OT: We may win the World Cup in 2026

RUChet said:

Back to soccer! Let’s go USA!

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Caliknight said:

Depends on the position. Prime Shaq in goal? Allen Iverson as a forward having a ball on his feel his whole life? Football players train for football. If they trained for soccer, their bodies would be soccer bodies. Take some of those fleet footed wr's. Give them a soccer ball when they are 4 instead of a football and we'd have produced a number of Messi's. JJ Watt as a defenseman in soccer? Dude would be insane. Randy Moss? Saquan Barkley as a forward? So many examples. For numerous reasons the American athlete is just much better than those others in the world. America has over 3,000 Olympic medals. No other country comes close which is proof of that. We churn out athletes like crazy.

Put America's best athletes in soccer or even our second or third best, and we'd have won world cups by now. We are competing with arguably our fourth best athlete type. It's not even close to the potential of what our tier 1 athletes could do.

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RU848789 said:

Stop the presses!! I agree with this 100% and have been saying this for 20+ years (we actually agree on a lot of sports topics). Good examples, too. One of the ones I've been using for years is imagining LeBron as a hold-up center forward. He'd be unstoppable getting and controlling the ball in dangerous positions and has the speed and agility to dribble around defenders (assuming he had developed foot skills since infancy like so many of the best players in the world) to make shots/passes - and imagine trying to defend him in the box on headers.

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RU848789 said:

Stop the presses!! I agree with this 100% and have been saying this for 20+ years (we actually agree on a lot of sports topics). Good examples, too. One of the ones I've been using for years is imagining LeBron as a hold-up center forward. He'd be unstoppable getting and controlling the ball in dangerous positions and has the speed and agility to dribble around defenders (assuming he had developed foot skills since infancy like so many of the best players in the world) to make shots/passes - and imagine trying to defend him in the box on headers.

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RUChet said:

1) nearly $1B is a lot of money regardless of its not the majority of their budget

2) I never stated my opinion on RU so how do you know? But I’ll tell you.

- Cliff went to HS here so he’s a domestic recruit IMO just like Rosario

- I don’t mind SOME non domestic recruits if they never played pro ball or aren’t old like a 21 yr old Freshman in that kid last year - ridiculous

- I don’t like so many non domestic players on our field hockey and volleyball teams - again, it ruins title IX which is supposed to give AMERICAN girls a dose oppty not foreign

- I don’t like that ncaa tennis and soccer are now becoming dominated with non domestic players and at so many public schools

- I’d be ok with federal legislation limiting non domestic athletes at schools receiving federal money no differently than many foreign leagues limit foreign athletes at the PRO level and ncaa isn’t supposed to even be PRO so limiting is less extreme than in PRO sports

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tico brown said:

Two other historic players that come to mind who would’ve been world class soccer players: Kobe Bryant and Ocho Cinco. Both had legit skills.

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