6 ms·

Why United States doesn't dominate soccer?

by abakus 8y ago

kenjackson 8y ago
For the US it is more about the quality of athletes and interest in the sport. The best athletes don't play soccer. They go to football, basketball, and to some extent baseball. On my son's club basketball team they regularly get some of the best soccer players in the city joining, and dropping soccer. The inverse (great basketball players joining soccer and leaving basketball) rarely/never happens.
- megaman22 8y ago
  When I was in school, we played soccer to get in shape for basketball season (we were too small to field a football team). People tried really hard to push soccer, and we were actually better at soccer than basketball, but soccer just never had the same kind of excitement. You need too many people and too much space to actually play soccer, compared to a little bit of driveway and a ubiquitous hoop for basketball - you don't even need another person, you can spend hours blissfully shooting by yourself.
  - eftpotrm 8y ago
    Three kids, one ball, not very much space. One goes in goal (if needs be a jumper or coat on each side), the other two compete to put the ball past them x times, then rotate the goalkeeper. Continue ad nauseam. Or go to a park and practice ball skills, solo. Ex-England captain Wayne Rooney was famous for having done that for hours at a time as a kid. I'm not actually a particular soccer fan and quite enjoy basketball, but it's definitely not true that soccer has higher kit, space or numbers requirements to get in a game as a kid.
    - thesz 8y ago
      >Continue ad nauseam. This is what we did. A great way to spend summer when you are teen. As for practicing ball skills, the very nickname Pele was from the sound of the can Pele played instead of ball - his family was too poor to have soccer ball.
  - coupdejarnac 8y ago
    Kids in other countries play soccer in tight spaces. This helps them develop ball control skills. And with a soccer ball, you can practice juggling, shooting, or doing moves by yourself. For me, shooting hoops by myself was always very dull.
  - GFischer 8y ago
    Have you tried five-a-side soccer? Great sport! But it does need a special pitch for sure - much smaller than an 11-a-side field but still a hindrance. Over here (Uruguay) there's a whole cottage industry of five-a-side soccer fields, many workers play it after office hours. Edit: as a side comment said, poorer people usually cordon off a stretch of road and play there, that's also very very common (especially during the day when there's no much traffic). Two rocks (or logs, or bundles of clothes) can serve as goalposts.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    I'm from UK - I spent hours practicing football by myself (spot kicks, volleying to myself, keepie-uppy, trying show-off skills like rainbow kicks). Many, many hours playing football with just a few friends at the park ("spot", "Wembley singles", "headers and volleys"). At high school we'd play football mostly with a tennis ball, but we'd kick around a drinks-can if there was no ball. I was only ever a mediocre player, mainly relying on speed - which also got me in just about every school team (small high-school, small market town). At Uni our team did come 2nd in the intra-University cup. Why did I do all that rather than basketball (a sport I've really enjoyed playing), pervading culture would probably be the main reason (which in turn means availability of fields/courts, etc.). After Uni I took up volleyball because that was the social sport played at my workplace; now I do karate because that's the sport my kids are doing. tl;dr You can play football without a football and with 1+ players.
- ForRealsies 8y ago
  Bingo. Same exact reason why USA doesn't dominate boxing anymore. Our would-be best heavyweight boxers are NFL Linebackers.
hiccuphippo 8y ago
Msybe it's a catch22. It's not very popular so not many people try it so the team doesn't have very good players so it's not popular. Argentina has soccer schools for children everywhere. And recruiters are always looking for rising stars in them.
sotojuan 8y ago
Not popular. This means public parks and even schools are less likely to have soccer fields or soccer programs. Note how almost every single park has a basketball court. Although this is changing, soccer is associated with elementary school kids or even as feminine (?). Because soccer is not popular, it doesn't make you as much money or respect as other sports. Strong athletes will overwhelmingly choose sports better for them in the long run. Elitist. For some reason, in the US, soccer is expensive. Leagues are expensive, classes are expensive, etc. It is squarely an middle to upper middle class sport. This cuts off a huge part of the population. I cannot tell you why because everywhere else, soccer is for everyone and a lot of famous players come from poor backgrounds. When the game was invented, it was a working class' game. Soccer starts too late. There is no progression from childhood to pro like there is everywhere. The best clubs and teams of the world (and even the ones that aren't so good) have special programs for K-12 kids (e.g. Barcelona has been training Messi since he was 13). Most soccer players I know didn't start playing seriously until high school or even college.
edmundhuber 8y ago
Limited interest: most of the country views it as a child's sport, to be outgrown. There's not many places for a kid to just kick around the ball with friends, because it's hard to get to a field, you might have to reserve it, how do you get your friends there, etc. It's not an organic sport like football (in the US). Pay to play: for youth development, the player's family has to be fairly well off. This is pay for either an academy, or going to a D1 college team, paying for travel, etc etc Limited coaching talent: not very many soccer coaches play or even watch soccer regularly. This leads to an emphasis on agility and strength rather than skills and strategy. Agility and strength work out pretty well if the team you're facing has the same focus, but if you're playing against a team that has drilled and nurtured intelligence it will end badly for you.
coupdejarnac 8y ago
Despite what other posters have said here, the US has a strong soccer culture and a ton of talent. With MLS academies picking up steam and more youth players training abroad, we are producing more talent than ever. The international competition in soccer is intense, and there is a lot of parity among top nations. If the US had adjusted tactics in the qualifiers, we'd be there instead of Panama. We're definitely stronger than a bunch of other countries at the WC.
AtlasBarfed 8y ago
This will change because 1) Latino immigration and their inherent interest in soccer 2) Pigskin Football is plummeting due to concussion fears 3) Steady rise in popularity of the sport, especially as a social/hipster rebellion to old guard leagues like the NFL 4) MLS, for better or worse, seems stable and can provide some degree of professional support for players. That will attract more athletes and keep athletes in the sport I think the US will rise to the level of the less talented Euro nations that qualify, like maybe Denmark or Iceland.

Why United States doesn't dominate soccer?

by abakus 8y ago

Why United States doesn't dominate soccer?

For the US it is more about the quality of athletes and interest in the sport. The best athletes don't play soccer. They go to football, basketball, and to some extent baseball. On my son's club basketball team they regularly get some of the best soccer players in the city joining, and dropping soccer. The inverse (great basketball players joining soccer and leaving basketball) rarely/never happens.

megaman22 8y ago
When I was in school, we played soccer to get in shape for basketball season (we were too small to field a football team). People tried really hard to push soccer, and we were actually better at soccer than basketball, but soccer just never had the same kind of excitement. You need too many people and too much space to actually play soccer, compared to a little bit of driveway and a ubiquitous hoop for basketball - you don't even need another person, you can spend hours blissfully shooting by yourself.
- eftpotrm 8y ago
  Three kids, one ball, not very much space. One goes in goal (if needs be a jumper or coat on each side), the other two compete to put the ball past them x times, then rotate the goalkeeper. Continue ad nauseam. Or go to a park and practice ball skills, solo. Ex-England captain Wayne Rooney was famous for having done that for hours at a time as a kid. I'm not actually a particular soccer fan and quite enjoy basketball, but it's definitely not true that soccer has higher kit, space or numbers requirements to get in a game as a kid.
  - thesz 8y ago
    >Continue ad nauseam. This is what we did. A great way to spend summer when you are teen. As for practicing ball skills, the very nickname Pele was from the sound of the can Pele played instead of ball - his family was too poor to have soccer ball.
- coupdejarnac 8y ago
  Kids in other countries play soccer in tight spaces. This helps them develop ball control skills. And with a soccer ball, you can practice juggling, shooting, or doing moves by yourself. For me, shooting hoops by myself was always very dull.
- GFischer 8y ago
  Have you tried five-a-side soccer? Great sport! But it does need a special pitch for sure - much smaller than an 11-a-side field but still a hindrance. Over here (Uruguay) there's a whole cottage industry of five-a-side soccer fields, many workers play it after office hours. Edit: as a side comment said, poorer people usually cordon off a stretch of road and play there, that's also very very common (especially during the day when there's no much traffic). Two rocks (or logs, or bundles of clothes) can serve as goalposts.
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  I'm from UK - I spent hours practicing football by myself (spot kicks, volleying to myself, keepie-uppy, trying show-off skills like rainbow kicks). Many, many hours playing football with just a few friends at the park ("spot", "Wembley singles", "headers and volleys"). At high school we'd play football mostly with a tennis ball, but we'd kick around a drinks-can if there was no ball. I was only ever a mediocre player, mainly relying on speed - which also got me in just about every school team (small high-school, small market town). At Uni our team did come 2nd in the intra-University cup. Why did I do all that rather than basketball (a sport I've really enjoyed playing), pervading culture would probably be the main reason (which in turn means availability of fields/courts, etc.). After Uni I took up volleyball because that was the social sport played at my workplace; now I do karate because that's the sport my kids are doing. tl;dr You can play football without a football and with 1+ players.
ForRealsies 8y ago
Bingo. Same exact reason why USA doesn't dominate boxing anymore. Our would-be best heavyweight boxers are NFL Linebackers.

hiccuphippo 8y ago

Msybe it's a catch22. It's not very popular so not many people try it so the team doesn't have very good players so it's not popular. Argentina has soccer schools for children everywhere. And recruiters are always looking for rising stars in them.

sotojuan 8y ago

Not popular. This means public parks and even schools are less likely to have soccer fields or soccer programs. Note how almost every single park has a basketball court. Although this is changing, soccer is associated with elementary school kids or even as feminine (?). Because soccer is not popular, it doesn't make you as much money or respect as other sports. Strong athletes will overwhelmingly choose sports better for them in the long run. Elitist. For some reason, in the US, soccer is expensive. Leagues are expensive, classes are expensive, etc. It is squarely an middle to upper middle class sport. This cuts off a huge part of the population. I cannot tell you why because everywhere else, soccer is for everyone and a lot of famous players come from poor backgrounds. When the game was invented, it was a working class' game. Soccer starts too late. There is no progression from childhood to pro like there is everywhere. The best clubs and teams of the world (and even the ones that aren't so good) have special programs for K-12 kids (e.g. Barcelona has been training Messi since he was 13). Most soccer players I know didn't start playing seriously until high school or even college.

edmundhuber 8y ago

Limited interest: most of the country views it as a child's sport, to be outgrown. There's not many places for a kid to just kick around the ball with friends, because it's hard to get to a field, you might have to reserve it, how do you get your friends there, etc. It's not an organic sport like football (in the US). Pay to play: for youth development, the player's family has to be fairly well off. This is pay for either an academy, or going to a D1 college team, paying for travel, etc etc Limited coaching talent: not very many soccer coaches play or even watch soccer regularly. This leads to an emphasis on agility and strength rather than skills and strategy. Agility and strength work out pretty well if the team you're facing has the same focus, but if you're playing against a team that has drilled and nurtured intelligence it will end badly for you.

coupdejarnac 8y ago

Despite what other posters have said here, the US has a strong soccer culture and a ton of talent. With MLS academies picking up steam and more youth players training abroad, we are producing more talent than ever. The international competition in soccer is intense, and there is a lot of parity among top nations. If the US had adjusted tactics in the qualifiers, we'd be there instead of Panama. We're definitely stronger than a bunch of other countries at the WC.

AtlasBarfed 8y ago

This will change because 1) Latino immigration and their inherent interest in soccer 2) Pigskin Football is plummeting due to concussion fears 3) Steady rise in popularity of the sport, especially as a social/hipster rebellion to old guard leagues like the NFL 4) MLS, for better or worse, seems stable and can provide some degree of professional support for players. That will attract more athletes and keep athletes in the sport I think the US will rise to the level of the less talented Euro nations that qualify, like maybe Denmark or Iceland.