Given the poster's name, I think this comment fits into this thread. (If you're the type of person that easily gets wound-up, perhaps skip over this):
"soccer is unAmerican" "The best athletes in the country doing something else" So typical... He sounds extremely irritated by world football!
well i find talking to casual fans or average joes about sports is painful no matter the sport. Soccers the worst though you either here rascist stuff or people who like baseball calling soccer players foot fairys which is so ironic since baseball involves no contact at all pretty much.
You kind of have to wonder if his only exposure to the game is watching a clip filmed on a fan's phone on youtube.
Why don't you try talking to them about the weather (not joking). Some people you eventually learn that its not productive to talk to them about certain things.
Seems like most people here must largely deal with immature and/or incredibly insecure adults. I find most adults I talk to about it either really don't know anything about soccer and don't care, or know something about it from watching Sportscenter and are interested in knowing more, they might even watch a match from time to time. Lots of Dads of kids who play who clearly have what I would call a casual interest in the game even if they aren't big fans. Maybe I'm not dealing with "average" Americans.
A more basic suggestion to these people would be to get new friends/acquaintances. Of course that still leaves family that one can use my original advice with.
Indeed. But I did wonder what coverage he'd seen that had no close-ups or replays. If he'd said the game was also in black & white then maybe he'd just watched Pathé newsreels, and he goes around telling people that Nat Lofthouse would never get a spot on an NFL team.
"Our best athletes are playing american football, baseball, and basketball, if lebron, kobe, chad ochocinco, terrell owens played soccer we would be unbeatable".. must think that being fast and big is all you need to play the game.. they dont know how hard and how much practice you need to control that ball the way the best in the world do
If you switched "played soccer" with "played Rugby Union or Rugby League," maybe, and that's a big maybe, you'd have a point. Soccer isn't about strength. It's about guile and asymmetry.
Not to mention quick thinking and inventive.. Lebron thinks so slow, you can almost see thought bubbles around his head.
You clearly have never played basketball at any sort of high level if you think you can be a slow thinker. People might not be smart off the court, but basketball absolutely requires quick thinking. However, I wouldn't expect anything else from Cyclonis.
High level? Shit, at the high SCHOOL level in basketball you have to think quick to be worth much of anything.
Also, the interesting bit is that Kobe Bryant and Chad Ochocinco DID play soccer at fairly high levels when they were younger. Both were decent players, but neither had any real shot at going pro.
What a crock. LeBron is one of the most inventive basketball players of the past two decades. And I'm saying this as a Clevelander who can't stand the sight of him anymore. I love soccer; I love American sports. Some people think you have to denigrate one to justify your love of the other -- I don't get that. Can't we all just get along?
Football is extremely comprehensive sport with so many variables. Look at the two of the best players currently. C. Ronaldo looks perfect. On the other hand, who would've thought someone looks like Messi turned out to be the best footballer of our time. Better than perfect looking Ronaldo. (far from your average American athletes = big tall fat) However most of American sports players with big-boned(NFL) or freaky tall(NBA) body type wouldn't make a good footballer. Look at the average height in football. They are tall, but seldom freaky tall (few execption such as Peter Crouch). Maybe handful of them have some chance, but again so many variables and so much comprehensive. Coby Bryant might probably have turned out to be another Altidore. Whenever dumb fellow Americans say this, I laugh so hard.
I agree. Based simply on anthropometrics the argument doesn't hold. There is relatively little overlap in the size of elite soccer players and elite NBA, NFL, NHL players and I suspect nowadays even MLB players. Although I guess you can't discount a bunch of wantabee kids who don't give soccer a chance and instead focus on traditional sports that they are never going to be big enough to play at an elite level. I'm also not sure that most traditional U.S. sports select for athletes who have an ability to acquire a very high degree of competence in a wide range of motor skills that need to be applied in non-stereotyped situations while making decisions. At least certainly not NFL & MLB, NHL and NBA probably fall somewhere between those former two sports and soccer. IOW, soccer is really unique compared to traditional U.S. sports and I don't see the type of athlete that is selected for in those sports necessarily being much like the athlete selected for in soccer.
FWIW, in "Soccer : secrets to success ; things great players and coaches should know", Laureano Ruiz states that soccer players are middle-of-the-road in athleticism.
Depends on the definition of athleticism? Are K-1 or UFC fighters at the end of the road? Usain Bolt?