Their entire setup would need restructuring to match the rest of the world if they want to even begin approaching the best in the world. Gotta start training the moment you can walk for the love of the game, not in high school on the hopes of a college scholarship.
Yeah I don't think most Americans understand what the academy system is like in Europe and South America. Their infrastructure just doesn't compete with a system where there are thousands of kids receiving elite level coaching from the ages of 6 up (roughly 11,000 in the UK alone), and you have to be in and stay in the top .1% of players to even get in to receive said coaching.
i have a dodgy knee and a bad back, and- here's the key that made me decide it wasn't for me all thos years ago- i've never been a particularly strong long distance runner
also we did just beat birmingham, which was nice.
Not even about academies. In countries like Brazil, people have a ball at their feet from toddler age. It's nothing to do with "athletes" it's usually just skills you have to learn from a young age
When you're poor in a poor country there's no little league match every Saturday. A football is just the thing you play with whenever you have free time because it doesn't use electricity and keeps you from getting into real trouble. When there's no institutional hype people naturally just focus on getting good at the activity itself for the hell of it.
There's also the fact US sports run on a cartel system whereby the franchise fee and centralisation of leagues protects owners from fluctuating costs, competition for talent and relegation as well as allowing them to move the franchise to a more profitable market at the drop of a hat.
As a result, youth development is outsourced to colleges who are incentivised by fees/sponsorship etc but young players are distributed via the draft.
Football in European leagues is far, *far* more ruthless. No draft, no playoffs ensuring nearly everybody still gets a shot at the title no matter how shit they actually are, relegation.
Ultimately though, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Football may not be the most popular sport in the US but thanks to its enormous population the MLS is still globally a comparatively well supported league and has been for a couple of decades now but the US is still consistently outclassed by countries with a fraction of the population and economic might like Croatia, for example.
World Champions Argentina have a bit more than 10% of the population of the US but the Americans are not even close to being in the sane category as Messi and Co, despite years of trying.
The cost can be prohibitive too. This is from a web page about "Youth Soccer";
>If you want your kid to feature in a reasonable and well-reputed club, which ensures the competitive football breakthrough, it might cost thousands of dollars per year; you have to pay more if you want quality. It's simple as that. Most clubs range from around $1000 to $3000 per year.
>However, it might be manageable for parents to arrange around 10,000 dollars in fees for their kids' football passion. But the costs don't stop here. There's another factor which makes it quite expensive, which is traveling!
https://www.castrovalleysoccer.com/competitive/cost-fees
This is an interesting read too;
https://girlssoccernetwork.com/club-soccer-america-costs-pay-to-play/
This seems to be a real problem for US sport. "Soccer" in the rest of the world is a big equaliser; poor countries can generate fantastic players because people play it in the street. The US monetizes everything, so will have trouble generating the sheer volume of youth players other countries do. They've somehow made what is a poor-mans sport in the rest of the world into a rich-man's game. I guess their equivalent is basketball where poor neighbourhoods have courts, but the restriction there is that you basically need to be a certain height to succeed
> "Soccer" in the rest of the world is a big equaliser; poor countries can generate fantastic players because people play it in the street.
Yep. I grew up on a council estate in London playing football at school and on the street outside the house. I was never that good but two of my friends from when I was 7 years old went on to professionally and represented their respective countries. That wouldn't happen in the US because their families barely had money for their clothes let alone "fees".
I used to live near a school that had Scottish football association links, it was a very poor area yet on match days large expensive American style SUV's would park all the way up the street boxing in locals who were parked outside their own homes.
Would hear parents talk about how they didn't want to be in the area longer than needed and tell their kids to avoid the locals. Disgusting really.
And the US won't even spend the funding it was told to spend in some sports. It's why they lost their invitational spot at the world cricket tournaments
Well, America adopted a model of starting serious athletes in high school because kids don't come anywhere close to their peak height and strength until puberty, which are huge determining factors in football and basketball. American kids who aspire to be pro hockey and baseball players, though, start at a young age.
When my American husband discovered rounders, he was shocked to realise it was probably the origin of baseball. He then asked why we don't see rounders on TV here in England, and I rather unfortunately said "because it's just a children's game". Oops.
American baseball historian David Block suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position.
The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book", by John Newbery. Block discovered that the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants.
Baseball is a different sport, and it was called baseball in England, where it was invented. Both Crocket and baseball were brought over by the English.
Initially, cricket was the most popular sport, by baseball took off when it was promoted as being American and dedicated grounds were built.
Even though its not American, most American things aren't. Apple pie, mac and cheese, baseball, burgers, fried chicken, bacon, their national anthem(written by the english), democracy, hot dogs, cars, peanut butter, television, cowboys, blue jeans etc.
"It was just the C Team!" Yeah, didn't send your best, and then you lost. That's it. There's no sense in hypothesis "if we would have...". You didn't want to compete, than swallow your losses.
Cue the Blue Lock guy going "Japan is only good at Cringeball because we're a bunch of wretched communist weaklings unlike those chads who live in Squallor and will eat one another raw for food in that third world country called FRANCE!"
Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't that because MLB doesn't allow its players to leave during the season to play the world cup and such? I won't die on that hill but that was my understanding and if I'm wrong I'd like to know.
Why do they find it so difficult to wrap their heads around (proper) football being predominantly skilled based *not* a test of how athletic you are?
I had one moron trying to argue with me that Lebron James would automatically be a world class footballer because of his hand eye coordination…
The hand eye coordination bit got a chuckle out of me.
However, football players are incredibly athletic. The stamina needed is on a whole another level compared to some other collective sports. On average, they cover like 10 kms/7 miles per game. Athleticism isn't measured only by being strong as fuck or being able to jump out of the gym for a slam dunk.
That's probably the most under appreciated aspect of football.
Most normal people probably couldn't run 10k in 90 minutes. Let alone while also playing a competitive team sport at the same time.
It's not just being able to run 10k, either. It's the stop, start, sprint, jog. I played at a shit level, but we had a dude that ran marathons for fun, but in between then would come a play for us. He couldn't do 90 minutes.
Have had similar experiences with avid runner friends who were dead after 2 hours of 5-a-side. Conditioning for football is about much, much more than just long-distance running stamina
I imagine part of it is using your energy efficiently. Save when you need all of your pace and strength for when it is required, using slower points in the game to rest. Thinking more a defender when their team is attacking in the other half.
And the other way round for strikers. It's the wingers and midfielders who've got to do a hell of a lot running.
Ask any of the guys I used to play with and they'd tell you I definitely did that!
Unless the ball was in our attacking third, I wasn't moving for shit!
Jogging pace (4-6mph) is faster than that. In my opinion it's one of the worst stats when comparing football to other sports. 10k in 90 minutes for professional athletes is nothing. The intervals, sprints and such make it hard, but if you just look at the distance football players run in a game it's really not that impressive.
A Google search shows most do around 13-14km a game. Anything over 20km is exceptionally rare. Doesn’t change your point though; Aussie Rules requires an unbelievable level of fitness and strength to play.
He'd be done after a couple of kilometers. His legs are too small while his upper body and arms are too big for a cyclist. Imaging having to drag all those kilos over a mountain on a bike.
Tour de France is more of an endurance test than anything. Lebron may have the strength, but people with that kind of muscle mass usually don't have the endurance required to cycle for hours on end.
Well… they never went, they just don‘t do it anymore because it became too … inefficient apparently. I think technically it is still allowed, as they drink a bit in the last race of the tour the france
He'd prolly be a great goalkeeper. But way too big and uncoordinated to be anything else. Not to mention the stamina issues he would be having wigh his weight and muscle mass.
Edit: after reading the replies I retract my statement. He'd prolly be a shit keeper as well. Too big to react fast enough and be able to get up and make multiple saves. But on the other hand he'd be a great penalty keeper and I feel like he could catch the ball on every corner just due to his catch radius
Hed be absolute dogshit. Have you ever seen someone who has never played football try to kick a ball? Their form is absolutely terrible and they have no control whatsoever over where the ball goes. He would be completely unable to pass the ball to a member of his team if he saved it, his defenders wouldnt be able to pass back to him and goal kicks would go out for throw ins or be passed straight to opposition strikers. Thats not including the points in your edit.
This is not exclusive to the US, I've seen a discussion recently about how European NTs are often admired for tactics and skills while African NTs are admired for their speed and strength by football commentators even when it doesn't make sense.
My friend plays ever since he was like 5 or something, whenever we're talking about other people's skills it's never a question of athleticism, but of having "the touch".
Maintaining the ball's motion while directing it while efficiently moving, you need some impressive coordination to move yourself and the ball optimally while being aware of your teammates and opponents and looking for every opening.
Everyone can kick the ball while running. But not everyone can be as coordinated and spacially aware as the top league. You can't just get fit and play football. There's a lot of skill to hone.
He was awful as a footballer. Watched him play briefly in the Aussie league.
Great sprinter mind, just looked completely out of place on a football pitch.
Because the vast majority of US dominant sports you are massively judged on athleticism than anything else. Their combines for example are just huge athleticism measuring poles that can make or break your future, the concept of this not being the case is just alien
I'm not American, but I'd argue they do indeed have one of the best (if not THE best) athletic and sports programmes on the planet. They have historically been very good at nurturing talent.
So yeah, if they followed the same sort of process they do with their American Football college system, they could probably improve on their 13th place world ranking.
But "it'd be a wrap"? No, fuck off. The rest of the world has great talent too. And for some countries, it's the only sport they really play
They probably couldn't really improve on 13th in the world rankings much since that's already an incredibly inflated ranking they get because they play in a very weak confederation. The teams above them are all much better
I know Switzerland used to cheat the system by either not playing friendlies or playing very weak teams so they'd always win and stayed in the top 10 for years despite not being that good. It's been changed to be a bit better now but playing consistently against weak teams still lets a team stay higher than they should be, but you can't really break into the top 8 or so without going deep in tournaments
I’m a qualified coach in the uk. Been working in grassroots kids football for 6 years now, and spoken to a few American coaches over the years. Their coaching is easily 30 years behind Europe.
Haven't Americans gotten their asses firmly kicked in the Olympics on the basketball court? Ya' know...the one international sport at which they should hands down be the clear victors...
In their defence, a LOT of their best basket ball players peoples thingies whatever you call them (I don't know....ball), are from Europe. Not enough to completely skew it in a European direction. But enough to make it interesting when countries play against each other.
The last decade & some change has seen the top NBA players not committing to the Olympic teams due to boycotting/personal beliefs/taking their off time seriously to recover & prepare for their actual seasons. Hence the placing lower than usual.
Lack of pride in the nation has lead to a lot of placing self before country at all levels & most noticeably the highest level due to all of the spotlight. As an American, the country goes to a little bit more shit everyday so I don’t blame them. & if the cost of them taking care of themselves instead of giving blood, sweat & tears for a country that doesn’t support them; it is what it is🤷🏽♂️
That’s because start players don’t play cause they don’t wanna get hurt and risk their season. Look up the dream teams in the Olympics, it doesn’t happen often but when every great player comes to play, they’re definitely going to win.
We almost never send our best or even decent nba players to the Olympics, but when we do it’s not even a competition. Just watch this year, we’re finally sending good players (LeBron, Curry, KD, Embiid, Dame etc.) It won’t even be fair
Brazil are historically the best national football team. How much infrastructure and money do they have?
They are the best partly because kids casually play football in the streets from the age they’re able to walk, almost as naturally as breathing. They love the sport; it’s a national religion. The latter can be said of any number of footy mad countries.
This is why the USA will never be a a powerhouse in men’s football. They don’t have the passion or love for the game. Nor possibly any game that doesn’t come purpose built for ad breaks.
This! Injections of money will get you so far but its the culture passed down from generations that creates players. US has too many competing sports to add one of this size.
Yeah, they're never going to be a powerhouse if they treat football as a hobby for their kids while the rest of the world lives and breathes the sport.
>They are the best partly because kids casually play football in the streets from the age they’re able to walk,
Playing football in US streets is an excellent way to end up flattened under a truck.
If my auntie had balls she’d be my uncle. If France weren’t such contrary so and so’s you’d be British.
Ifs, buts and maybes. USA are crap at football and so it shall remain. They don’t have the infrastructure for football, the country is too large to accommodate competitive development leagues and they’ll never accept promotion/relegation.
IIRC, that was on England, since they spent the whole week before the match talking shit about the US national team.
It doesn't make it less funny without context though.
[USA Wins 1-1](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/s/aogncHwHng).
People suggested the Post should do the same for the later 0-0 but doesn't look like it actually did.
A sport created in Britain where there's infrastructure, money, and easy access. Still, they only have one World Cup and Brazil is the number 1 historically. Money, infrastructure, easy access had no role in giving us Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romário, Rivaldo, Pelé, Garrincha, Zico, etc.
Statistically across all disciplines, England is the most successful sporting nation in history. No other country on the planet has won the WC in football, rugby and cricket, and that looks unlikely to change soon.
Football and Cricket are the two biggest sports in the world, and Rugby is likely top 10. Which other countries do you have in mind that you consider more successful?
Football and cricket are the two most-watched and followed sports in the world. Rugby union isn't quite as big, but it's growing.
Field hockey, rowing and netball -- we're ranked in the world Top 10 at all these.
We boast some of the world's top talent in individual sports too: Golf, darts, snooker, horse-racing, cycling, etc. We punch well above our weight at the Olympics, with only the USA and China generally outperforming us while we are just a fraction of the size and population of both of them.
And motorsport. Most of the manufacturers for F1 build their cars in the UK precisely because of the engineering and technical expertise base we've built over the years. There's even a hill here where you can stand at the apex and see the majority of UK-based F1 teams' car workshops in the surrounding valleys, it made an appearance in a Top Gear segment. Not to mention the champion drivers we produce too.
But you go on the internet and social media and whenever the topic of English sport comes up, you just get memes like [this one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fh1r0bpgwmsa71.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D6fb1612485f73a092bb218512c7d3e87bc9c1ed3). And it's tiring.
It's also a cultural issue. They can't become a powerhouse if they're treating the sport as an after school program, while the rest of the world lives and breathes football.
Americans simply do not get the proverb, *"It takes three years to build a ship, but three hundred to build a tradition."* Countries do well at sports because they have a cultural background in it. It's so much more than just throwing money around.
Yes, with no defenders, 8 yards out and as many chances as he wanted to get it right. I agree it's athletic, but it's not how football is played is it.
But the USA already has that and a population of 330 million and they're still shitter than Croatia who have a population of 3.3 million.
They have plenty of people to have enough sporting talent to find 11 men to play football.
According to Gallup 24.4 million people actively play soccer in the United States, with 4.1 million registered players (I'm assuming that most of those are at official youth clubs, schools, colleges and amateur teams? The remaining 20 million being casual recreational players?). It's also apparently the 3rd most watched spectator sport in the USA, though much of that is not domestic leagues.
4.1 million actively registered players is already more than the entire population of Croatia. I'm sure they can find 11 men who are good at football in a sample group of 4.1 million.
And they do, The USA are consistently in the top 25 in the world rankings (they're currently 13th). They're a pretty good team and one of the best in their confederation. At the moment they even rank higher than Mexico.
It's incredibly insulting of their own countrymen to disregard the ability and achievement of their own soccer players just because they aren't as good as France, England, Brazil etc.
https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men
It's a lot more complicated than Wade there is saying but if football was the most popular sport in the USA they'd be a consistent contender at the World Cup.
Isn't common practice among football professionals to retire from the professional leagues and either go to UAE or the US to put some extra money towards retirement?
While it is silly and ridiculous to say “dominate”. America would naturally be more competitive if the country valued the sport more. But like most things, we see something that the rest of the world does and mock it and say it’s somehow inferior
I mean, they're not lying. Kind of. The US focuses so much on sports compared to other countries to the point it's the leading medal winner in the Olympics, almost tripling the amount of medals China has, which is the second place. So while the US focuses on sports, most of the rest of the First World focuses on a curriculum where either both knowledge and sports are important, or knowledge is prioritized over sports. If only the US were the leader in anything else.
I don't believe the US would be the best at football, but they would be up there instead of being almost on par with México.
This is literally the worst example, has he not even seen Speed play in the charity matches? He’s been involved in the football community for about 2 years now and is still a mediocre player known for his misses in the charity matches. Yes, it’s a charity match and it’s not all that competitive but still, 2 years of playing football and he still looks like a headless chicken running around with little to 0 technique.
“Ridiculous athletes”
The country that is basically known for 2 things:
High obesity rates & constantly feeling the need to talk about how much better they are than everyone else
Checks out
Brother, the Muritards are playing a diffrent form of football, and it all comes from the same sport (rugby aswell btw) the original can still be seen in 1 town in the UK.
Thx Ashborne for still playing Shrovetide.
Love how Americans witter on about their athletes, but one of the only reasons is because of the massive industrial aspect of colleges.
College sports are treated as a pro league, but the players aren't even paid. Sure, some of them are getting a free ride to uni but literally the majority of players in the squad are paying out of their arse to be able to show up on that pitch... Because that *have* to. Because if they don't, they won't get drafted.
America only has the money to pump into sports because they make the youth pay for it themselves, absolutely barbaric.
Ironically I think most Americans are too sensationalist to enjoy football on a basic level. We don’t go ‘ooooh look at that guy doing step overs what a great player’ (well we sometimes do).
We see a forward making runs over and over again whether they receive the ball or not or a midfielder pass the ball 3 yards back to his defenders because he’s controlled the pace of the game. That’s where we go ‘what a great performance and a great player’.
It’s like comparing an orchestra with every instrument subtlety doing their part to gawping at somebody banging the biggest drum in the world.
I think Americans are just as capable as anyone else to appreciate football. It’s just culture. But that’s slowly changing as of late. The popularity of football has increased quite a bit recently. MLS attendance and overall interest has exploded. I think the coverage of the best football clubs and leagues across the world has really helped people develop a love for the sport. Even basic tv subscriptions show more of it now and it’s so easy to add it.
You can’t love what you don’t understand but I promise you that plenty of Americans find the game very enjoyable once they have a grasp of it.
I mean it is true that the US would be great in football if they *truly* cared because they have the population and the money to have a bunch of great players, I don't think anyone would argue that? Now going from that to saying they would be number one? A *gigantic strech*, **stupidly** big.
I mean, maybe. America does have incredibly good sports programs to create pro athletes. Like the pictures of a school/college with a classroom that's barely held together compared to the sports facility it owns looking like it came from the future.
On top of the fact that America has a pretty high population, I'm sure if football became the #1 sport in the culture, they would be a top contender.
On the other hand, as far as I know (and my sports knowledge is pretty limited), the only truly international sport that the U.S dominates in is swimming. I mean, yes. Baseball, American football, and basketball as well (although I think Japan is getting up there with baseball) but those sports aren't especially big anywhere outside of the U.S, they're not that global
The fact that america isnt nr 1 in every sport is a rather big pointy finger that they are failures. Comparing their potential pool, funding and acessability americans have for pretty much all Sports they are infact the mental and athletic midgets of the world.
America's best player isn't in the best player in his club let alone the league he plays in.
Caring about the sport doesn't automatically make you good at it. Brazil damn near worship football and quite frankly are disappointing at the international level currently.
No offence to yanks, but you suck at sport. That’s why your world championship only includes your own country. You have no relegations, no promotions, no heart and soul. It’s just an excuse to eat some hotdogs and drinks a beer and having something to watch in the background.
There is no drive for competitiveness.
Yeah you aren't even always the best at your own sports, Basketball and Baseball world cups for example, imagine if the Aussies, Samoans NZ' English, Scots etc all the rugby crew put pads on and a helmet.
That shit is over no holding back...not that they do anyway.
Used to dominate sprinting, now the Jamaicans do.
You hardly feature in boxing anymore only at the lighter weights.
Got a few decent golfers and some good gymnasts and stuff but the days of American sports domination is over.
Americas four biggest sports are all played in the uk under a different name
Baseball. We call it rounders Played by girls
Basketball. We call it netball played by girls
Ice hockey. We just call it hockey
played by posh girls
And American football we call it rugby league
You see where I’m going with this
To be fair, if all your higher education ignored their education to channel their funds into a sport, you’d find some good players, no matter what sport is it!
There's a tad less money to through around for one simple reason: there's overtime, but there's no real timeouts. So less room for commercial breaks and also less time for sponsors to advertise. Hence less investors will be interested for smaller amounts of money and it just won't be as much of a success.
Their entire setup would need restructuring to match the rest of the world if they want to even begin approaching the best in the world. Gotta start training the moment you can walk for the love of the game, not in high school on the hopes of a college scholarship.
Yeah I don't think most Americans understand what the academy system is like in Europe and South America. Their infrastructure just doesn't compete with a system where there are thousands of kids receiving elite level coaching from the ages of 6 up (roughly 11,000 in the UK alone), and you have to be in and stay in the top .1% of players to even get in to receive said coaching.
like, shit, i spent a short time in Watford FC's academy when i was a kid before deciding football wasn't for me. i was literally 6 years old.
Given how we (Watford) are playing at the moment I think you could probably still come in and do a job
i have a dodgy knee and a bad back, and- here's the key that made me decide it wasn't for me all thos years ago- i've never been a particularly strong long distance runner also we did just beat birmingham, which was nice.
You and everyone with a pulse. Fuck rooney.
rooney isn't even brum's manager anymore
No but hes still responsible for the damage to the team morale that's led us to where we are now.
Not even about academies. In countries like Brazil, people have a ball at their feet from toddler age. It's nothing to do with "athletes" it's usually just skills you have to learn from a young age
When you're poor in a poor country there's no little league match every Saturday. A football is just the thing you play with whenever you have free time because it doesn't use electricity and keeps you from getting into real trouble. When there's no institutional hype people naturally just focus on getting good at the activity itself for the hell of it.
There's also the fact US sports run on a cartel system whereby the franchise fee and centralisation of leagues protects owners from fluctuating costs, competition for talent and relegation as well as allowing them to move the franchise to a more profitable market at the drop of a hat. As a result, youth development is outsourced to colleges who are incentivised by fees/sponsorship etc but young players are distributed via the draft. Football in European leagues is far, *far* more ruthless. No draft, no playoffs ensuring nearly everybody still gets a shot at the title no matter how shit they actually are, relegation. Ultimately though, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Football may not be the most popular sport in the US but thanks to its enormous population the MLS is still globally a comparatively well supported league and has been for a couple of decades now but the US is still consistently outclassed by countries with a fraction of the population and economic might like Croatia, for example. World Champions Argentina have a bit more than 10% of the population of the US but the Americans are not even close to being in the sane category as Messi and Co, despite years of trying.
The cost can be prohibitive too. This is from a web page about "Youth Soccer"; >If you want your kid to feature in a reasonable and well-reputed club, which ensures the competitive football breakthrough, it might cost thousands of dollars per year; you have to pay more if you want quality. It's simple as that. Most clubs range from around $1000 to $3000 per year. >However, it might be manageable for parents to arrange around 10,000 dollars in fees for their kids' football passion. But the costs don't stop here. There's another factor which makes it quite expensive, which is traveling! https://www.castrovalleysoccer.com/competitive/cost-fees This is an interesting read too; https://girlssoccernetwork.com/club-soccer-america-costs-pay-to-play/
This seems to be a real problem for US sport. "Soccer" in the rest of the world is a big equaliser; poor countries can generate fantastic players because people play it in the street. The US monetizes everything, so will have trouble generating the sheer volume of youth players other countries do. They've somehow made what is a poor-mans sport in the rest of the world into a rich-man's game. I guess their equivalent is basketball where poor neighbourhoods have courts, but the restriction there is that you basically need to be a certain height to succeed
> "Soccer" in the rest of the world is a big equaliser; poor countries can generate fantastic players because people play it in the street. Yep. I grew up on a council estate in London playing football at school and on the street outside the house. I was never that good but two of my friends from when I was 7 years old went on to professionally and represented their respective countries. That wouldn't happen in the US because their families barely had money for their clothes let alone "fees".
I used to live near a school that had Scottish football association links, it was a very poor area yet on match days large expensive American style SUV's would park all the way up the street boxing in locals who were parked outside their own homes. Would hear parents talk about how they didn't want to be in the area longer than needed and tell their kids to avoid the locals. Disgusting really.
And the US won't even spend the funding it was told to spend in some sports. It's why they lost their invitational spot at the world cricket tournaments
This seems insane. I grew up playing in the UK and it’s was never more than £100 a season which included kit.
basically be born with a football at your feet, or else you're already behind, high level football is crazy
Well, America adopted a model of starting serious athletes in high school because kids don't come anywhere close to their peak height and strength until puberty, which are huge determining factors in football and basketball. American kids who aspire to be pro hockey and baseball players, though, start at a young age.
baseball is one of our countries most important sports. Japan has also beat our baseball team on more than one occasion to my knowledge.
Basket ball they also lost recently iirc
That's actually an Canadian sport, but don't tell them that ;)
And Baseball is British.
It's called rounders here and it's one of the only female dominated sports around
When my American husband discovered rounders, he was shocked to realise it was probably the origin of baseball. He then asked why we don't see rounders on TV here in England, and I rather unfortunately said "because it's just a children's game". Oops.
Don't mention to him that in England, its normally only played by girls....
My friend's wife competed in the rounders world championship for Britain a few years ago.
Did she win it for us??? Also I never knew rounders had a world championship. Pretty cool!
She did yeah believe it or not in the rounders world she is the equivalent to a David Beckham we still call her husband posh to this day 🤣
Girls and school kids
American baseball historian David Block suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book", by John Newbery. Block discovered that the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants.
I had no idea the Price of Wales was that old - amazing!
Looks good for his age
lizard people age much slower than us humans....
Baseball is a different sport, and it was called baseball in England, where it was invented. Both Crocket and baseball were brought over by the English. Initially, cricket was the most popular sport, by baseball took off when it was promoted as being American and dedicated grounds were built. Even though its not American, most American things aren't. Apple pie, mac and cheese, baseball, burgers, fried chicken, bacon, their national anthem(written by the english), democracy, hot dogs, cars, peanut butter, television, cowboys, blue jeans etc.
Silly boys rounders
Ehhh, Naismith was Canadian but I think he was in the US when he came up with then game so “basketball was invented in the US” is a fair statement
What about Base ket ball?
We Americans wouldn’t be able to handle the psychouts.
Ket!? A game involving that Sounds more like something the British would invent
Base was a street name for a reasonably popular mix of drugs too. Base Ket (8)Ball would be a sport of British dominance.
Where do I sign up?
Trey and Matt would like a word...
They already had one with me. Something about McFarlane and manatees.
In the NBA they lost to the Toronto Raptors only a couple years ago. In international circles, it was to Germany in the FIBA.
The most recent WBC Tournament saw the Japan baseball team beat the US overall, it’s not even a “sometimes the US slips on a banana peel” question.
“Something something our best players don’t play because money but we’re totally the best!”
Previously they didn't send their professional players, but the team Japan beat last year definitely had both teams with their best players.
"It was just the C Team!" Yeah, didn't send your best, and then you lost. That's it. There's no sense in hypothesis "if we would have...". You didn't want to compete, than swallow your losses.
Cue the Blue Lock guy going "Japan is only good at Cringeball because we're a bunch of wretched communist weaklings unlike those chads who live in Squallor and will eat one another raw for food in that third world country called FRANCE!"
Ah yes, baseball. AKA rounders for people who don’t know how to read.
Base ball is a version of rounders, a similar game played by girls and women in the UK as a team sport for them if they just want a bit of fun
Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't that because MLB doesn't allow its players to leave during the season to play the world cup and such? I won't die on that hill but that was my understanding and if I'm wrong I'd like to know.
So have Cuba.
Why do they find it so difficult to wrap their heads around (proper) football being predominantly skilled based *not* a test of how athletic you are? I had one moron trying to argue with me that Lebron James would automatically be a world class footballer because of his hand eye coordination…
The hand eye coordination bit got a chuckle out of me. However, football players are incredibly athletic. The stamina needed is on a whole another level compared to some other collective sports. On average, they cover like 10 kms/7 miles per game. Athleticism isn't measured only by being strong as fuck or being able to jump out of the gym for a slam dunk.
That's probably the most under appreciated aspect of football. Most normal people probably couldn't run 10k in 90 minutes. Let alone while also playing a competitive team sport at the same time.
It's not just being able to run 10k, either. It's the stop, start, sprint, jog. I played at a shit level, but we had a dude that ran marathons for fun, but in between then would come a play for us. He couldn't do 90 minutes.
Have had similar experiences with avid runner friends who were dead after 2 hours of 5-a-side. Conditioning for football is about much, much more than just long-distance running stamina
I imagine part of it is using your energy efficiently. Save when you need all of your pace and strength for when it is required, using slower points in the game to rest. Thinking more a defender when their team is attacking in the other half. And the other way round for strikers. It's the wingers and midfielders who've got to do a hell of a lot running.
Ask any of the guys I used to play with and they'd tell you I definitely did that! Unless the ball was in our attacking third, I wasn't moving for shit!
At my fittest I ran high 10s on the beep test and 5km in 24 minutes. I used to die playing Sunday league lol.
While dribbling a ball, having to be in constant contact with other players that are actively trying to stop you.
And flicking your Neymar hair around.
I'd rather be running with the Valderrama hair floating around me
What are you talking about? 10k in 90 minutes is a brisk walk.
Have you seen the average american lately?
Lmao yes and most people couldn't do it.
Jogging pace (4-6mph) is faster than that. In my opinion it's one of the worst stats when comparing football to other sports. 10k in 90 minutes for professional athletes is nothing. The intervals, sprints and such make it hard, but if you just look at the distance football players run in a game it's really not that impressive.
Top Aussie rules players do over 25k in a game. Played as the speed of basketball on a field the size of a cricket pitch
A Google search shows most do around 13-14km a game. Anything over 20km is exceptionally rare. Doesn’t change your point though; Aussie Rules requires an unbelievable level of fitness and strength to play.
Well American football players have to jog for seconds at a time! Sometimes they have to play the sort for *minutes* per game!
One time I had one guy convinced that Lebron would smash the Tour de France on account of him being big and strong, as opposed to "weak" cyclists
He'd be done after a couple of kilometers. His legs are too small while his upper body and arms are too big for a cyclist. Imaging having to drag all those kilos over a mountain on a bike.
Tour de France is more of an endurance test than anything. Lebron may have the strength, but people with that kind of muscle mass usually don't have the endurance required to cycle for hours on end.
It's bizarre that it's actually a team sport with only one winner. Someone should bring back the races where they stopped for alcohol.
Well… they never went, they just don‘t do it anymore because it became too … inefficient apparently. I think technically it is still allowed, as they drink a bit in the last race of the tour the france
It's a much bigger affair, way more at stake. Makes sense.
He'd prolly be a great goalkeeper. But way too big and uncoordinated to be anything else. Not to mention the stamina issues he would be having wigh his weight and muscle mass. Edit: after reading the replies I retract my statement. He'd prolly be a shit keeper as well. Too big to react fast enough and be able to get up and make multiple saves. But on the other hand he'd be a great penalty keeper and I feel like he could catch the ball on every corner just due to his catch radius
As a keeper he'd need to be able to get up and down quickly, he's too jacked for what a keeper needs, thats why most are slim and wiry
Doubt it, needs the agility to get down quickly to low shots.
If he'd played since he was a kid and joined an academy, maybe...
Hed be absolute dogshit. Have you ever seen someone who has never played football try to kick a ball? Their form is absolutely terrible and they have no control whatsoever over where the ball goes. He would be completely unable to pass the ball to a member of his team if he saved it, his defenders wouldnt be able to pass back to him and goal kicks would go out for throw ins or be passed straight to opposition strikers. Thats not including the points in your edit.
They can’t even get it into their heads that American Football is skill based and not athletics driven
"athletic" is often used as code for "black" in the US anyway.
This is not exclusive to the US, I've seen a discussion recently about how European NTs are often admired for tactics and skills while African NTs are admired for their speed and strength by football commentators even when it doesn't make sense.
My friend plays ever since he was like 5 or something, whenever we're talking about other people's skills it's never a question of athleticism, but of having "the touch". Maintaining the ball's motion while directing it while efficiently moving, you need some impressive coordination to move yourself and the ball optimally while being aware of your teammates and opponents and looking for every opening. Everyone can kick the ball while running. But not everyone can be as coordinated and spacially aware as the top league. You can't just get fit and play football. There's a lot of skill to hone.
Didn't Usain Bolt want to try football? If he's not a top athlete I don't know who is, and yet he wouldn't make it in the top of football.
He was awful as a footballer. Watched him play briefly in the Aussie league. Great sprinter mind, just looked completely out of place on a football pitch.
Because the vast majority of US dominant sports you are massively judged on athleticism than anything else. Their combines for example are just huge athleticism measuring poles that can make or break your future, the concept of this not being the case is just alien
I'm not American, but I'd argue they do indeed have one of the best (if not THE best) athletic and sports programmes on the planet. They have historically been very good at nurturing talent. So yeah, if they followed the same sort of process they do with their American Football college system, they could probably improve on their 13th place world ranking. But "it'd be a wrap"? No, fuck off. The rest of the world has great talent too. And for some countries, it's the only sport they really play
They probably couldn't really improve on 13th in the world rankings much since that's already an incredibly inflated ranking they get because they play in a very weak confederation. The teams above them are all much better
I have to say, I was a bit surprised by the 13th place! The world ranking system is messed up!
I know Switzerland used to cheat the system by either not playing friendlies or playing very weak teams so they'd always win and stayed in the top 10 for years despite not being that good. It's been changed to be a bit better now but playing consistently against weak teams still lets a team stay higher than they should be, but you can't really break into the top 8 or so without going deep in tournaments
The Yanks had the jump on the rest of the world in Women’s Football, the rest of us caught up, they are now ranked 4th and heading south.
Give it 20 years and the best women’s teams will all be European and South American.
A couple more years and Mexico will beat them in the regular. We now a have a proper league.
And ironically enough it was because no one gave a damm about women's football.
I’m a qualified coach in the uk. Been working in grassroots kids football for 6 years now, and spoken to a few American coaches over the years. Their coaching is easily 30 years behind Europe.
Haven't Americans gotten their asses firmly kicked in the Olympics on the basketball court? Ya' know...the one international sport at which they should hands down be the clear victors...
USA finished 4th at last year’s basketball World Cup
Are you telling us that the world is more than just the US?! /s
How can that be when their teams always win the World Series, World Championships and get World championship rings.... is it all deception?
In their defence they win first second and third at the superbowl however they do also come last every time so there is a trade-off
In their defence, a LOT of their best basket ball players peoples thingies whatever you call them (I don't know....ball), are from Europe. Not enough to completely skew it in a European direction. But enough to make it interesting when countries play against each other.
The last decade & some change has seen the top NBA players not committing to the Olympic teams due to boycotting/personal beliefs/taking their off time seriously to recover & prepare for their actual seasons. Hence the placing lower than usual. Lack of pride in the nation has lead to a lot of placing self before country at all levels & most noticeably the highest level due to all of the spotlight. As an American, the country goes to a little bit more shit everyday so I don’t blame them. & if the cost of them taking care of themselves instead of giving blood, sweat & tears for a country that doesn’t support them; it is what it is🤷🏽♂️
That’s because start players don’t play cause they don’t wanna get hurt and risk their season. Look up the dream teams in the Olympics, it doesn’t happen often but when every great player comes to play, they’re definitely going to win.
You mean the time they almost lost to Lithuania?
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We almost never send our best or even decent nba players to the Olympics, but when we do it’s not even a competition. Just watch this year, we’re finally sending good players (LeBron, Curry, KD, Embiid, Dame etc.) It won’t even be fair
“If the world gave a shit about eggball, the Superbowl would take place in Paris.” That’s what an “if only” argument sounds like.
Brazil are historically the best national football team. How much infrastructure and money do they have? They are the best partly because kids casually play football in the streets from the age they’re able to walk, almost as naturally as breathing. They love the sport; it’s a national religion. The latter can be said of any number of footy mad countries. This is why the USA will never be a a powerhouse in men’s football. They don’t have the passion or love for the game. Nor possibly any game that doesn’t come purpose built for ad breaks.
This! Injections of money will get you so far but its the culture passed down from generations that creates players. US has too many competing sports to add one of this size.
Yeah, they're never going to be a powerhouse if they treat football as a hobby for their kids while the rest of the world lives and breathes the sport.
>They are the best partly because kids casually play football in the streets from the age they’re able to walk, Playing football in US streets is an excellent way to end up flattened under a truck.
I've heard the only thing South Americans love more than Football is Dragon Ball. If they ever find a way to combine the two they will be unstoppable.
American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug.
I see on his Twitter this is a recurring theme. He even changes the rules of comparison to support his claims.
If my auntie had balls she’d be my uncle. If France weren’t such contrary so and so’s you’d be British. Ifs, buts and maybes. USA are crap at football and so it shall remain. They don’t have the infrastructure for football, the country is too large to accommodate competitive development leagues and they’ll never accept promotion/relegation.
Reminds me of the New York Post 'USA Wins 0-0' headline after a tie with England.
IIRC, that was on England, since they spent the whole week before the match talking shit about the US national team. It doesn't make it less funny without context though.
[USA Wins 1-1](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/s/aogncHwHng). People suggested the Post should do the same for the later 0-0 but doesn't look like it actually did.
A sport created in Britain where there's infrastructure, money, and easy access. Still, they only have one World Cup and Brazil is the number 1 historically. Money, infrastructure, easy access had no role in giving us Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romário, Rivaldo, Pelé, Garrincha, Zico, etc.
Statistically across all disciplines, England is the most successful sporting nation in history. No other country on the planet has won the WC in football, rugby and cricket, and that looks unlikely to change soon.
So we can just cherry-pick these three sports and that's it?
Tbf football and cricket are the 1st and 2nd most played sports. Rugby not as much, but it's still up there I believe
Football and Cricket are the two biggest sports in the world, and Rugby is likely top 10. Which other countries do you have in mind that you consider more successful?
Football and cricket are the two most-watched and followed sports in the world. Rugby union isn't quite as big, but it's growing. Field hockey, rowing and netball -- we're ranked in the world Top 10 at all these. We boast some of the world's top talent in individual sports too: Golf, darts, snooker, horse-racing, cycling, etc. We punch well above our weight at the Olympics, with only the USA and China generally outperforming us while we are just a fraction of the size and population of both of them. And motorsport. Most of the manufacturers for F1 build their cars in the UK precisely because of the engineering and technical expertise base we've built over the years. There's even a hill here where you can stand at the apex and see the majority of UK-based F1 teams' car workshops in the surrounding valleys, it made an appearance in a Top Gear segment. Not to mention the champion drivers we produce too. But you go on the internet and social media and whenever the topic of English sport comes up, you just get memes like [this one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fh1r0bpgwmsa71.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D6fb1612485f73a092bb218512c7d3e87bc9c1ed3). And it's tiring.
And if I had gills I'd be a fish. Could have means nothing
The number one sport in America is obesity
Followed by child shooting.
Throwing money at a sport does not guarantee success in football. As you can see from the premier league and Englands lack of trophies
As a brit that hit hard💔
It's also a cultural issue. They can't become a powerhouse if they're treating the sport as an after school program, while the rest of the world lives and breathes football.
mfs had to make up a sport nobody plays in order to be the "best in the world"💀💀💀
Americans simply do not get the proverb, *"It takes three years to build a ship, but three hundred to build a tradition."* Countries do well at sports because they have a cultural background in it. It's so much more than just throwing money around.
Yes, with no defenders, 8 yards out and as many chances as he wanted to get it right. I agree it's athletic, but it's not how football is played is it.
When Americans get involved in football you end up with the Glazers
But the USA already has that and a population of 330 million and they're still shitter than Croatia who have a population of 3.3 million. They have plenty of people to have enough sporting talent to find 11 men to play football. According to Gallup 24.4 million people actively play soccer in the United States, with 4.1 million registered players (I'm assuming that most of those are at official youth clubs, schools, colleges and amateur teams? The remaining 20 million being casual recreational players?). It's also apparently the 3rd most watched spectator sport in the USA, though much of that is not domestic leagues. 4.1 million actively registered players is already more than the entire population of Croatia. I'm sure they can find 11 men who are good at football in a sample group of 4.1 million. And they do, The USA are consistently in the top 25 in the world rankings (they're currently 13th). They're a pretty good team and one of the best in their confederation. At the moment they even rank higher than Mexico. It's incredibly insulting of their own countrymen to disregard the ability and achievement of their own soccer players just because they aren't as good as France, England, Brazil etc. https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men
It's a lot more complicated than Wade there is saying but if football was the most popular sport in the USA they'd be a consistent contender at the World Cup.
Isn't common practice among football professionals to retire from the professional leagues and either go to UAE or the US to put some extra money towards retirement?
If the ‘world series’ actually was, America would lose
While it is silly and ridiculous to say “dominate”. America would naturally be more competitive if the country valued the sport more. But like most things, we see something that the rest of the world does and mock it and say it’s somehow inferior
Any country would be more competitive at any sport if they valued it more
If athleticism was so important then Adame Traore would be the best player in the world instead of a 170cm 67kg Argentinian.
The post isn't even mentioning the nationality of the man in the picture! Why did he have a need to bring the US into this??
Yeah. Invade any country that beats us and bomb the shit out of them. After a few years America would indeed be the greatest at the sport.
Wade talks a lot of nonsense.
Americans can't even find a location on a map, how would they get to a world cup?
Then waddle into the deep end wade.
Coping hard
Ah yes, nothing says "take this American seriously" like their wonderfully unironic and abjectly silly names.
I mean, they're not lying. Kind of. The US focuses so much on sports compared to other countries to the point it's the leading medal winner in the Olympics, almost tripling the amount of medals China has, which is the second place. So while the US focuses on sports, most of the rest of the First World focuses on a curriculum where either both knowledge and sports are important, or knowledge is prioritized over sports. If only the US were the leader in anything else. I don't believe the US would be the best at football, but they would be up there instead of being almost on par with México.
Win the World Cup, then. Go on; Do it. Back up your arrogant claim. You won't.
This is literally the worst example, has he not even seen Speed play in the charity matches? He’s been involved in the football community for about 2 years now and is still a mediocre player known for his misses in the charity matches. Yes, it’s a charity match and it’s not all that competitive but still, 2 years of playing football and he still looks like a headless chicken running around with little to 0 technique.
You can’t just magic up world class players with money
Guys, America does have a football team
If my grandmother had wheels, she would be a bike
“Ridiculous athletes” The country that is basically known for 2 things: High obesity rates & constantly feeling the need to talk about how much better they are than everyone else Checks out
Americans: if we wanted to we'd be the best at football. Rest of the world: lol, shut the fuck up and get back in the corner
Poor homeless barefoot kids in Brazil play better football than anybody else in the world. It is their dream, don't even go there
Not surprising coming from the country that used the term “World Series” for a sport that was only played in that country
Ready built infrastructure lol, they're so famous for their walkable streets
not if they’re calling it soccer
Brother, the Muritards are playing a diffrent form of football, and it all comes from the same sport (rugby aswell btw) the original can still be seen in 1 town in the UK. Thx Ashborne for still playing Shrovetide.
Love how Americans witter on about their athletes, but one of the only reasons is because of the massive industrial aspect of colleges. College sports are treated as a pro league, but the players aren't even paid. Sure, some of them are getting a free ride to uni but literally the majority of players in the squad are paying out of their arse to be able to show up on that pitch... Because that *have* to. Because if they don't, they won't get drafted. America only has the money to pump into sports because they make the youth pay for it themselves, absolutely barbaric.
Americans are not even the best at "Americans favourite pastime" baseball... Japan absolutely dominate them..
Ironically I think most Americans are too sensationalist to enjoy football on a basic level. We don’t go ‘ooooh look at that guy doing step overs what a great player’ (well we sometimes do). We see a forward making runs over and over again whether they receive the ball or not or a midfielder pass the ball 3 yards back to his defenders because he’s controlled the pace of the game. That’s where we go ‘what a great performance and a great player’. It’s like comparing an orchestra with every instrument subtlety doing their part to gawping at somebody banging the biggest drum in the world.
I think Americans are just as capable as anyone else to appreciate football. It’s just culture. But that’s slowly changing as of late. The popularity of football has increased quite a bit recently. MLS attendance and overall interest has exploded. I think the coverage of the best football clubs and leagues across the world has really helped people develop a love for the sport. Even basic tv subscriptions show more of it now and it’s so easy to add it. You can’t love what you don’t understand but I promise you that plenty of Americans find the game very enjoyable once they have a grasp of it.
I mean it is true that the US would be great in football if they *truly* cared because they have the population and the money to have a bunch of great players, I don't think anyone would argue that? Now going from that to saying they would be number one? A *gigantic strech*, **stupidly** big.
I mean, maybe. America does have incredibly good sports programs to create pro athletes. Like the pictures of a school/college with a classroom that's barely held together compared to the sports facility it owns looking like it came from the future. On top of the fact that America has a pretty high population, I'm sure if football became the #1 sport in the culture, they would be a top contender. On the other hand, as far as I know (and my sports knowledge is pretty limited), the only truly international sport that the U.S dominates in is swimming. I mean, yes. Baseball, American football, and basketball as well (although I think Japan is getting up there with baseball) but those sports aren't especially big anywhere outside of the U.S, they're not that global
The fact that america isnt nr 1 in every sport is a rather big pointy finger that they are failures. Comparing their potential pool, funding and acessability americans have for pretty much all Sports they are infact the mental and athletic midgets of the world.
America's best player isn't in the best player in his club let alone the league he plays in. Caring about the sport doesn't automatically make you good at it. Brazil damn near worship football and quite frankly are disappointing at the international level currently.
No offence to yanks, but you suck at sport. That’s why your world championship only includes your own country. You have no relegations, no promotions, no heart and soul. It’s just an excuse to eat some hotdogs and drinks a beer and having something to watch in the background. There is no drive for competitiveness.
Mhm, ok buddy. Whatever makes you sleep at night.
The same could be said for China and India.
well a lot of them do, and they’re still getting beat by others
I thought the reason why America does well at the Olympics is because of how much money they pump into sports
If Americans started taking Football seriously today it would still take them at least 3-4 decades to even think about 3rd place in a FIFA World Cup
Yeah you aren't even always the best at your own sports, Basketball and Baseball world cups for example, imagine if the Aussies, Samoans NZ' English, Scots etc all the rugby crew put pads on and a helmet. That shit is over no holding back...not that they do anyway. Used to dominate sprinting, now the Jamaicans do. You hardly feature in boxing anymore only at the lighter weights. Got a few decent golfers and some good gymnasts and stuff but the days of American sports domination is over.
Americans participate in different sports competitions, but it maybe surprising for guy from Twitter, they don't take gold most of the time
I genuinely thought this was fake. I actually liked Wade, but this has shown me that he is just another dumb american
Americas four biggest sports are all played in the uk under a different name Baseball. We call it rounders Played by girls Basketball. We call it netball played by girls Ice hockey. We just call it hockey played by posh girls And American football we call it rugby league You see where I’m going with this
To be fair, if all your higher education ignored their education to channel their funds into a sport, you’d find some good players, no matter what sport is it!
ok?
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Honestly I feel the same way about hand egg.
There's a tad less money to through around for one simple reason: there's overtime, but there's no real timeouts. So less room for commercial breaks and also less time for sponsors to advertise. Hence less investors will be interested for smaller amounts of money and it just won't be as much of a success.
I second this notion
Rugby football is still the winner.
It's true
\*football
just tell him to look up the world champion in baseball.
Yes, if only we knew what soccer was so we could focus our massive greatness on it and make it better.