So I roll out of bed today, and I realize...

[Funxva]

My roommate ended up a ringer on the Rice soccer team and I remember their constant search for a good striker. They had one for a few days, my roommate pointed him out. A shorter guy from Iran, built like a 1960s fullback, powerfully muscled. And yes, he could fight his way through the fullbacks (i.e. defenders) and put himself into position to score.

Then he got injured. Too bad, cause the team really looked good when he was at forward.

Anyway, I was just thinking how difficult it is to get a really good striker when HH was complaining about what a bunch of pansies soccer players were.

It also reminded me of the days I'd watch my roommate soak his legs for hours from all the illegal contact he'd get. The other teams saw his ball skills and would try to beat him up to get him out the game.

David.

Yeah, I'm not a prototypical striker. I'm 6'4 and over 200lbs by a bit. But I'm pretty damn fast as well. I can understand your roomies soaking. Happens to me all the time also. My wife (who is from Argentina) is even amazed at the fouls I get all the time. I've been taken down in the box 7 times this season alone. 7! Dirty tackle mostly. I had to sit out the last 6 games of last season with a high anle sprain coupled with a contusion. The doc said I came within' a hairs breadth of tearing all the ligs in my ankle. Took me 4 months of rehab before I could even run normal again.

 

[dwmyers]

Yeah, I'm not a prototypical striker. I'm 6'4 and over 200lbs by a bit. But I'm pretty damn fast as well. I can understand your roomies soaking. Happens to me all the time also. My wife (who is from Argentina) is even amazed at the fouls I get all the time. I've been taken down in the box 7 times this season alone. 7! Dirty tackle mostly. I had to sit out the last 6 games of last season with a high anle sprain coupled with a contusion. The doc said I came within' a hairs breadth of tearing all the ligs in my ankle. Took me 4 months of rehab before I could even run normal again.

If you were following the Australia-Italy match, the one thing I noticed was how much taller those players were.. so your height might be an advantage now.

The striker for the Czechs was 6' 7" as well. It makes for an advantage in corner kicks.

 

[Funxva]

If you were following the Australia-Italy match, the one thing I noticed was how much taller those players were.. so your height might be an advantage now.

The striker for the Czechs was 6' 7" as well. It makes for an advantage in corner kicks.

Yeah, I personally think he is tooo tall, and only useful for those situations. Though he is much better at the headers and it is definitely an advantage because of his height.

Someone like Crouch(sp?) For England is interesting because he seems to have decent ball handling skills, but is rail thin. I'm surprised he doesn't get pushed off the ball more.

 

[WV Cowboy]

The other teams saw his ball skills ... and would try to beat him ...

We don't say things like this in football.

 

[Funxva]

We don't say things like this in football.

Hah, good play on words WV.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

I really question that its the lack of college or pros that are a major reason for soccer interest dieing out as people get older. I think that it is just our society and culture- soccer just does not do it for us.

I am majoring in sports marketing. We look at alot of data about participation of kids in sports in one of my classes. Soccer is the #1 sport in increased participation in the last 10 years. Soccer in America is being played by 90% more kids in K-12 now than it was 10 years ago. The surge in popularity has really happened in the last 10 years. It's going to stick. It won't be the top sport in this country, but it will push the others for that 4 spot in the near future.

 

[burmafrd]

Prove that it is moving beyond the elites and kids. Lots of kids have been playing soccer for more then 20 years- then they reach high school and lose interest. You will have to show that they maintain interest when they get older- and since in 20 years the same thing has happened over and over- then I think you are wrong.

 

[AbeBeta]

I am majoring in sports marketing. We look at alot of data about participation of kids in sports in one of my classes. Soccer is the #1 sport in increased participation in the last 10 years. Soccer in America is being played by 90% more kids in K-12 now than it was 10 years ago. The surge in popularity has really happened in the last 10 years. It's going to stick. It won't be the top sport in this country, but it will push the others for that 4 spot in the near future.

I'm going to have to disagree here.

Kids are playing yes. But they aren't playing because they want to be like Beckham or some other superstar. They are playing because their minivan-driving parents find soccer more appealing than sports like basketball or football.

Me, I think the wrong kids are playing. No sport will succeed until poor kids start playing. All these kids soccer leagues with their fancy uniforms and nice fields are out of reach for many kids and their families.

 

[Funxva]

Prove that it is moving beyond the elites and kids. Lots of kids have been playing soccer for more then 20 years- then they reach high school and lose interest. You will have to show that they maintain interest when they get older- and since in 20 years the same thing has happened over and over- then I think you are wrong.

It took you 20 years to reach highschool? Wow.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I'm going to have to disagree here.

Kids are playing yes. But they aren't playing because they want to be like Beckham or some other superstar. They are playing because their minivan-driving parents find soccer more appealing than sports like basketball or football.

Me, I think the wrong kids are playing. No sport will succeed until poor kids start playing. All these kids soccer leagues with their fancy uniforms and nice fields are out of reach for many kids and their families.

Agreed. I think it is more of the parents giving the kids some time to play.

Many have young kids playing but you don't see the same amount of interested kids or parents pushing for Jr High or High School soccer teams with the school.

Heck when I was a little tot in the early 70's, living in a SMALL West Virginia town even we had soccer for little kids. So that many years ago and in a small rural area says it was there for little kids.

It is just not as interesting when the kids start to grow up and they gravitate towards Motorbikes, Football, Basketball and Baseball. I would venture to say, with out any data, that Hockey, Golf, Tennis, Track are more of a draw in the USA for kids or young adults than soccer is.

It really is odd due to how popular it is in the rest of the world, but it just never took here and I don't think it will ever take to the level that other countries have enjoyed.

 

[Funxva]

Agreed. I think it is more of the parents giving the kids some time to play.

Many have young kids playing but you don't see the same amount of interested kids or parents pushing for Jr High or High School soccer teams with the school.

Heck when I was a little tot in the early 70's, living in a SMALL West Virginia town even we had soccer for little kids. So that many years ago and in a small rural area says it was there for little kids.

It is just not as interesting when the kids start to grow up and they gravitate towards Motorbikes, Football, Basketball and Baseball. I would venture to say, with out any data, that Hockey, Golf, Tennis, Track are more of a draw in the USA for kids or young adults than soccer is.

It really is odd due to how popular it is in the rest of the world, but it just never took here and I don't think it will ever take to the level that other countries have enjoyed.

No offense intended by this post. (disclaimer)

I think that the age gap might have something to do with it. A lot of the people that are of the older generations here are correct in saying that soccer wasn't big when they were growing up beyond a young age. I would beg to differ, though, about times now. It is growing more and more every year, and I am sure it will continue to do so.

Edit: I do agree that it will never be as popular as the BIG Three(Football, Baseball, Basketball). But look at Nascar, it's exploded, and it's not even a sport really. (My brother drove grandstock for Winston Cup Series for a while, and he said the only thing that makes it a sport is the amount that you sweat. )

 

[burmafrd]

Where is the interest in the world cup with all these kids you claim love the sport? I see nothing that indicates they care at all. They like to play it as kids and that is all. Means nothing else.

 

[Funxva]

Where is the interest in the world cup with all these kids you claim love the sport? I see nothing that indicates they care at all. They like to play it as kids and that is all. Means nothing else.

Most kids like to play any sport just for playing the sport. I don't understand what you mean.

 

[AbeBeta]

It is growing more and more every year, and I am sure it will continue to do so.

Not if the US fails to perform at the international level and continues to fail to develop quality players who young kids can aspire to be like.

Do you expect kids to want to be like Landon Dovovan? He's supposed to be our best player and he's invisible at the cup -- this after showing he couldn't hack it playing in the European leagues.

We need a Beckham type or else the mediocre interest in soccer will continue.

 

[Funxva]

Not if the US fails to perform at the international level and continues to fail to develop quality players who young kids can aspire to be like.

Do you expect kids to want to be like Landon Dovovan? He's supposed to be our best player and he's invisible at the cup -- this after showing he couldn't hack it playing in the European leagues.

We need a Beckham type or else the mediocre interest in soccer will continue.

I agree wholeheartedly. Landycakes is worthless. Unfortunately our leagues here, as of right now, can't even carry the jock of the European leagues. All our good young talent needs to be playing in Europe right now to be prepared to play in 2010.

 

[AbeBeta]

Where is the interest in the world cup with all these kids you claim love the sport? I see nothing that indicates they care at all. They like to play it as kids and that is all. Means nothing else.

Wow, I'm actually agreeing with burm today.

You are correct -- these kids may love playing the game but I'd guess few know who Zidane, Beckham, Ballack, Crespo, or Ronaldo are.

 

[bbgun]

You're right. Most of the world is so poor that Americans, at least in this generation, cannot begin to understand that sort of poverty. The nastiest ghetto in Newark, the poorest delta town in Mississippi has nothing on parched, rural Ethiopia or a favela in Brazil (incidentaly, the heavy favorite in this World Cup) or a famine stricken area in Bangladesh.

What are you trying to say? That I or my fellow Yanks revel in their misery, or are indifferent to it? I simply speculated that there was a causal relationship between global poverty and soccer's popularity. You might also draw a connection to the after-effects of the now-defunct British Empire. Do you disagree?

It is ****ing sad that you somehow feel superior because of that fact.

Excuse me, you little fink, but you're the one who invoked the 'S' word when you brazenly stated that soccer players were "superior" athletes.

Why would the fact that your country is rich enough to afford millions of youths, at the cost of billions of dollars a year, to play a sport that requires a significant financial investment in equipment somehow denigrate the game of soccer?

Soccer is the number 1 youth sport in the States. Why isn't that good enough?

Why are you so hateful that you would respond to an anomynous post on an internet message board with such overt hostility and anger?

Because you're a snide and snotty anti-American prick, and I don't suffer fools well. You think you're making a sports statement, but you're really making a political one. Scratch a soccer fan, find a leftist.

American Football is a precisely orchestrated game that allows for the most amount of strategizing of any organized sport that I have ever encountered. It is chess with variables (extremely important variables) and that is why I love it. Soccer is an extremely similar game. Every player has a certain amount of individual freedom (eerily similar the amount of freedom that Juan Roman Riquelme has as compared to Roy Williams at OU) but must play within a precisely planned tactical system. Most American do not recognize this because they arbitrarily dismiss soccer as unimportant.

"Oh those silly, stupid, hayseed Americans. Do they think they're special or something?"

However, eventually, America will care about soccer.

About as much as we care about the Metric System. Adios.

 

[Funxva]

Because you're a snide and snotty anti-American prick, and I don't suffer fools well. You think you're making a sports statement, but you're really making a political one. Scratch a soccer fan, find a leftist.

Love it. So all Soccer fans are not only pansies now, but Socialists also. Love it. Continue with your revelations, I find them fascinating.

 

[AbeBeta]

I agree wholeheartedly. Landycakes is worthless. Unfortunately our leagues here, as of right now, can't even carry the jock of the European leagues. All our good young talent needs to be playing in Europe right now to be prepared to play in 2010.

Yeah, but would the European teams really want most of them? The ones that can hack it like McBride (who I do think is a good player) are already over there. The problem is many of these kids would be on the bench for most Euro-clubs

 

[Funxva]

Yeah, but would the European teams really want most of them? The ones that can hack it like McBride (who I do think is a good player) are already over there. The problem is many of these kids would be on the bench for most Euro-clubs

Unfortunately, you are correct. But even riding the bench on a Euro club team, I think is better exposure to the type of practice and skill cultivation that they need.

Would you rather be A) Practicing with top flight players, continuously improving your game, or B) Starting in a watered down, no competition league where you talent either wastes away or is stymied?