What if America's Best Athletes Played Soccer?

What about 7on7 Rugby (ok, he's from Aus, and plays Rugby but could make it in NFL)

http://www.rugbybuzz.com/?p=301

JETS have joined the discussion http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/189470-jets-interested-in-aussie-rugby-star

 

You can't compare apples and oranges.

So Percy Harvin is fast. Can he place a soccer ball anywhere he wants? Can he run with a ball that fast?

He can cut on a dime, but can he do it with a soccer ball between his feet?

It is a skill set, and one that comes more naturally to people like all others. What I mean is, take the worst NFL and NBA players and they have an equal shot at being better at soccer than the best players in the NFL and NBA.

Just because they are good at one sport it doesn't mean they will be equally good at another.

 

Sure, put Ron Artest a 6'9" lanky mofo on the back line. I'd love to see skilled players school him with deaks and cuts. Maybe as a goalie....maybe.

 

I disagree, we are making strides but we wouldnt dominate soccer if we wanted to.....because we cant, we already are trying to dominate soccer...with pitiful results....

If thats the case why cant we dominate skiing like Austria does?? Or why doesnt America dominate hockey, we are good at hockey, but we certainly don't dominate right, however as a major sport here in the US, certainly we are trying no?? There are enough people in America to play everything....for as much as foreign soccer players, would rot playing basketball, baseball, and football, Jeter, Kobe, and Lebron would get embarrassed on the pitch....quickly...

 

Arrest is the worst at defense so that wouldnt work...hahaha

 

not this year....he isnt that good this year for some reason....

 

Of course it is, and I'll agree that if the US had the infrastructure that most other countries have you guys would be a lot more competitive. But to say you would be the best in the world is a stretch. Essentially you would be competing against countries that have the exact same system and players playing all throughout their youth and beyond. Your system would be on par with other superpowers like Brasil, Argentina, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc. And that would be it, on par. Heck, even lower ranked countries have only one national sport, and they aren't superpowers, like Poland, Ukraine, Columbia, etc, etc. It is possible, but unlikely, that even if the US focused only on soccer that you could be within that ranked group as well.

Fun to think about though. Time will tell. Soccer is growing in the US. Interesting to see how much more received it is during this world cup in the US.

 

Agreed brother kore....however if foreign soccer players tried to field an American football team, they would be small.......

tell them boys to eat and do roids!!

 

Yeah, and read my response. I'm saying that if P. Harvin played soccer all his life, he could still be a worse player than Ted Ginn if he played soccer all his life. Even though PH is the better NFL player, it won't be directly correlated into soccer. See what I mean? It is too hypothetical.

 

I think it will be record setting this year as far as viewership.....euro 2008 set a record here....as well as another game I forgot the US played were they went up quick on Dempsy's redirect...ahhh what game was that??

 

LOL.

Ron Artest is everything BUT "lanky".

he is 6'-7" 260 pounds.

 

Now you are operating under double standards. Aside from the US, what other countries have the infrastructure in place to develop athletes in the olympic sports? Maybe Russia and China, but that is it. If the rest of the world had your training facilities, paid scholarships, coaches, etc, would the US still dominate as much on the Olympic scale?

The rest of the world is in the same situation the US is in with soccer.

 

It is actually proving it, from both of our perspectives.

 

Here is the thing, the squad at World Cup is what 25-30 people on it?? Dont tell me that regardless of where this sport is in America right now as far as popularity, that we cant find 30...hell 40 people in the entire US to compete with these guys on a global scale.....AND WE CANT?!?!?!? That just tells me that we arent very good at it, getting better, but not as good as the power house countries....

I see the other side if the BEST athletes played soccer at 3yrs old instead of baseball, basketball, or football...who knows?? However some of America best athletes are playing soccer right now, and cant hack it.....

 

Oguchi Onyewu is a very very good athlete....the kid is 6'4'' 210....and plays on a premiere international club, and is good....

hell I'd take him as our FS right now......lol...

 

IMO he's not very good. Some will disagree with me but I just don't see it.

 

Well, he is a class act though.

He got injured before this past season with AC Milan and was out all year. He just extended his contract from 2012 to 2013 for FREE! Although Milan advised against it, and didn't want to do that, Onyewu insisted and Milan took it as a nice gesture.

 

He's been out a year and is still getting into match shape. Maybe that's why?

 

i have no doubt that if every US kid's athletic dream was to play soccer, our national teams would be stacked with ridiculous talent

soccer only requires average size, so some great athletes in the NBA and NFL would just be too big, but its also a boom to great athletes that toil in their other chosen sport but are limited by their size to advance

not only would we be pulling from MLB, NFL and some NBA talent, but also all the great athletes that devoted all their time to those sports in college

the NCAA is part of the reason our sports are played at such a high level. now imagine college soccer and MLS or whatever being the biggest sports. there would be great american players all over the world and our college teams would rival professional clubs

 

Now, now, lets not get ahead of ourselves here. A lot of European Under 21 teams will smoke the MLS teams, so. . .

 

No.

 

You seriously believe that? I tend to disagree.

 

why? our college basketball teams beat other national teams. basketball is pretty big around the world now and teams have gotten a lot better

basketball isnt even our most popular sport

this is also a world where soccer reigns supreme here

 

But soccer is nowhere near your most popular sport. Under the assumption that soccer becomes the main sport in the US, then yes, your college teams will beat the MLS teams of TODAY, but if that is the case, the MLS teams under that same assumption will be a much higher caliber, even attracting world stars like the EPL, Serie A, and La Liga. But again, only under that main assumption that soccer becomes the main sport. And if so, today's MLS is irrelevant.

My point is, top European and top S.American Under 21 teams (GER, ITA, BRS, ENG, SPN, etc) can beat MLS teams 6 times out of 10 games, today. Would you agree with that?

 

I'm with you here.

 

You can disagree all you want..but Junior teams can't beat MLS teams.

MLS teams have performed well against talented european teams before.

 

exactly. this whole thread is on that impossible assumption lol.

MLS would truly be major league and nothing like it is now. heck only either 3 or 4 guys from MLS have been picked on our squad lol.

its never going to happen. plus, us americans cant take everything the rest of the world can have soccer, though its nice to dream. its a little frustrating to have holes on our team like we do, but thats just the way it is. our depth looks really bad

i might agree on under 21, i guess it depends on who played. bottom feeders for sure

 

imagine the outrage if we took the world cup lol