a. In the NBA they used to list players w/ shoes. That means a 6'6 guy could actually be a 6'4 striker or CB. Think we could use those? b. What about the regularly-heighted dudes or shorties who chase a pro basketball career w/ futility, while missing out on adding to the soccer academy ranks? c. American football is another sport. In it you have a lot of soccer-heighted db's & wr's who possess tremendous dexterity & speed that may have translated to soccer. Former Packer WR Antonio Freeman's son is a highly-rated FB w/ Orlando City. Wouldn't have happened in yesteryear.
I remember during a lockout season, OCHOCINCO went to train with an MLS soccer team because he grew up playing soccer, and he said, professional soccer players are a different athlete, even for him, a wide receiver. Didn't Husain Bolt at 6'6, tried to play professional soccer and didn't make it?
Sure, but you're talking about them not playing a sport for decades, and then trying to compete w/ those who have. This is not like undersized basketball power forward like Antonio Gates trying to play American football tight end 5-10 years after they've last played. They just have to run around and catch a ball, after they did similar things in basketball. This sport requires them controlling a ball w/ their feet while they run and kick it. This is a skill that needs a lot of training, that can't be broken for long periods of time. It's not like riding a bike. Look how tough of a time players have in this sport when they stop playing for a year or two in their formative years, biding time to go to Europe. Hell, even coming from a lengthy offseason requires a long ramp-up.
So in other words they are all average height. Jesus folks it was a reference to a comment from the previous page
DB's might be the only one's on the field other than the kickers, who would 'fit' into soccer. Good DB's have very fluid hips that can change direction easily. And great footwork. But it would require those athletes playing soccer at about age 7-8 like they did with American football in order to be at the level we'd expect.
I think it was also that in American football, the play ends every few seconds. In soccer is mostly constant movement. and he was gassed after the first sprint.
That's something that just takes weeks of time to adapt to. It wouldn't preclude a transition between sports at a young age, or even an older one, frankly.
Yup. Its why the "beep test" is more important than a 40-yard dash for a soccer player. Its amazing how many miles a midfielder runs in an average high-level international. I'd love to see data on Tyler Adams or Yunus Musah from the World Cup. THe one I always remember is Michael Bradley against Portugal in the 2014 World Cup. Then at the very last second he has a split-second mental lapse, it costs us..............and that's all anybody remembers. His performance for 89 minutes 50 seconds was epic. Michael Bradley covers most distance of any player in World Cup group play - Sports Illustrated And by the way, only a few players covered more distance at the 2010 World Cup. According to metrics, Michael Bradley ran 36 kilometers of the 2010 group stage. Run 12 kilomters, have a few days off, run 12 kilometers, have a few days off, run 12 kilometers...............now do it while having a computer in your head thinking about all of the tactical, technical, etc. aspects of your own team and the opponent. People MASSIVELY underestimate what kind of athlete you need to be to become a world-class soccer player. Its why these guys from the Kleiban school that focus on technique over athleticism have a very low success rate. When we look at this camp, Kellyn Acosta is that type of player. Motor, motor, motor, motor.
I believe in that game (vs Portugal) Jones was the better fit player, he still had something left in the tank while Bradley was just going on fumes.
Arriola on coming back to the national team after being left off the World Cup roster. “I hopefully one day have children. I want them to be able to look at their father and say he literally had the failure of his dreams and he chose to respond by getting up and still being willing to be a part of the program and continuing to play.” #usmnt https://t.co/5xhKcdlagx— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) January 24, 2023
He's been a good servant to the program. Off the top of my head I don't really think that winger is where our U23s are most in need of overage reinforcement, but just in terms of hoping that a good guy gets his due, I'm really rooting for him to be named to the Paris Olympics roster.
Ter Stegen, Oblak, Claudio Bravo, Casillas, and Navas arę all 6'2" or shorter, and I would take any of them (in their prime of course) over anyone in our pool.
It should be noted that countries with tall populations often field national teams that are shorter than their average male height. For example, that has been true for the Netherlands with all but one of their World Cup squads this century.
There's the reason that these guys like Arriola, Roldan, Morris, etc. are the fringe guys that get called in to fill the back end of the roster and fill holes when needed. The gap between them and other options is small or nonexistent. They have great attitudes. Paul Arriola always says the right thing. It would be so easy to lash out with anger and disappointment. Others have done it. One of the hard parts of this is seeing guys that you root for fail to realize their ultimate dreams. Gyasi Zardes. Now the most capped player in USMNT history to never be on a World Cup squad. Sebastian Lletget. Also now one of the best players to never get to a World Cup. Arriola has 48 caps. When you start getting to 50 caps, you're not really a fringe player anymore. You were an important contributor. Its going to be very difficult for Arriola to hold off the young and surging crowd. The guys currently in our U20s (much less Tillman, Mihailovic, and others that are older). But Paul Arriola is only 27 himself. He's in his prime NOW. And Paul Arriola had a REALLY good 2022 for FCD. 10 goals and 6 assists is a helluva year. He had a better 2022 than Morris, who made the roster. Where did Paul Arriola rank in terms of goals for USMNT-eligible players in MLS last year? 4th if I remember correctly. Behind only the three forwards (Ferreira, Vazquez, and Ebobisse). And he's not a forward.
I remember reading a report a while back that the Netherlands on average, had the tallest population.in Europe. Their national team is also one of the tallest.
Sometimes, the numbers get skewed by the coach that believes in the player. I remember when Altidore was bad for a whole year, and yet, Klinsmann would still select him. It went so far, that during training scrimmage games he would instruct the lineman not to call him offsides because he wanted to build his broken confidence.
Note that Arriola appeared quite regularly in 2018 qualifying and was legitimately in contention for a starting role in 2018 and 2019. Except for Pulisic and Morris, all the wingers who went to the World Cup had their breakout club seasons in 2019-20 or later.
One of the tallest national teams, yes, but still shorter than their general adult male population at the 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2022 World Cups -- four of the five World Cups that they played in this century. I think that suggests there's a point where height becomes a hindrance.
If anyone takes about 20 minutes to listen to the Hudson interview linked above by GoMichigan, I think they'll find that it's way more interesting than the typical coachspeak press conference. Hudson is really open and candid with his answers to some fairly tough questions (obviously there's a lot of tough questions to be asked about the state of US Soccer right now) in a way that a guy who had a position to defend most likely wouldn't be, so people might find it illuminating, even though they surely aren't interested in Hudson managing the team long term. A couple of brief takeaways: Hudson knows that he's strictly an interim. He doesn't seem to be angling for this job at all in the way that Sarachan tried. Not that he wouldn't want it, but he knows he's not going to get it. Secondly, he does sound very much like he'd like another crack at being a head coach somewhere, and he knows that this interim job is an opportunity in that standpoint. He's not looking to reinvent the wheel, but rather to have a certain amount of continuity with what Berhalter was doing in the interim, to do the job, prepare the players as best he can, and (unsaid) to give the incoming regime the most and best looks at the player pool that they're getting before he hands it off to them. He talks about the players and their situations and handles questions about the Gio drama and all that stuff with a certain openness that you rarely hear publicly from coaches.