Reply to USA only country in the world where life does not come to a halt when it's soccer team plays in WC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have participated in several sports on competitive teams. Wrestling requires the most conditioning (based on my experience), then American football, followed by competitive distance running, then soccer (I was a center midfielder.)[/quote]

Wrestling careers are quite short.

Soccer careers can last over 20 years. 
That does not even include their youth, grammar  school and collegiate playing years.[/quote]

You are supporting my point that soccer is not as demanding a sport as wrestling or as American football. [b]Almost anyone can play soccer[/b]. Even those soccer players who engage in intense competition can last decades in the sport because it doesn't require the extreme conditioning and use of one's body as do wrestling, American football, or water polo among other sports.

Lots of unknowledgeable comments about American football on this thread.

Regardless, all athletes--regardless of the sport or the intensity of one's competition--deserve praise and admiration.

I wish that I was more excited about World Cup soccer, but--even as a former soccer player--I prefer to watch other sports more than I do soccer. Different strokes for different folks.[/quote]

Almost anyone can play football, just look at all of the front yard games that will be occurring on Thursday. If you're talking about professional at the highest level, compare the number of kids dreaming of playing in the premier league and eventually make it to the number of kids who dream of the NFL and make it. The premiere league odds are longer by orders of magnitude.  [/quote]

This. Football doesn't require much skill. I have friends who played football in college WITHOUT ever playing in HS. Being a linesman is not skillful. You just bulk up and block. Soccer, on the other hand, requires intense training from an incredibly early age. If you have not shown talent in soccer by age 10, you are not going anywhere in the sport. You don't just pick it up in high school and go onto a career in the field. I mean, even Tom Brady picked up football later in life because it just doesn't require advanced technical mastery.

Are there some great athletes in football? Of course. But the vast majority of that 53 person roster cannot even run the field, and many are just morbidly obese. [/quote]

This is just ignorant.

Yes, you can play football in HS without much skill, especially if you just happen to be a big guy. Unless, of course, your HS has a highly competitive football team that wins championships and sends players to major college programs. Then maybe not. Same with college. Sure, there are probably people who aren't not particularly good athletes playing DIII football at schools you've never heard of. But if you play football for Ohio State, you can't just walk on without being a strong athlete. Even what you perceive to be "just big guys" on a team like that have a refined athletic skill set that is not accessible to the average person. It is not easy to move a 250 lb adult out of the way when he doesn't want you to. It requires some of the same skills as Olympic level weight lifters. Do you not think those people are athletes either? Plus other specialist positions require great speed and agility. A down in football goes by quick by much is asked of players during that short burst of action. If you don't understand that, you are not familiar with the sport.

And by the time you get to professional NFL players, you are talking about next level athletes. These are people who train daily for most of the year, for hours at a time. Who are constantly working on both strength and speed. Even your average NFL practice team member (so someone who never sees a professional game) is an impressive athlete.

Guess what? There are lots of mediocre athletes playing soccer at the HS level, too. That doesn't mean professional soccer is easy. In both sports, it gets progressively harder and more competitive as you level up. The sports are different so training starts at different times, and American football in particular does not really make sense as a sport until the bodies involved are matured because of the strength it requires. Whereas soccer is a speed/agility-based game so it's easier for very young players to begin refining those skills, as well as building the endurance necessary for the sport.

I don't understand why it is necessary to compare these sports. They are very different and the pro athletes involved in both are incredibly impressive.[/quote]

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