Why isn't there a single great soccer player from the US?

[BLAZO da GAWD]

More and more idiotic posts about "our best athletes play other sports :derp: ".

Have y'all seen any of the African teams? Some of these guys look like cornerbacks in the NFL, yet the continent of Africa has not had an African nation represented in the finals of the World Cup.

IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ATHLETICISM. That rhetoric is an arrogant line of thinking, and coincides with the deep-rooted belief that the "strongest, fastest, biggest" are always best.

Spain, who dominated the international scene for the past 6 years barely have any speed, strength, or height. Literally, they have 2 guys that are taller than 6' (Busquets and Pique), yet they still have been dominant. The best player in the world in Messi is 5'7 on a good day.

IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ATHLETICISM.

 

[StraxStrax]

Nobody with any sense expects 23 year old Aron Johannsson from the fukking Dutch league to be a world class player one day.

Chill dude.

It's an off chance but he's still USA best hope for a great player in the next 5-7 years

 

[BLAZO da GAWD]

Americans play fun sports

Yeah, you right. Baseball and golf are more fun, bro.

 

[BLAZO da GAWD]

All people with the "our best athletes play other sports :derp: " rhetoric have never played soccer beyond gym class in grade school.

 

[Goat poster]

America is underrated in soccer.

We compete pretty well with countries year after year that LIVE soccer, and it's not even a top 4 sport in the US.

Of course we don't dominate, but weve come a LONG way in a short period of time.

 

[keepemup]

I don't see anything remarkable about Bradley. He's ok. The best player on the US is by far Dempsey with Howard coming up next.

 

[GatorStaceyAdams]

Why do people care whether Americans care about soccer? I see people actively investing time and $$ to expand soccer here in the states, but what for? Arent we pretty good at almost every other sport in the world?

To answer the OP's question- American's just dont really care about soccer like that. In most schools, soccer is placed somewhere along the likes of LAX and olympic-style wrestling. Then you consider that most other countries are terrible at the majority of sports and mainly concentrate in soccer.

If you are a top young US soccer player, odds are against you.

 

[MoneyTron]

Intelligence is an important requirement to play soccer(football) pace and power can only take you so far.

Intelligence is a part of being great in all sports.

I wouldn't call Peyton Manning or Kobe Bryant idiots, they're practically savants when it comes to their sports. Peyton can probably write a 200 page playbook off the top of his head. Kobe's sheer amount of moves he displays out of the triple threat is mind boggling.

And yes, I know its not all about athleticism. However taking elite athletes like the ones I described earlier up through a club system, it just seems like those American athletes would be able to compete far better than the ones we have out there now. In fact, I know we have superior athletes in other sports than would be better at soccer than what we have out there had they played since childhood.

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

It is pretty strange how we haven't produced an absolute star that went to Europe to play & dominate. Closest we've got is Dempsey & Tim Howard

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Still better than watchin nikkas run around for hours with 0 goals to show for it.

Get excited about ALMOST scoring a point brehs

CP0 dont even flop as much as soccer players

i'm no soccer fan at all, but if you're going to go this route (bagging on the whole [low-no] scoring aspect of soccer), we can easily pick apart football, the sport where you get pity points for getting "close enough" to the place where you're supposed to score. the game whose scores would look like soccer & hockey if they weren't magically worth 6 points per TD (plus the good ol extra point...because any sport where you score, you should be given an extra score to go with it) .




to the thread, i think you've been answered with the infrastructure/NCAA/college sports replies. maybe if rich parents start the movement, they can send their kids to live in brazil, spain, the UK, etc. to train, bring em back for world cup and the olympics

 

[Jutt]

I don't see anything remarkable about Bradley. He's ok. The best player on the US is by far Dempsey with Howard coming up next.

 

[BLAZO da GAWD]

Why do people care whether Americans care about soccer? I see people actively investing time and $$ to expand soccer here in the states, but what for? Arent we pretty good at almost every other sport in the world?

To answer the OP's question- American's just dont really care about soccer like that. In most schools, soccer is placed somewhere along the likes of LAX and olympic-style wrestling. Then you consider that most other countries are terrible at the majority of sports and mainly concentrate in soccer.

If you are a top young US soccer player, odds are against you.

You answered your own question with the bolded. People who invest expect returns. There is money to be made if they can grow the sport. It's the same concept why Goodell wants to expand the NFL globally.

 

[Malta]

Intelligence is an important requirement to play soccer(football) pace and power can only take you so far.

I doubt the majority of these dudes playing in the world cup even got through middle school.

 

[keepemup]

As soon as soccer gets really popular in America, with a population of 318 million, it's not hard to see them winning several world cups.

 

[kingofnyc]

I know our soccer infrastructure doesn't really develop players well, and that most of our athletic talent gets shifted into other sports by adolescence (i.e. everyone plays soccer as a kid, but it ends there), but it makes no sense that in a country of 300 million+ we can't churn out a single elite player. Soccer's not that unpopular here. It just doesn't make any sense.

if i true-fully answer ... imma be deemed a hater