FIFA World Cup 2010...

[anthonyvop]

I thought anthonyvop was from the US You've basically just ripped on one of your own

Actually the opposite.

For most of the countries in the World Cup Soccer is the most popular sport and it attacks their best athletes.

In the US Soccer is a niche sport at best and our best athletes go to other sports such as Football, Baseball and Basketball.

So basically The US's lower tiered athletes are competitive against the World's best

[Firstgear]

Actually the opposite.

For most of the countries in the World Cup Soccer is the most popular sport and it attacks their best athletes.

In the US Soccer is a niche sport at best and our best athletes go to other sports such as Football, Baseball and Basketball.

So basically The US's lower tiered athletes are competitive against the World's best

Exactly. Imagine if you took the athletes that dominate in US football, Baseball and Basketball and let them at it in the World Cup.

I'd love to see it. Guys like Shaq & William 'the refrigerator' Perry trying to run the length of the field for 90 mins. :

[Mark in Oshawa]

Exactly. Imagine if you took the athletes that dominate in US football, Baseball and Basketball and let them at it in the World Cup.

I'd love to see it. Guys like Shaq & William 'the refrigerator' Perry trying to run the length of the field for 90 mins. :

That might not be wise...but tell me somebody like a Jerry Rice wouldn't be a good soccer player? How about Kobe Bryant? You going to tell me either wouldn't be capable of running up and down a soccer field? How about the late Walter Payton? He used to work out by running up sand dunes with weights on his shoulders....

America's best athletes have so many choices for sports, and the best paying options usually are on the court, the NFL field or in the diamond. Some migrate to hockey in the north.

Soccer isn't a big deal in North America because North America was founded on the principle of rejecting some of the past games and cultural touchstones from the old country.

AS for my pick, I am taking Brazil.....they are due....not that I really care...lol...

[MrJan]

That might not be wise...but tell me somebody like a Jerry Rice wouldn't be a good soccer player? How about Kobe Bryant? You going to tell me either wouldn't be capable of running up and down a soccer field? How about the late Walter Payton? He used to work out by running up sand dunes with weights on his shoulders....

Capable of running up and down a soccer field? Are you intentionally trying to wind me up or are you just being stupid? :

This is a strange attitude to have. You aren't good at football because you can run fast or have good fitness. It's about skill, ball control and awareness. It's not like Cool Runnings where you can take a sprinter and make them into a football player.

Wayne Rooney isn't a particularly great athlete but he's a f***ing superb football player. If you don't have a good touch or aren't aware of what is going on around you then it doesn't matter how fast you run, how much you can bench press or how big your dick is, without the talent of kicking a ball or knowing the game, you are nothing.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Capable of running up and down a soccer field? Are you intentionally trying to wind me up or are you just being stupid? :

This is a strange attitude to have. You aren't good at football because you can run fast or have good fitness. It's about skill, ball control and awareness. It's not like Cool Runnings where you can take a sprinter and make them into a football player.

Wayne Rooney isn't a particularly great athlete but he's a f***ing superb football player. If you don't have a good touch or aren't aware of what is going on around you then it doesn't matter how fast you run, how much you can bench press or how big your dick is, without the talent of kicking a ball or knowing the game, you are nothing.

Jan..don't get me wrong. I watch enough football to know that it is all about touch and awareness and all of that. I was merely replying to the idiocy of people laughing at the idea of William Perry or Shaquille O'Neal running on a pitch.

It is a great game with great skill. I get that, but if you take people who are great athletes, great runners and talented people, and give them the chance to play football at a young age, and they are not distracted by the option of basketball, American Football and baseball, then chances are the USA soccer team is a damn sight better.

[Mark in Oshawa]

In otherwards Jan, the reason the North American Soccer sides are not better, is because many of our best athletes have many choices, and playing "football" (as opposed to what we call it) falls to a 3rd and fourth choice. One only has to read about the development of Steve Nash, NBA MVP. He is a superb basketball player, and he went to it because playing soccer in North America didn't seem like much of an option as a teen, but he knew he could get a scholorship in a US college and maybe make the NBA. His first love, and he still says this is Soccer.

Just like many top Canadian athletes all play other sports but Hockey would have been their first choice.

IN Europe, and in South America, Soccer is the first choice. Over here....it isn't often...

[MrJan]

Our other athletes have options though, it all depends on what the person wants and, to some degrees, physique. Do you want to walk up to Martin Johnson or David Haye and tell them that they only do their sport because they were rubbish at football?

I'm not saying that the sport doesn't suffer at the hands of more popular sports in the US. Here in the UK hockey has marginal appeal. I went to an Elite League game (while the NHL was on strike so we had a few fringe players over here) and there were less people there than my 5th tier football team had watching them at the time. Football is massively more popular but I still wouldn't say that the hockey players are lesser athletes. In truth they do not stack up against players from other nations because hockey in our country doesn't have the grassroots-up structure.

Without the top class coaches and starting kids early we will never catch up. Soccer in the US is similar, although the kids start young the country just doesn't have the same levels of coaching and concentration as we do over here. IMO the players are not lesser athletes, they just haven't been force fed the training that they would get doing other sports.

Also do you not have the thing where someone simply can't grasp the technique of onr sport. E.G other here I doubt that Andy Murray would be much cop at football or rugby (mainly because he's Scottish) but he isn't bad at tennis.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Our other athletes have options though, it all depends on what the person wants and, to some degrees, physique. Do you want to walk up to Martin Johnson or David Haye and tell them that they only do their sport because they were rubbish at football?

I'm not saying that the sport doesn't suffer at the hands of more popular sports in the US. Here in the UK hockey has marginal appeal. I went to an Elite League game (while the NHL was on strike so we had a few fringe players over here) and there were less people there than my 5th tier football team had watching them at the time. Football is massively more popular but I still wouldn't say that the hockey players are lesser athletes. In truth they do not stack up against players from other nations because hockey in our country doesn't have the grassroots-up structure.

Without the top class coaches and starting kids early we will never catch up. Soccer in the US is similar, although the kids start young the country just doesn't have the same levels of coaching and concentration as we do over here. IMO the players are not lesser athletes, they just haven't been force fed the training that they would get doing other sports.

Also do you not have the thing where someone simply can't grasp the technique of onr sport. E.G other here I doubt that Andy Murray would be much cop at football or rugby (mainly because he's Scottish) but he isn't bad at tennis.

What I am telling you that kids at a very early age can develop the skills they need in a sport. Kids who are very athletic will play often 3 or 4 sports really well, and later migrate to one sport. I think in the UK, you can play rugby, football, cricket or tennis, but what is the major sport? Football. Far and away. In Canada, it is hockey. We have great athletes on occasion out of other sports, but we develop hockey players. It is a culture in any nation where ONE sport is WAY more popular than the others. In Canada, that is hockey. But if kids in Canada didn't have hockey as an option, you think they wouldn 't adapt to other sports? In most of the world, it is Soccer/football that rules the youth's interest in sport. In the USA? I have news for you Jan, there are 3 sports, and hockey is almost a fourth where the USA develops top class athletes. There lots of really good options for a great athletes, and many you will find have sports in which they didn't pursue where they were almost as good.

I am sure if you took the number of kids under the age of 10, and not given them any other sports really to look to in the USA, you would eventually develop one hell of a soccer team. World class in fact. The reality of it is the world's sport may be football, but in North America, it is a sideline sport that is slowly becoming more popular as an option for people to play as a profession. The USA hasn't missed a World Cup for quite some time now.....so I would hardly say they suck. You better Rue the day they really take this sport seriously because they will be right there with the top 5 nations on earth in EVERY world cup if they did...

[MrJan]

What I am saying though is that just because some kids show an apptitude for and concentrate on one sport doesn't make the kids who do the other sports lesser athletes. I'm not denying that it's a more popular option but I just can't agree that Andy Murray or Joe Calzaghe (okay so he's Welsh) or Mark Cavandish or Johnny Wilkinson or Jenson Button are lesser athletes.

Would you say that Lance Armstrong is a mediocre athlete? He doesn't play football and by anthony's logic that means that he can't be as good an athelete as Tom Brady. Doing a less popular sport doesn't make someone a mediocre athlete, it makes them a different type of athlete.

And of course the US will be in the top 5 if they try, they're one of the most populated and richest countries on the planet. If you train enough people then you'll find some who stand out. I have never, at any point, said (seriously) that they suck. I believe that England could quite easily slip up against them in June. Anthony was the one who said that they were mediocre athletes, then Swoop had a dig at him and I pointed out that he was just having a go at a fellow American.

I haven't, at any point in this thread, slated the US football team. In fact I'm defending them as proper athletes while their own countrymen have a go at them.

[Mark in Oshawa]

What I am saying though is that just because some kids show an apptitude for and concentrate on one sport doesn't make the kids who do the other sports lesser athletes. I'm not denying that it's a more popular option but I just can't agree that Andy Murray or Joe Calzaghe (okay so he's Welsh) or Mark Cavandish or Johnny Wilkinson or Jenson Button are lesser athletes.

Would you say that Lance Armstrong is a mediocre athlete? He doesn't play football and by anthony's logic that means that he can't be as good an athelete as Tom Brady. Doing a less popular sport doesn't make someone a mediocre athlete, it makes them a different type of athlete.

And of course the US will be in the top 5 if they try, they're one of the most populated and richest countries on the planet. If you train enough people then you'll find some who stand out. I have never, at any point, said (seriously) that they suck. I believe that England could quite easily slip up against them in June. Anthony was the one who said that they were mediocre athletes, then Swoop had a dig at him and I pointed out that he was just having a go at a fellow American.

I haven't, at any point in this thread, slated the US football team. In fact I'm defending them as proper athletes while their own countrymen have a go at them.

No Jan, You misunderstand me. I know you are not slighting anyone. Your pointing out that just because an athlete is good at one sport, what makes me think they might be better at another?

The reality is, there could be a world class footballer who never got the opportunity or had the cultural influence to playing wide receiver for some minor pro American Football league team. You give athletes more attractive choices, they may never develop some inert ability to be a great anything.

No...I was just referring earlier to a post some one made making fun of the idea of a Shaquille O' Neal playing football. It would be a sad and pathetic spectacle...but there is a certain level of athletism all great athletes have...and they can often adapt to other sports. If exposed early enough, who is to say?

I have great respect for the likes of Wayne Rooney, or Kaka, or Thierry Henry....they are wonderful athletes. That said, they come from cultures where playing football is the ultimate goal. Who is to say if their parents had emigrated to Suburban Dallas that they wouldn't be playing wide receiver in the NFL? When you are given options as an athlete, sometimes you take another route. Like Steve Nash did....I can tell you I wish he was leading a Canadian Team in the World Cup....but alas he turned out to be an even better basketball player...