Date: May 31st, 2012 12:00 AM Author: flatulent fragrant new version
is this a long term project? you have to start soccer before the age of 10 at the latest. it's not like basketball, football, boxing which you can pick up in a few years.
america invented baseball because she couldn't compete in cricket. america invented gridiron football because she couldn't compete in rugby/football (euro)
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:35 AM Author: Curious Headpube
oh, so the last 3 weeks is "all the time" now? he's played in 175 of the last 190 premier league games. very few wingers/strikers play that many games over a 5 year span
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:11 AM Author: flatulent fragrant new version
well, it should be a kid's sport. you have to start young. I don't think kid stars stop playing once they reach adolescence. probably only the mediocre ones.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:17 AM Author: flatulent fragrant new version
i thought we looked decent against brazil. we played an open game which led to us giving up 4 goals but that's okay during a friendly. you have to learn how to not simply bunker if you want to be elite.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:16 AM Author: dashing poppy dilemma
our kids grow up with poor coaching in poor youth set ups. america is the only country where kids have to pay to play soccer.
also, kids leagues are 11-on-11 and played on adult-sized fields with adult-sized goals. kids aren't able to get enough touches on the ball to develop technique, and they have to resort to lumping it through the air to get it down the field. in spain and holland, kids only play 5-on-5 or 7-on-7 on half-sized fields. in brazil and argentina, they play futsal.
lastly, americans care about victory above all else, even in kids leagues. as a result, athletic kids dominate even when they have shitty technique. smaller, slower kids don't have a chance to improve, while athletic kids coast by on their temporary advantage.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:36 AM Author: dashing poppy dilemma
i mean parents have to pay for their kids to play soccer in competitive leagues
that's not the case in europe. each nation's football association funds their youth programs so parents don't have to pay. this gives poor kids like wayne rooney a chance.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:48 AM Author: dashing poppy dilemma
this is essentially true. i was referring more to the schoolboy/sunday/non-league programs that any kid can sign up for, not the club youth programs which recruit and sign kids.
EDIT: although in England, the FA does also partially funds league clubs' youth programs
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:54 AM Author: Boyish Half-breed
Referring to WC 2010 ticket purchases, "According to the South African organizing committee and FIFA, soccer's international governing body, more than 130,000 of the 2.8 million tickets were purchased by U.S. residents, the highest total by any country other than South Africa."
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:52 AM Author: heady sexy home
not enough opportunities for commercial breaks. cut each half in half, make timeouts mandatory before PKs and free kicks, give every team a bunch of 30 second timeouts to use. then watch the game flourish.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:58 AM Author: heady sexy home
why do you hate america bro? the endless lite beer and pickup truck commercials filled with eagles and shit are what makes are baseball, football, and ncaa tournament great.
Date: May 31st, 2012 12:59 AM Author: dashing poppy dilemma
sadly true. no major network will give it a chance unless they can cop dat ad revenue.
at least fox has started showing the champions league final and some marquee premiership games (i remember seeing spurs-arsenal on fox, although it wasn't live)
Date: May 31st, 2012 1:12 AM Author: heady sexy home
soccer's already passed hockey nationally. but for the next decade it will be the favorite sport of lib cities like seattle that don't have other traditional teams and mid-size cities in the southwest and midwest.
Date: July 2nd, 2026 11:37 PM Author: mind-boggling fuchsia pit
USA is playing awesome so far but got jobbed by the refs pretty bad on the Balogun red card, as well as missing an obvious foul that would've given him another goal or penalty shot
Date: July 20th, 2026 12:30 AM Author: Bistre Contagious Stage
Everyone is always focused on organized soccer, but the problem isn't organized soccer - it's that soccer is irrelevant outside of organized soccer.
When you drive through a shithole country, all they have is a field and some makeshift goals. People of all ages are playing in pick up games.
Every American kid at school has the option of like 30 activities - including basketball and football - both of which are way more fun to play. On top of that, Americans are watching football, basketball and baseball. Kids spend their afternoons playing video games, riding bikes and scooters, swimming, taking piano lessons, etc.
My kid plays some youth soccer. He's actually way faster and more athletic than the Hispanic kids. But you can tell that they play and actually watch soccer all the time. They spend their time at home constantly dribbling the soccer ball, whereas my kid only touches a soccer ball during those 8 or so practices and games during the season.
Even if we did commit to soccer and start putting him in a more competitive league, he'd still probably only play in that setting. There is not a neighborhood soccer game he could play in every night, and he would still probably play basketball or tag at recess with his friends.