How America Sees "football"

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Sorry about getting into the breeding subject, but the reason world hasn't seen that team might be that, to my knowledge, FIFA has approved WADAs (World Anti-Doping Agency) current regulations. The major American sport leagues haven't

 

If athletes of that size and power would be that much better at football I am pretty sure we would have seen them. There are several teams that emphasize strength and size, lately especially African teams and some of the best footballers in the world have similar builds to the Americans discussed here (Drogba, Ibrahimovic amongst others) but there are drawbacks to that as well and it isn't nescessary. I think "non-athletic" skills weigh more heavily in football than in A-football or basketball, mentality, vision, talent, technique from what I have seen of American football there is one guy who needs that in every team while every footballer needs those qualities to some extent. There must be some reason that out of the 10 best footballers in the world at least 4-5 are well below average in size and most are average and that in a sport that draws its players from a talent pool a 100 times bigger than A-football or basketball.

 

None of the players in any of the above sports has to run as much as an openside flanker in rugby.

A wide receiver doesn't run sprints all day. For starters, he's only even on the field when his team has the ball. Then most of that time is standing around waiting for the next 10 second play. I reckon a batsman in sedate old cricket has to run way more sprints than a wide receiver. Someone like Ricky Ponting might have to sprint 150-200 times in the course of an average innings.

 

Yes, exactly. +1

 

I agree with Joacqin, except on the last sentence. Football is the most popular sport in the world, but the amount of players or talent pool isn't 100 times or even 10 times larger than basketball - which probably is the second largest sport in the world.

 

What I don't understand is that men's football (soccer) in America is just decent enough to let them play at the world cup (they did pretty good, actually), while the women's football team of the USA is ranked best in the world. Do the women from the states like football much more than the men do? (Or do non-American women around the world love other sports, like hockey and tennis, much more than football?)

 

My statement was mostly aimed at A-football which is for all practical purposes only played in the US but even when it comes to basketball even if it is the second most popular sport in the world the amount of people who play or have played is still vastly less than for football. The best footballers in the world are the best of practically every male in Europe, Africa, South America and large parts of Asia because almost all of us have played football to a greater or smaller extent. That is a large pool to draw talent from.

As for the women, the US are good at women's football because they were among the first to play it. The US is a big country so they have a pretty big talent pool to draw from and of course that in large parts of the world women aren't supposed to play sports.

 

Soccer is one of the few sports really open to women. For women you see basketball, softball and soccer as the greatest opportunities for athletic scholarships in the US. For men, the big three are baseball, basketball and football (with football programs being at least double the other two combined).

For women, the prospect of monetary gain really does not enter into the picture with athletics (women's sports are still in their infancy and pay very poorly). However, for men baseball, basketball and football are seen as being the holy grail for unlimited financial resources. Just being on the practice squad in the NFL nets a player over $60,000 per year. That's a better starting salary than any engineering major. Baseball is six figures for AAA play (one step below the major leagues) and there are thousands of baseball players making greater than $50,000 per year directly out of high school. Many have compared an athlete being selected in the NBA draft as winning a lottery.

Because the big three sports are seen as a way of become rich a lot of time and effort is devoted into building kids to excel at these sports -- far more than I've seen in any other country (with the exception of the old Soviet block countries). You get exceptional athletes in these sports because kid are driven to work out eight hours a day to develop the skills and muscular build required for success.

It wasn't alway this way, but as soon as people started to make millions for being able to run, catch and throw a ball the emphasis to develop kids became fanatical.

 

It's better to be big and fast than not though in soccer. I love the way it incorporates players of all sizes but being big can make up for a lack of skill.

Going the opposite way, there's quite a few Irish soccer players who were very promising at our gaelic sports but who took up soccer for the money. For this topic, Niall Quinn is a great example. Being 6'4" is a much bigger advantage in sports where you can catch the ball than it is in soccer. But it was an essential part of the player he was and he wouldn't have had a career in soccer if he was Messi sized. Similarly, Aussie Rules football teams nick our Gaelic footballers as they're similarish sports. They don't simply nick the best players though, they focus on the bigger players as that matters more than mobility in their game. All in all, I can assure you sportsmen will pick sports based on the opportunities available to them. Not everybody will have the choice as they mightn't be suited to other sports but the team will still suffer from those they do miss out on.

 

Football and Basketball incorporate and rely a lot more raw athleticism than soccer, but at the same time, I'd bet that world class soccer players have more fine coordination and skills.

I'll shamelessly use myself to show for the importance pure athleticism in basketball. At my University (high level college basketball) there are players on the team who are less skilled than me, and have less court awareness. However, because I am a 5'10 non-athlete I would MAYBE have sniffed the bench at a Community College, while these guys are potentially sitting on a living.

On the other side, I have no doubt that with training I could be athletic enough to play pro soccer, but don't have a chance due to never having that kind of coordination.

Note, I sucked at football (small and slow) and baseball too (K, or BB).