Teams
Forum List

Search results

  1. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    Excluding football, the only sports invented in America are basketball and volleyball. Basketball: men won 17 of the 21 golds in the Olympics including the last 4. Women have won 10 of 13. Neither team has not medaled in an Olympics. Baseball: Has one gold and two runner-ups in the last 3...
  2. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    It’s easier to say an external factor, “the youth development program is the main issue”, than it is to admit an intrinsic factor, our culture, is the main thing holding American soccer back.
  3. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    He makes some good points. The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.
  4. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    I might have been the one to start here and then you jumped 10 steps and said you don’t need to be an athlete to be elite at soccer, you can be taught all that stuff. I don’t disagree that there are big skill and training gaps between us and Europe, or even with the idiocy of the U.S’ youth...
  5. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    You’re mistaking improving on those areas to being “taught”. S&C coaches can maximize your potential. They can’t teach you speed or elite hand eye coordination.
  6. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    You can improve your endurance through training. But I’ll never have as much endurance as a Kenyan 10000-meterer, no matter how much training and resources I put into it. Size doesn’t equal athleticism. I know people who are huge, who would trip over their own feet if they moved faster than a...
  7. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    Yep, and the best women’s golfer is American. We have by far and away the best women’s soccer and basketball programs. Softball too. Our women’s volleyball team has medaled in every Olympics but 2 since 1984. We dominate women’s sand volleyball. If the desire was there culturally, we’d dominate...
  8. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    I disagree. You need good athleticism to be an elite soccer player. You need excellent foot-eye coordination, agility, speed, endurance. Those are all athletic traits. Like any sport, to truly excel you need more than just athleticism, but the baseline is being a great athlete. You can’t just...
  9. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    But the U.S.’ best women’s athletes are going into soccer at a much higher rate than the best U.S. men’s athletes. That, to me, is why the U.S. isn’t competitive. It’s cultural more than anything. I would also argue all youth sports are crazy expensive. Not exclusive to soccer. But I don’t...
  10. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    I agree to a degree. But I think the primary issue is the kids that have this skill, have already moved onto another sport in the U.S. by ages 10. Not because we don’t have the athletes. Kind of a chicken/egg type thing. Part of the reason the U.S. doesn’t have the developmental resources...
  11. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    I agree with this as well
  12. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    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...
  13. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    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...
  14. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    You can see it in the comments within this very thread. There is active vitriol towards soccer from a decent size percentage of Americans. Not even ambivalence, actual dislike. Versus in Europe and South America where soccer is a lifestyle. It’s ingrained into their every day life. That’s a...
  15. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    2 other things. It’s pretty impressive that soccer, at best, is the nation’s 5th most popular sport (probably lower when taking into account individual sports like golf and tennis), but we still field a top 16 nation in the world. After our great World Cup in 2010 (with the Algeria win I’ll...
  16. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    Yes, but say we have 100 great athletes to a European country’s 5. In America, maybe, 1 of those kids plays soccer. And that’s a big maybe. And he’ll be playing with fewer resources and expertise than in Europe. In Europe all 5 of those kids are going to an elite soccer academy school by the...
  17. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    Yeah but I think if our athletes began working on those skills at an earlier age, they would develop them. Maybe not LeBron per se, but others would. It’s just kids choose other sports than soccer for a variety of reasons and stop working on developing those skills. I’ll never be convinced that...
  18. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    You know in times like these, in today’s social media bs world, in sports and in life, I remember some good advice from Jon Gruden of all people that can apply to all sides of this when things don’t go their way. “Stop ******** about your problems and start rolling the ******* rock. Let’s...
  19. S

    NBA: *** 2025-26 NBA Thread ***

    That is an awful return for Boston. A terrible contract and some lousy firsts. They must have just wanted him out of the building. I really thought Denver was going to make a run at Brown. Murray plus Cam Johnson’s expiring for Brown and another bench player for contact purposes. That would...
  20. S

    ***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

    Uruguay canceled their charter and made the players fly back commercial. These countries need to chill.
Top Bottom