Now that kickball is over….,
- Thread starter champdawg.sixpack
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The MLS is getting more popular and starting to have youth soccer programs. That has really just developed in the last 10 years (not sure I don't follow it closely). I did live in Atlanta for a while and some of those games had 60-70k which a lot of times was actually more than the Falcons.
It helps to get high level players like Pulcic playing in the big leagues. MLS is like the Sunbelt compared to Premier League (SEC) or Spanish, German, or other leagues.
Nope, didn't play soccer or baseball in school. Too left feet and a massive strike zone. Just basketball and track.
Just doing a level set for the misguided among us.
India’s excuse is cricket. China’s is communism and the it’s constant companion, starvation.
I agree with the India point, but China's women's soccer team is really good. Not to mention, China fares very well in the summer Olympics every 4 years. They came in second only to us in the medal count in 2024. They have labs, and they will use them.
It seems like their lack of mens soccer success is because they don't care enough about it yet. Consequently, they don't have a real youth program. Sort of like we were for decades before the 90's or so(?) Lord knows they would have a youth program if they wanted one, they'd just fill it with captive players as they do in other sports.
They're also generally a short people and haven't traditionally been fast, so maybe that's part of why they lagged behind. I'm sure the same performance enhancement program they use for track athletes would help get them caught up quickly. And with some dedication to it (like Japan and South Korea) I bet the PRC would find enough 4 year olds to move into camps and not let them see the light of day until they are competitive.
Maybe. Some day.
But everyone of Cape Verdes great athletes probably plays soccer. They probably get out of bed and kick a soccer ball. Cape Verde most likely have kids running around by themselves playing a pickup soccer game in an open field or urban court. Their movie "The Sandlot" is about Soccer where ours is Baseball or Basketball.
Here in OB we have some beautiful soccer fields. They are full when there are league games. They are empty otherwise.
One more thought. The biggest complaint i hear from the talking basketball experts about how all this AAU basketball is leading to our decline in team play because of lack of fundamentals. Same things also said about travel baseball. Lack of fundamentals is exactly what the difference was between US and Belgium, or the rest of the soccer world.
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Actually, I think it isn’t fundamentals that beat us. It was lack of athleticism. We are fundamentally sound. It’s just the athletes doing those fundamentals are 3rd & 4th tier American athletes. Whereas Belgium’s top athletes were on their national team.
It's a lot more than just athletes. They play it basically from birth and their best are part of professional clubs with professional coaching from an early age. We are talking about 7-8-9 year olds being at pro clubs being trained by licensed professional coaches. We are far from fundamentally sound by their standards. They were taking the ball off us at will, and carving us up with their teamwork. We had a bunch of athletes. They had a bunch of players.
By fundamentals I am talking about passing mostly. I watched a few other games and our games. Argentina, Belgium, England made passes to teammates in the proper spot. They lead people properly. Our passes always hindered our movement.
I played all that catch in my life to be able to not even think when I throw the ball to another person. I knew how to lead the pitcher covering firstbase or SS covering second. That's a fundamental.
The best player in the world for the last 15+ years has been a 5 foot 7 160 pound Argentinian. There is a whole lot more to it than athleticism. We probably had our most athletic team ever this cycle. But our players don’t have the technical skill that the elite countries do. Certainly we don’t have the depth of technical skill in our talent pool.