Our best athletes are playing baseball, basketball, and football. Those athletes are also organically playing a lot of pickup ball. How many pickup games of soccer did you play growing up? How many wiffle ball games, basketball, football (two hand touch or tackle?) games did you play as a youth.
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Bookmark this post. You can have all my casino cash at that point.

Also, in our lifetime, should the NFL continue on it's current course and not have some new technology that fixes head injuries, soccer will be bigger than the NFL. I'm 38, so let's say lifetime being 40 years.
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:-)
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We have much better sports available than soccer and that will not change. The US will never be a world powerhouse because of that. It's like a fifth option at best and gets the lesser athletes because of it.
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I agree with Glory Dayz that the youth program is not the major problem right now. We even have some decent talents. The biggest issue, as mentioned by others, is that we just simply don't have our best athletes going into soccer.

Imagine if guys like Reggie Bush or any elite athlete grew up playing nothing but soccer. As a teacher I look at the my school and see a lot of kids into soccer, both watching and playing. That being said, most of the kids playing are not the best athletes in the town. Not even close.

I don't mean those kids any disrespect because a number of them are good players. We have a handful of fantastic athletes that are in football, baseball, or lacrosse. If those kids grew up playing soccer I have no doubt they would be the pillars of that sport for our town.
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:-)
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That is THE major problem.


https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/usmnt-coaches-club-soccer-ceo-world-cup-podcast

http://theconversation.com/until-youth-soccer-is-fixed-us-mens-national-team-is-destined-to-fail-85585

http://www.thesetonian.com/2017/10/25/u-s-soccers-problem-is-focused-at-the-youth-level/
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You don't think the types of athletes is a factor or just not the major factor?
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I don't get the 'best athletes' thing.

Soccer requires a level of fitness, and there are certain situations where some athletic edge is helpful [fast breaks, set-piece headers, goalkeeping reflexes].

But soccer is so much more about talent, skill and teamwork than any other sport. Competent opposition can neutralize just about any athletic advantage, particularly with the offsides rule.

Skill, gameplan and cohesion are much more important.
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Not much of a factor at all. Our problem has NEVER been related to speed, strength, or stamina.
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If Belgium had someone with a little more offensive skill in Chadli's position, they'd be looking formidable. He's in the right place, but everything that funnels through him dies.

The rest of the forward attack is spot on.
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So you guys think if all of our athletes were funneled into soccer at a young age we would be standing in the same spot we are right now?

I'm not involved in youth soccer so I'm willing to admit making that comment without a full view of the situation. While I understand being a great basketball player does not mean you will be a great soccer player, I would think in general having all the best athletes playing soccer instead of 5 different sports would have produced us better players or atleast more options.

I say this more out of assumption and curiosity than knowledge of the situation other than being a big fan of USA soccer. I coach h.s. baseball and I know how much a poor youth program can hurt local baseball talent. I also know however that part of my issue with baseball talent is coming from losing guys to other sports. A problem baseball didn't used to have. Maybe it's an easier transition from baseball to those other sports but I watch some of these kids play and feel decently comfortable in thinking that at least a few of them would have made our soccer program deeper and stronger had they chosen that sport to play their entire lives.

I'm willing to pass the issue on to those in know more than I but it seems just based on pure numbers that a least a number of athletes that went into other sports would have been able to develop into soccer players had that been their life goal.
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Yes, I think that.

 

Your youth baseball system knows how to teach and produce professional talent.

 

The youth soccer system does not.

 

As baby lee said, it's not about athleticism. Look at the stars at the world cup...how many of those guys would meet typical American athletic standards? Maybe Lukaku and Ronaldo? What about Messi or Modric or Hazard or Neymar?

Their games are built on vision, control, and an innate feel of where to be. That is developed through years of playing and development.
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On the national level yes. At my local level no. I'm not saying this situation proves anything about soccer, but specifically with the baseball issue in my town it is as much losing guys to football(choosing to workout in the spring) and especially lacrosse. Our town would have a pretty strong baseball team had we not lost the kids at age 12 that made a decision between lacrosse and baseball.

Again, maybe the two aren't comparable but that's part of the experience I am drawing from.
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It's not the same skillset.
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