World Cup 2010

[otisotisotis]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

That's kind of a dopey thing to say. More kids play soccer in the United States than any other sport. We have a top 15-ish ranked men's soccer program. We have players in Serie A, the EPL, the Bundesliga, and La Ligua. I know you're trying to be funny, but US Soccer has come an awfully long way.

Soccer still only gets the 4th, maybe 5th level of elite athlete in the U.S.. So, if you consider that, top 16 isn't so bad.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by otisotisotis

Soccer still only gets the 4th, maybe 5th level of elite athlete in the U.S.. So, if you consider that, top 16 isn't so bad.

out of 300 million people our 4th and 5th level athletes are still world class. If we had NBA, NFL, even some MLB guys want to play soccer than watch out. How awesome of a goalie would lebron be?

sorry to bust on your sport slotdirt, but not too many people care about it once they get out of high school. Shoot, a lot of good soccer players would rather kick field goals for football teams than continue soccer. My brother and I both grew up playing soccer.. along with baseball its probably the best sport to play as a kid. You dont get paid much playing soccer, and there isnt much fame to it, so all the top athletes move on to different sports. Coach is completely right. Plus, golf and soccer are apples and oranges.. you can play golf til you die.

Plus the argument that 4th or 5th best sport = lesser athletes is not true.

Soccer, for the most part, requires short people to attack the goal. Look at the greatest strikers...they're midgets. Midgets aren't giving up soccer to play football, baseball, basketball etc.

[slotdirt]

What great striker is a midget? That's not true anymore. You want big guys up front who can hold their men and distribute. There are still some relatively short guys up front, but the Altidores and Kloses are more the norm now when you consider that nearly every defender is 6'3" on the internation level.

Originally Posted by slotdirt

What great striker is a midget? That's not true anymore. You want big guys up front who can hold their men and distribute. There are still some relatively short guys up front, but the Altidores and Kloses are more the norm now when you consider that nearly every defender is 6'3" on the internation level.

Messi, Robinho etc.

[slotdirt]

Messi is more of a center-mid. Robinho is not that tall. I'd say that's more the exception today though. For every Robinho, there's a Crouch (6'7"), Vittek (6'2"), Altidore (6'1"), or Van Persie (6'2").

About the only sport those guys could excel in would be baseball. No way would any of them play basketball at a high level.

I just don't buy the excuse that our best athletes play other sports. Soccer is missing out on the inner-city kids. It's too much of a suburban sport.