion) the pay for play model which ensures that the sport remains the ring fenced preserve of wealthy suburban types. Further, the sport is over organized at youth level and driven by parents and coaches (basically the adults) rather than being player-centric and in this respect I agree entirely with the OP. Lastly, Americans just don't love the game as much as people from other countries, present company excepted. It's just not in the blood, so to speak.
I'm in Southeast Wisconsin. Basketball is played everywhere. Kids play with expensive NBA approved glass backboards in snootty subdivisions, in the city park courts, in driveways of working class homes, everywhere. Kids play catch, both baseball and football, and you'll see an occasional football game in the park. And I do see kids playing pickup soccer once in a while, usually with makeshift goals made of shoes or t shirts. Oddly, being in Wisconsin, I don't see anyone playing hockey on the streets or frozen ponds in the summer or winter. And there are plenty of NASCAR wannabees out there, driving like knuckleheads.
That was exactly my point, talent is whats needed in soccer not athleticism. Whats required to be considered a talent differs from sport to sport though, and that's where the American mindset, that Lebron would dominate soccer if that was his sport of choice is wrong. Athleticism is what separates great basketball players from the rest, not so much in soccer. Talent in soccer is more about the actual technical ability which can be trained somewhat and the god given skill of flair and vision which are unteachable. The US doesn't need kids to drop basketball or baseball, it needs kids to learn soccer the proper way, encourage creativity and flair, the fitness can come at a later age.
You don't have to tell me that soccer is athletic, I live football. I'm talking about the fact that it is not what separates the great from the mediocre. Its creativity and flair that does, not speed or agility. Thats what the US program has to address.