how many do you see now? Take all the outfield players on the world cup squads of the semi-finalists. How many 6'2" players did each have on their squad? 7? 8? 10? Germany, 5 France, 4 Italy, 2 Portugal, 1 only to people who don't know what the word hypocritical means. I can think of another reason but only the truly krayzie deny the importance of skill err, yes, unless you live in a pygmy commune
Compare the number of dominant 6'2 players in modern and 20 or 30 years ago !!! Of course all the team are not filled of only 6'2 players rolleyes, but players are faster, taller and stronger than before, stop denying the truth... You WON'T find 6'2 players (beside goalkeepers) in the 70's or 80 like nowdays.. Tell me where did I deny the importance of skill ??? I've never deny the importance skills, but many over there deny the importance of athletcism !!!! that explains why you won't find many dominant 5'5 players scoring 25+ per season...
This story should be framed. Anybody who understands it understands soccer. Sadly, many youth coaches do not. (For example, the guy in my sig, who happens to be DOC of a major soccer club.) And very, very few parents. As a soccer nation, we historically have chased after players like your first child, preferring them to the second. That is changing today, but there remain many pockets of resistance. At any rate, you've nailed it. This thread is done.
Thank you John. I read posts on this site for a long time before I ever started posting myself. I read a lot of your posts and really respect your views, so coming from you, this means a lot.
If you think that only strikers or attacking midfielders can dominate and influence a game then you really do know nothing about football.
What a joke. Donovan is one of the fittest players around, Onyewu is bigger and stronger than most Czechs. Udinese, Roma, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, are those third rate teams in third rate leagues? Only one American has ever played in the Champions League.
I for one do not believe that a 300 lb world class linebacker would ever be athletic enough to play soccer at any level, or a 250 lb world class Baseball slugger.
Another good example is the Patriots Superbowl MVP wide reciever Deion Branch. He played both soccer and football as a child. He is a great athlete, fast, strong, great balance and agility. He was the MVP of his high school soccer team, so he could play. However, in an interview on one of the Patriots tail gate shows, he spoke of going out and kicking around with the New England Revolution one day. Now the Revolution are far from being a world class team. Well, he spoke of the players in awe, stated he could probably out run most of them in a sprint, but the way they used space, and the speed of their soccer decisions made him feel like he never had played the sport before in his life. Now there is a great athlete, professional football player, about the height of many soccer players, although more muscle mass at 5'9" 185lbs. He was brought up with soccer and split his time equal with the two sports in Albany GA where they play opposite seasons. He was the MVP of his soccer team, but cannot even play on the same field as a team like the Revolution.
That is such a great example. When was the last time he even touched a soccer ball? Did he play club soccer is Ga. or just in high school?
No idea. Just a huge Pats fan and was watching an interview and he went off about soccer and how he loved it but could not play on this level. He kept referring to speed, soccer speed, but did not get too in depth about it, just that it is a different type of speed, and although he was fast, he did not have it kicking around with the Revs and that their speed was more than he could keep up with. Again, not pure speed, but soccer thinking speed.
First sport and love was soccer, then took up football. He also spoke of not wanting to lift weights and do football training in the off season, and since he was first a soccer player, he played that instead and the coach couldn't stop him because he was a soccer player before a football player. Also spoke of trying the same with track, but his football coach saw through that and knew he did not have a track history so he made him go in the lifting program.
Sorry. Just when you thought this thread had been laid to rest. I was watching "Ginga" on FSC. They are following a few kids trying to hook up with Brazilian clubs. One boy was going to tryout with Portuguesa. Edson is in charge of player development. He made the comment that in today's game they need physically stronger players. The game is 30% skill and 70% physical strength. He went on to say that the 30% skill was easy to find and that if a player was on the small side, he basically needed to be near god-like. Another boy finally made Flamengo after trying out 22 times and being told he was too small.
The reality is, in soccer you don't need size. Someone without size can make up for it by other facotrs. Perhaps the greatest most prolific striker every was a fairly short guys with stubby limbs. It's not important who was, but because of his low center of gravity and ability to sprint short distances faster than others, he won almsot every ball in the penalty box and could do things tall players could never dream. In the end, he is perhaps the most prolific striker the world has ever known. His name was Gerd Muller. He used what he had to the best of his ability and totally rocked the world of soccer. Then look at maradona, who is rated by many as the greatest player ever, yet he's only like 5 foot 4 or something. Shorter than the average american woman. What's the moral of the story? Find the talent, the size is only one aspect of hundreds that sum to the whole player.
Watch "Ginga" this Sunday night on FSC. You will see for yourself that even the Brazilians are looking for bigger stronger players.
The best players at this world cup weren't the biggest or strongest. Cannavaro, Pirlo, Robinho, Zidane etc. Btw there are three clubs in Brazil called Portuguesa, and they're all lower division teams, where physicality is a lot more important due to the lack of skill. I'm sure that Accrington Stanley think that football is mainly physical, but that counts for nothing in high-level competitions where you can't just barge people off the ball.
This is why I'd love to have seen Barry Sanders with a soccer ball. I think running backs in the NFL would translate pretty well. They have that balance that soccer requires. I had a discussion with someone on another board about tight ends and basketball players translating well as goalkeepers.
You have it wrong though, it is way way more than just balance and speed. This is what many american's do not understand, especially many on this thread. It is also much more than just time on the ball at a young age, although this is invaluable to be any quality of player. It is just a certain knack for things. The way some kids can just throw harder than others, or that some can dance better than others or that some are better at Math and others at English. My example is the exact opposite of what you are saying. My older son is much more of the Barry Sanders than my younger, but my younger is the born soccer player. My older is fast, strong, built like a truck, can cut on a dime. My younger is skinny, small,(he is fast though) but the main thing is that he is simply magical on the ball. He can pretty much do what he pleases with it, has a born knack for it. The brazilians call in Ginga, and the Brazilians at the club he trains at recognize it right away. He is a great athlete, he would and is not a good football player. My older son, when he plays football with his friends, plays running back, and makes the cuts and is very very tough to tackle. My younger son gets killed. However, playing soccer, no one can take the ball from my younger son. He shows you the ball one second, and it is gone the next on the other side of his body as he slips past you, sheilding the ball with perfect control. He slips perfectly weight through passes through the smalles of cracks and effortlessly tucks shots into open corners. You see, it is not all about being a great athlete. It is a just having a certain skill for things, making something very hard, like many of the skills needed in soccer, look easy. Ever see people that do something very difficult, and just make it look easy. Well soccer just comes easy to him. It is just natural to him. The good athlete tranlates to good soccer player is too simplistic and is simply just not the case. The sport is a highly specialized sport with skills using your feet, that come easier to some than to others. Zidane is a great example, because the things he does on the field are extremely difficult, but come very natural and easy to him. Sure he works hard at it, but he is born with a skill for it, and take one hundred world class athletes, have them train twice as much as him on the ball during their life, they will not have his skill. A better skill/athlete comparison is baseball pitchers. Some are big(Clemens), some are small(Pedro) and besides wear and tear issues, they just have a special ability to throw a baseball. Take an athlete the is similiar in size and speed to Clemens, does not mean he can throw accurate at 95mph no matter how much training he gets. Clemens was born to pitch. Pedro was born to pitch. The primary reason they are so good is not because they are great athletes, they just have a knack for it. Same is true with soccer. Soccer does need a high degree of athletic ability and a high degree of especially speed and stamina, but those things alone are only part of what makes a great soccer player, maybe half. It is the born skill nutured with practice and time on the ball combined with the athletic ability that makes a great soccer player. Saying Barry Sanders could be a great soccer player is overlooking the hardest to come by aspect, the born skill, for which we have no idea if Barry would have a modecum of it. So, you are maybe half right. Then you get into the whole body type, sprinter vs stamina arguement, but we don't even need to go there, because it is impossible to say if any of these athletes could ever play quality soccer.
I just meant Barry's quick feet. He's so unique as far as NFL running backs are concerned. I just meant that he's one of the "typical American athletes" that I'd like to have seen with a ball at his feet from a very young age. I played at Shimberg Field against kids like your son when I was growing up. I even got yellow carded once because the ref thought I was trying to trip a kid who squirted the ball under, and jumped over, my outstretched leg. Sorry sir...I'm just a big oaf...but thanks for stopping the game and pointing it out to everyone in attendance.
LOL. You are right that Sanders is unique. Unique cutting ability and unique vision. Yeah, if he had a ball at his feet from a young age, AND he had the natural soccer touch, he would cause some problems. But, he could just as easy not have that touch, no matter how much time, and the seconds he gains on people with his speed and cuts, he loses trying to keep the ball with him. Cutting with a ball in your hands and creatively moving the ball around on the run, are so different, and while training and ball at the feet from a young age help, I truly think the ball skills is something kids are born with, then trained to develop.
Definitely. It's like drawing. I can sit down and draw pretty much anything freehand and it doesn't even faze me. People are amazed and want to know what I did to get so good, and I don't have an answer. I guess God let me draw well so I wouldn't cry myself to sleep after soccer games.