Now explain France. They are dominating basketball and soccer lately. Thankfully, we haven’t given them a football or they’d probably figure out how to kick our butts in that too. Some times it’s just about want to and not about how to make a buck.
***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***
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Now explain France. They are dominating basketball and soccer lately. Thankfully, we haven’t given them a football or they’d probably figure out how to kick our butts in that too. Some times it’s just about want to and not about how to make a buck.
I'm not sure the Olympics are a great example since a large number of Olympic sports are individual sports. It's easier to be competitive when you're competing for a score or a time versus being in direct competition with other teams.
You're both sorta contributing to the same point, IMO. Like you said, we lack structure. Aditionally, we also lack the interested bodies so competitive teams can play other competitive teams.
At any time, London may have 7 or so teams in the premier league. You have thousands of kids wanting to be a part of that with the facilities and coaching nearby to make it happen. That's a high concentration of talent and structure in one small geographic area.
Compare that to the US, where you have different youth organizations (ECNL, ECRL, MLS Next, GA, ODP, National 1 League, etc) and tons of individual clubs proclaiming to be the best league or best club to get money from parents. It waters down the talent pool and you never get the best teams playing each other on a consistent basis. We never see iron sharpening iron because our talent is spread out and there is not the structure to pull it together.
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Dominating basketball? When had France beaten us in the Olympics when we’ve played our pros?
It's a lot of things but hard to ignore that as a fairly well off family we're still crossing off different soccer orgs because the cost/benefit is so terrible. I imagine there are a large % of people who can't even have that discussion, and then a large % making the same calls we are.
Maybe there aren't enough athletes to go around, but IMO it's hard to say that definitively when you start by cutting the pool so drastically.
Maybe there aren't enough athletes to go around, but IMO it's hard to say that definitively when you start by cutting the pool so drastically.
You're correct, but it feels like Olympic basketball is about to get much more interesting now that Steph, Bron, etc. have aged out. Canada probably has as much talent as the US team at this point, and France will be good for many years too (though not as deep).
I think the reality with all of these sports is that countries with high immigrant populations tend to have the most talent. France isn't winning soccer matches with a bunch of Pepe LePeu's. They're almost all children of African immigrants.
Yeah France isn’t dominating the US in basketball they are just having a good run against other counties who have historically been bad in basketball. It’s almost the reverse comparison to the World Cup where instead of the US catching up to everyone else, it’s the US light years ahead of everyone else and the other countries being good when they get a generational talent but still not close to the US
Anyhoo.....
Egypt up 1-0 on Argentina, and Egypt's GK saved a Messi PK attempt.
Egypt up 1-0 on Argentina, and Egypt's GK saved a Messi PK attempt.
One indicator that soccer had taken off in the US is when you hear about NIL and soccer together. The sports that do well in the US are the ones who people throw money at. Until soccer gets money people involved, it will struggle here against FB and MBB.
Having not been a soccer fan who has watched a lot of this WC, it seems that at the international level, this isn't a shooting sport. It looks like a passing sport. All the best teams consistently move the ball well, take care of it, and pass and catch with pinpoint accuracy.
The US was pretty poor in that area last night. Setting up shots is just as or more important than actually taking them. Teams getting lots of great shots on are frequently getting them from great passing.
The US was pretty poor in that area last night. Setting up shots is just as or more important than actually taking them. Teams getting lots of great shots on are frequently getting them from great passing.
This is a very stupid post. If you are actually good at soccer you aren’t playing in college and NIL isn’t a thing.
But other countries aren’t prioritizing olympic sports like they are soccer. So we’re on a much more even playing field both athletically and developmentally in the Olympics. And by virtue of those better athletes and development programs we are the better country in the Olympics (it’s almost always between us and China for total golds and total medals leaders).
With all due respect, we’re putting our good collegiate athletes vs their LeBrons, Tyreek Hills, Aaron Judges. And then we wonder why we can’t compete with them.
Basketball you can go pro after one year. Many come back due to the pay in college. The money and player pool is there to keep players in college. When something similar happens to soccer, that’s when it’s arrived in the US. You can call it stupid but right now one is pumping money into soccer like MBB or FB.
This is also due to college sports and the investment there for a lot of Olympic sports. Most other countries don’t even come close when that gets added in
Basketball is France’s second most popular sport, similar to U.S. It’s taken them generations of popularity and investment fir their best players to give our best players a competitive game.
I fundamentally believe if, culturally, the U.S. cared about soccer as much as Europe and South America, we’d dominate the sport, or at least be one of the best teams in the world. Like we do with pretty much every other sport, including women’s soccer.
Yeah basketball you can go pro after a year, football 3, in soccer you can go pro as a pre teen.
Thats why your point is irrelevant. Actual soccer training and development as a pro in the academy’s start in middle school. It’s just apples to oranges
So to equal Europe we need 6th graders to have decided they want nothing else but soccer is basically the deal? That is going to be a hard sell.
Didn't we beat them in basketball? You forgot baseball, wrestling, hockey and track to add to the list of sports American athletes do instead of soccer.
Isn't that how every sport basically is now?
But you're right, for most of the other popular sports in the US being an athlete is just as or more important as your skill meaning you won't have many 5'7" super star like Messi in football or baseball. Which means it's more skill focused so yeah starting at a young age is important.
Soccer is seen as the sport you play as a young kid but you eventually move to football or other sports when you're older. It comes down to what kids see on TV, football is the most popular sport on TV so young kids want to play that the most. Then it's what their parents push them to play. If somehow soccer was more mainstream then you'd get more kids sticking with it longer.
