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

[godkiller]

breh ran on a completely different tangent. You got problems.

You said: "translation = Americans kids are fat, lazy, and content and their parents dont want to see their babies leave." in response to my assertions that Americans make more money, play different sports and want to stay inside the country.

I responded by reminding you that American kids are great athletes--and nowhere near fat or lazy, as good or better than European athletes-and that their choices are based on preference, just like the European preference to play in European leagues over better paying gigs in South America is a preference. Or the European preference not to play baseball.

 

[yoyoyo1]

300 posts? #WorldCupFever

worth reading? for seriousness? for comedy? I'm all soccered out ffs. I may save this to read for then the PL starts.



and here's the "intro to soccer" thing people are up for this month..

http://freakonomics.com/2014/06/12/...-soccer-yet-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Why America Doesn’t Love Soccer (Yet): A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

Greg Rosalsky
06/12/2014 | 8:56 am

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(Photo: Steven Depolo)

With the 2014 World Cup getting underway in Brazil, we’ve just released an episode called “Why America Doesn’t Love Soccer (Yet).” (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can also read the transcript, which includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.) The episode tries to answer a few questions:

1. Why doesn’t America love soccer the way the rest of the world does? 2. Would that change if the U.S. ever managed to win a World Cup? 3. Is No. 2 possible without No. 1?

 

[klutch2381]

you could say the same about any country with hundreds of millions of people and ask why they havent produced any elite basketball or football players.
why arent there any elite chinese basketball players, or elite chinese football players
why arent there any indians in soccer, basketball or football. or baseball
why arent there elite japanese or russian players in the nba or nfl.

it really is as simple as the lack of interest and lack of incentive growing up. having gone thru gradeschool and college i didnt know ONE good athlete during middle school or high school that had any interest in soccer, it was usually all the short mexicans and white dudes that couldnt play baseball, football or basketball that were into soccer. and then nobody gave a shyt about the soccer team either everyone was hyped for football, baseball and basketball. even track and field got more coverage when i was in school than soccer.

when you think of the wide variety of sports that are available in the US, it really does filter out a lot of great athletes from the population. compare that to england for example, a country that doesnt have the many professional leagues the US does, and the fact that they are crazy about soccer means that more kids will grow up wanting to be soccer players. because playing for manchester united >>>>> playing for the ny red bulls

I meant to respond to this yesterday.

This is going to sound slightly jingoistic, but whatever. None of those countries benefit from American hegemony. Consequently, the U.S.A.'s ability to produce world class athletes in a variety of sports >>>>> India or China. All kids in our country grow up playing a variety of sports (e.g. softball, basketball, soccer, flag football, etc.) via physical education. Hell, I grew up impoverished and at my poor public middle school we even golfed at different points in PE. One of the biggest days in elementary school was field day. Everyone wanted to show off how fast and strong they were (i.e. America's ability to find young sprint talent and subsequently dominate the sprints in the Olympics until Jamaica came through and crushed the buildings ). It would almost stand to reason that at some point a PE teacher would have seen some first or second grader kicking the shyt out of a soccer ball and been like:

Rolled up on his parent(s) like:

"Your son has a special talent for the game."

And the rest would have been history. The fact we haven't produced ONE Ibrahimovic ever is kinda wild.

But, maybe it's like Jurgen said, and the American style is just the American style and always will be.

 

[Jutt]

This isn't true at all. American kids and athletes are better than European kids and athletes. Toby Gerhart athletic measurables alone are better than Cristiano Ronaldo's - and Gerhart is not the best athlete in American sport. He's just very good. Similar to the way Europeans are content to ignore American football, Americans are content to ignore soccer. Just as the Europeans aren't "fat, lazy or content" for ignoring American football, so Americans aren't such for ignoring soccer. The same applies for Europe's aversion to baseball and their loyalty to rugby or handball. It's a matter of preference. You soccertards will use any red herring and misrepresentation to push your bullshyt.

But this isnt true at all. More people are playing soccer here than ever before.

 

[godkiller]

1) There isn't a great chance of succeeding in any pro sport. That's why they make so much money.
2) Africans, South Americans, and Asians have no problem moving to Europe to play soccer. Don't see why Americans are any different.

1) For Americans, the chances of succeeding in American sport--becoming a famous and recognizable athlete--are far higher in prototypical American sports than something niche and obscure like soccer. The costs are lower too in terms of personal sacrifice. Why sacrifice a college education + baseball + everything else for some slow soccer crawl in a crappy British town (if you ever make it over there and most American players don't)? WHY?

2) And yet the same South Americans, Africans and Asians beat down the doors to get into America. Unlike other continents, Americans don't need to move to europe to make money or become famous. The salaries South American, African and Asian players make in their own countries are paltry to anything they could make in europe doing the same thing. That's one thing which influences player's movement. Another is the sport media and infrastructure platform in the aforementioned regions are minuscule and less developed than the europe's. In comparison, America has a massive sports media and infrastructure from which to support players. There's Hollywood, million dollar contracts, shoe deals, etc. America's innate greatness appeals to athletes and normal people, with the effect being that they are less likely to trade american cultural sport for soccer worship.

In response to a media question as to whether he'd consider going to a London franchise, a NFL player said he'd retire before going over there. That goes to show you how strong the thrall America is over American athletes. They're already making money and living it up. Nobody is hungry and tryna move across the world to feed their family. "I'm happy where I'm at. I live in Beverly Hills. Who living better than me?" mentality

 

[godkiller]

But this isnt true at all. More people are playing soccer here than ever before.

More people are playing every sport than every before. The total number of people playing tackle football likely outnumbers any other time in history because of just how many people can play the sport now. That's a consequence of population growth and athletic participation. Nice try though.

 

[NZA]

1. we dont like watching it so it's hard to get good at it (the reasons why are a whole other thread)
2. we have too many viable local sports options (your chances of being a multimillionare athlete are better staying in the usa where you compete with a much smaller group of people and if you dont make it, you got a scholarship)

 

[Ronnie Lott]

Out of a billion people, China only had one good basketball player.

Don't forget about Jeremy Lin

 

[Ronnie Lott]

But this isnt true at all. More people are playing soccer here than ever before.

But we ain't watchin soccer like that. The best athletes aren't playing soccer in the u.s

 

[BigL187]

Landon Donovan?

 

[phillycavsfan]

More people are playing every sport than every before. The total number of people playing tackle football likely outnumbers any other time in history because of just how many people can play the sport now. That's a consequence of population growth and athletic participation. Nice try though.

It doesn't, actually. Parents are getting scared of their kids growing up with brain damage.

 

[42 Monks]

Don't forget about Jeremy Lin

He ain't Chinese though

 

[Danie84]

...that's not where the moneys at for "American athletes"

 

[gangreen]

It just takes one african american player to lead the U.S. to the world cup who comes from a tough background, who has the skills, and swag to get international acclaim

to get the ball rolling and get these little black and brown kids in the inner city to start playing.

Cause that Soccer Money is .

 

[Big Boss]

We have a long way to catch up