Im gonna go out on a limb and say thats at least as fast as NFL receivers run their routes. And the ability to do that several minutes into a match when youve been running forever is insane.
Romelu Lukaku Clocked the Fastest Speed of Any Premier League Player This Weekend - VERSUS
Lukaku was faster than Rashford, Walcott and Zaha.www.versus.uk.com
Lukaku doesn’t have elite speed? Try again
***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***
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That was a decade ago my man. He’s not even close to that when he scored on us. It’s common knowledge about how slow and low endurance he isRomelu Lukaku Clocked the Fastest Speed of Any Premier League Player This Weekend - VERSUS
Lukaku was faster than Rashford, Walcott and Zaha.
Lukaku doesn’t have elite speed? Try again
A quick google search will tell you these guys consistently reach speeds between 20 and 23mph. Especially attackers.
He’s 33 now. Sprint speed typically drops off after mid 20s, but not that much. World class is still world class. And yes he’s coming off injury and came in as a sub. No player gets to sniff a spot in a top national team without elite ATHLETICISM (which includes many characteristics: acceleration, sprint speed, agility ie good hips etc)
Just keep doubling down - the ‘average’ human is not capable of becoming an international Euro footballer regardless of their access to ‘world class’ training from birth
Yep the best in the world certainly do, good news is there are a ton of other positions that don’t require top end speed and even some of the up top guys don’t have it.
Like I said it’s not about being an all time great where people know your name, it’s about making the USMNT that is a much lower bar to clear.
I’m not gonna convince you or anyone that disagrees with me, I can’t prove my point since it’s purely hypothetical so I’ll agree to disagree and stop derailing this thread (even though we have a day and a half before France)
Yeah its called goalkeeper. And you still have to be super athletic and generally a certain body type that a low percentage of people have. You can train someone as much as you like and they still arent going to be Tim Howard. He was a legit world class goalkeeper and a hell of an athlete.
You are 100% wrong. You are confident so there is that.
Im 100% confident you can reason with this man and he can be convinced(at least somewhat).
This for mls(lower level pro)
Soccer vs. Football Speed DemandsAcceleration and Agility: Unlike American football, where players sprint in straight lines in open space, soccer requires explosive bursts of 5 to 15 yards combined with rapid changes in direction, ball control, and spatial awareness.Top Speeds: During a match, top MLS players hit sprinting speeds upwards of 22 to 23 mph, which is elite track speed but tested over different mechanics than the 40-yard standing start.
A sub that comes in at 65-70 minutes and ‘just scores’ is an attacker that absolutely needs elite speed, explosiveness, and agility. 90+% of the population is not capable of that level regardless of lifelong training
Just take the L
Damn good to know that the elite athletes for soccer were just born with the right genes. Gotta figure out how to test those to stop wasting peoples times and maximize the return
If I recall, this convo started from a place of you arguing that the difference between USMNT quality versus the Euros is that Euros have unfettered access to the best training from 4 years old, and that athleticism is irrelevant
Now you’re changing to say this only applies for center backs? Do I have that right?
Mostly how it started. I was saying how having the athletes wasn’t an issue it’s about the skill and technique gap and that gap is due to the difference from them having that kind of training in proper development from a very young age.
That turned into a different arguement on the value of the training and how people were talking about club vs school and the fact that the level of training for soccer in the US has historically been behind a huge paywall and that’s a massive problem.
From there I made the leap to saying that if you gave this average kid access to that level of training from a young age they could make the USMNT.
Long circle that is the epitome of the dead season for sports
Even the guys playing in the back end of the 3rd level in the US pro pyramid are faster than 90% of people.
But the issue is you said you dont have to be a great athlete to be an elite soccer player. Thats what blew this up. We just made the point you actually do have to be at the very least a fairly gifted athlete to even think about being good.
I’m getting lost with all the ways this has gone. And different people.
Long story short the US lost not due to athletes playing football or basketball but due to a lack of skills and techniques learned from a young age in Europe and elseware.
If we didn’t gatekeep that kind of training behind a very high paywall in many cases we could catch up to Europe with the athletes we already have.
Providing those athletes with that level of resources from an early age would level the playing field greatly.
By default almost all pro athletes are obv great athletes it’s kinda implied. What I was doing a piss poor job of saying is that unlike football and basketball that take those to the absolute extreme to be allowed to compete you can still be an incurable football player without some of those skills relative to their peers. You can be a little slower and still have a place in soccer, yes on defense. You can still have less endurance and have a role. You can have less agility etc and still find a place and obv the sport isn’t size or height dependent as football and basketball are.
Yeah I know TLDR
Overall we lost because we just arent at the skill of the European teams and other top teams. And our backline and goalkeeping is atrocious. For years that was the one thing keeping us in games. Would having a larger talent pool of athletes improve us? I mean obviously but its not like we werent on the same page as Belgium athletically. They Just know how to play better than we do. This is a product of a our development system which is all about clubs making money(which caters to wealthier people) as opposed to making USA soccer better. The focus is different in other countries. Our development programs have to be more inclusive but hey this is a capitalist country. We spend enough money we just dont have a good plan.
