World Cup- USA

[uk_dolfan]

Sorry, what was your point? Mine had absolutely nothing to do with being tall and able to catch a basketball.

K well id love to see the exmaples of lebron and kobe showing off dribbing and shooting skills then that youv seen lol

As far as I can see they are tall people who can catch a ball using hands... not that useful really

And I can assure you that being good with your hands at a top level does not mean your equally skilled with your feet with soccer skills

 

[ChambersWI]

Don't know much on this. How do they select who attends? How long is it for?

BRadenton? No clue as it was incredibly flawed. It still exists as a PDL league but it's not the US's Academy. Most Academy's have youth teams of all ages, and end with U-23 teams.

 

[So Be]

K well id love to see the exmaples of lebron and kobe showing off dribbing and shooting skills then that youv seen lol

As far as I can see they are tall people who can catch a ball using hands... not that useful really

And I can assure you that being good with your hands at a top level does not mean your equally skilled with your feet with soccer skills

You seem to be talking to yourself, and nothing whatsoever on what has been posted. Myself, and other posters, are talking about athletic ability IF some of the elite athletes had chosen soccer as kids vs other sports. Their skill in other spots are meaningless. Did you not comprehend that?

 

[So Be]

BRadenton? No clue as it was incredibly flawed. It still exists as a PDL league but it's not the US's Academy. Most Academy's have youth teams of all ages, and end with U-23 teams.

Any idea how they pick the players to attend?

 

[doughbraz54]

You seem to be talking to yourself, and nothing whatsoever on what has been posted. Myself, and other posters, are talking about athletic ability IF some of the elite athletes had chosen soccer as kids vs other sports. Their skill in other spots are meaningless. Did you not comprehend that?

How do you know that their athletic ability would transfer to other sports? Yeah you see some great two sport and occasionally three sport athletes....BUT how do you know they weren't just destined to play one sport. Kobe played soccer growing up that is a plus. But because Lebron is athletic doesn't mean he would be able to translate that to soccer. Being big doesn't mean much in soccer, example....Peter Crouch. Big as hell but .... yeah I'll leave it there.

 

[uk_dolfan]

You seem to be talking to yourself, and nothing whatsoever on what has been posted. Myself, and other posters, are talking about athletic ability IF some of the elite athletes had chosen soccer as kids vs other sports. Their skill in other spots are meaningless. Did you not comprehend that?

if you say so sb, sounds to me like your talking about them because they are big and catch basketballs.

 

[uk_dolfan]

if I was building a us team out of current sports players id look at running backs first, then certain corner backs and small quick footed recievers... rather than 7 foot basketball players and the likes of megatron

 

[GasPed]

Good points. I disagree on the conditioning. There's more standing, walking and jogging than running over a 90 minute match. NOT taking anything away from what soccer players do but, they would winded in having to go full speed 3 or 4 times up and down the court in the NBA. The human body has a tolerance level, and any athlete training for a specific sport would be in condition to play it.

Agree on the quickness but, guys like Jordan, Kobe, some point guards, and some RB's have that. Also, consider some NFL DB's like Revis, Grimes, and Dion. IF they played soccer all their lives, could they be great defenders? Again, just an interesting discussion on the "What If's."

I'm not going to say soccer players are better conditioned than basketball players or vice versa - it's really apples and oranges - the NBA stop and go, sprint up and down the court is hugely demanding, but then running 10 miles over 90 minutes with half of it walking and the other half at a full sprint is no picnic either. What I will say though, is that the physical demands seem to favor different physical characteristics - and I think 90 minutes of running will favor a smaller build than say 48 minutes of body-banging with intermittent 50 foot sprints.

And I have no doubt that some elite pro athletes in MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA could've been pro soccer players if they had chosen that route. But I don't think the numbers would be all that big. It's all opinion of course - but in my experience, the elite soccer players have one thing - quick, soft feet - and that is a characteristic that is not really necessary in other sports, nor does having one skill set (e.g. ability to jump high) mean you will automatically have this one.

Case in point - my son is a high school soccer player. He's actually a very good athlete - very quick, a fast runner, coordinated, explosive and smart. He would've been a great DB if he wasn't a bit on the small side. He's also a pretty good soccer player because of these characteristics. But he will never be elite because frankly his feet are just not good enough. His first touch is not naturally soft and even though he has worked on it, and he dribbles and controls the ball well for a high school player, it is clear when you compare him to the elite guys, that he will never be like they are - they feel the ball like it is part of them, like they were born with a ball on their feet.

I don't know how many people have that natural ball handling ability in their feet, but I will say that I don't necessarily see a correlation between that skill and the other more "athletic" skills. I've seen lots of unathletic people who can hacky-sack and juggle like crazy, and lots of athletic people who shank balls into bushes at every opportunity. I dunno, it's all speculation. I do think that if the US had more participants/money in soccer, they would definitely produce more elite players. But I don't think they would look much like Lebron or Dion Jordan.

 

[So Be]

I've mentioned players like James, Kobe, Barry Sanders, and Jordan, who I think could have played whatever sport he wanted to. I added Revis, Grimes, Dion (not Jordan), point guards and other DB's. It had nothing to do with height but, their athletic ability, quickness, vision, and hand eye coordination, which I believe would have translated to hand foot coordination.

No one knows but, it is a little fun to speculate on.

 

[So Be]

Early weather reports show hot, humid, and 40% chance of rain for Sunday's match. How would that affect the game?

 

[phins_4_ever]

Portugal do not have a good team. It wont be coentrao that makes the difference (tho pepe is a loss) the result depends on how ronaldo plays, if he can get some help attacking then they win.

If they dont help him enough then you have a chance against a very poor portugal team



Also Altidore is a complete donkey if you guys consider him a genuine loss then your other strikers must be tragic lol

Yeah what a donkey. The fans in Northern Ireland would give their left nuts to have a donky like Altidore on the team.

Seriously, for someone who comes from the garbage pile of European soccer you are quite judgmental of other nations players.

Donkey is being kind he manged a grand total of 1 goal all season lol I have a soft spot for the american team and hope you do well but I just wont stand to be told Altidore is "very good" lol maybe in the mls he would be but not at this level *shrug* I wouldnt want him in the northern ireland team nvm the world cup

Yeah, 9 goals in 10 games is a mighty powerful offense.

 

[uk_dolfan]

Yeah what a donkey. The fans in Northern Ireland would give their left nuts to have a donky like Altidore on the team.

Seriously, for someone who comes from the garbage pile of European soccer you are quite judgmental of other nations players.



Yeah, 9 goals in 10 games is a mighty powerful offense.

Nice try lol we are one of the smallest countries in europe and we arent great.... shocker. we had one of the best players of all time and a few years ago we had the top scorer in all of european qualifying even in a **** side, weve done ok for our size and for a tiny little country that isnt even a proper country but just a region im still proud of what weve done through the years.

We sure arent great but im sure as hell not jealous of someone who scored one goal all season. We have a bad side, We have a just million people But I still wouldnt want jozy altidore lol

Ive been very complimentary of the us side but if your this hung up over that donkey.... I guess your related to him lol

 

[phins_4_ever]

Nice try lol

It was an excellent try. A slam dunk. Left you with nothing to say.

 

[uk_dolfan]

It was an excellent try. A slam dunk. Left you with nothing to say.

Sure jozy lol

 

[uk_dolfan]

This much pant wetting over someone who scores 1 goal a season lol