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Is that not because of the opportunities available post-college??
A great youth player is likely to be pretty good at other sports.
If you could choose between say football and basketball at college with a possibility (however small) of the NBA afterwards then surely basketball is going to win out?
Probably overly simplistic (i've no idea how the collegiate system works).
Football always wins in Britain even though the chance of making a decent career is minuscule.
First choice for who?
Soccer is still a sport mainly played by rich/upper middle class white kids. I don't know about Virginia, but in Florida football is by far the most popular sport among the black kids. One would hope that with all the evidence of damage to the brain caused by football we will see a shift to soccer over football.
There's a similar problem, though to a far lesser extent, in baseball with fewer African-American kids playing baseball.
Faeces licker.
Hispanic people seem to enjoy it quite a bit. Granted, if they grew up to be super stars, they might be just as likely to play from the country of their parents or where they moved from themselves.
Panama goal, which obs wasn't a goal. Doesn't get reviewed, Keeps the US out of the WC. In Russia.
Putin electing our Prez is one thing, but this is blasphemy......
Putin electing our Prez is one thing, but this is blasphemy......
No, I don't think that's the case. I do think that you're correct regarding youth sports; that talent is generally transferable across sports, but that diverges sharply at the college level, and then veers towards another stratosphere in post-collegiate. With American football, and to an even greater extent basketball, outrageous talent can be largely outweighed by the genetic lottery of physical attributes. There is a long list of players in basketball's history that possessed very little technical skill or athletic talent, but just happened to grow to 7 feet tall and nothing more was required of them than to stand in a box and be taller than the person covering them. The bodily archetypes are so wildly different.
The lost superstars of American soccer aren't being lost to basketball or football, they're being lost because everywhere else in the world professional scouts basically pluck them out of school at the age of 10 or 12, whereas in the US little Messi never would have gotten his glandular surgery and it would have been too late for him, he would have decided to become a lawyer, and little Cristiano Ronaldo would have been picked up as an outrageous talent after his first year of college, but even then the same kid in Europe would have already had maybe 10 years of semi-professional and then professional coaching ahead of him.
Stick to the "World Series" boys, sure you'll do well in that.
Countless countless times since being here I have spoken to Americans who "used to play in high school" even lads who had played against English teams on tour, then thats it, done
Its unbelievable how it falls off a cliff at college, the wastage of average normal sized athletes in the US is incredible, how many 5'11 160lb lads - average, perfect football size are being lost. The other sports as you say require freaks, people outstanding at hockey, all eyes/hands in baseball, giants in Basketball, and massive humans in American Football, this is only 20% of people surely even meeting the physical requirements as you say, where is everyone else?
In one of my teams here is an outstanding young player of Eastern European descent, but American, only 16/17 but aiming for college baseball, another travesty, he should be playing football
Undefeated thank you very muchStick to the "World Series" boys, sure you'll do well in that.
Maybe, but his first sentence, this....
"Anyway, you Yanks sure are a sensitive bunch, can't take any criticism. Arrogant as well."
...has some grounding in truth in my experience.
I have a lot of American friends and I've noticed if there is one thing the majority of Americans can't stand it's criticism of anything American - even many the most liberal out there. It's like an inbuilt irrationality switch. Once it's flipped by a foreigner these types of Americans turn into children engaging in dick measuring contests, banging about how " 'murica greatest country, fuck yeh!" and offer up tedious misrepresentations and misunderstanding of other nations (such as how we are "ruled" by the Queen, etc). Always makes me giggle when I see it as any objective assessment of the US highlights plenty of areas in which the US lags behind the rest of the world and vice versa. But excessive pride gets in the way of that conversation.
Just my observations. *shrug*.
Can you get a university scholarship through football?
Given the toxic partisanship in America I am not sure the "treating the President like the King" necessarily rings true. Don't get me wrong, in terms of pomp and ceremony the US President has more than most directly elected heads of state (not least because of American wealth), but I not sure that is reflected in the people, especially in the age of Trump. Plus, the Queen is essentially a ceremonial head of state, which removes her from politics and offers her as an apolitical figure for the nation to look up to (which is a good think IMO) so the comparison is a bit flase. It's apples and oranges even though both fulfil the role of head of state.
The women's team is nearly as popular as the men's team. And soccer is considered to be a sport for women and hispanics. So you when you say "US national soccer team", you actually need to specify whether you mean the men's team or the women's team.
Yes, but you can also get one through soccer, baseball, basketball, and like a dozen other sports.
You are on an English football forum. Please do not commit the cardinal sin of referring to American Handegg as football.
My bad, idk why I thought you were talking about our football when you wrote football. But getting back on topic, yes, just like most other team sports "football" (soccer) is viewed as an avenue to a college scholarship more than a realistic career path. It's a serious problem with our youth development, since schools are woefully inadequate compared to pro academies. The Big Three sports have all found ways around this.You are on an English football forum. Please do not commit the cardinal sin of referring to American Handegg as football.
Baseball has its farm systems and elite underage travel teams. Basketball has the AAU, where 15-16 year olds are offered multi-million dollar deals before they even leave for college (for example, Lebron James received a car and other gifts from nike/adidas/reebok execs when he was 16). Football has absurdly over-funded high school football programs featuring ex-professionals coaching teams in massive stadiums. And of course the college basketball and football leagues are practically professional leagues on their own, with billions of dollars in revenue, massive stadiums, and millions of people watching them on tv. Soccer doesn't really have an equivalent for youth and college.
EDIT: This is a high school stadium, I bet it cost more than most MLS stadiums.
Best thing I heard today was from the Men In Blazers podcast.
"The game took place in a near empty stadium. I mean there are few stadiums that have less atmosphere than The Emirates, this was one."
"The game took place in a near empty stadium. I mean there are few stadiums that have less atmosphere than The Emirates, this was one."
Absolutely, a great many do.
Absolutely, but think of the career at the end of the rainbow, you come out 22 years old against rest of world who are in a serious system by time they are early teenagers. The upside is so small so Football becomes the thing they do on the side with their studies being the main focus.
Now for all the major sports you come out in the draft in a level playing field against everybody else, and that sport would have been the primary focus, while scraping through with grades. Add on top of that the median MLS salary is $117K they get around $85K out of college, the risk reward really isnt there considering the size of league which blows all its money on big stars to get bums on seats
Its a real shame and Football should be keeping a close look at the Concussion issue and try and capture as much of the American Football market as it can, its a cliche but a top to bottom review of the sport should be done