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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Soccer at high levels means requiring the footskills at the critical learning ages 8-12.  You just can't be an expert on the ball if you pick it up later.  It is very heavily skill-based.[/quote]

It is, at least in terms of any sort of very high-level play.

That said, I've seen kids pick up soccer at age 12 who are good enough to play for high school teams. I know that's a shock to people who signed their kids up for U7 WonderFootSkill class so they'd be "ahead," but some people simply have that much athleticism and aptitude to pick up skills.

And many soccer pros -- in the U.S., sure, but also elsewhere, including people who've played at Premier League level -- played other sports as well (usually basketball, a good complement to soccer) until they were roughly 14.[/quote]

Yep.  It's why our Natuonal team sucks.  You are really not playing soccer at all I. That situation.  You are just getting the biggest, fastest kids to mow the ball down the field.  We need a new name for this sport.  It resemble nothing of the original game and a style that gets crushed anywhere else I. The world.[/quote]

Pardon me while I face-palm over your air of superiority, but the notion of ignorant Americans who don't know how to play and just rely on athleticism is about as outdated as cheap synthesizers in music.

In fact, if you ask Jurgen Klinsmann (he's a guy who played at a really, really high level in and for Germany and now coaches the U.S. national team), he was not happy with the U.S. players' athleticism when he took the job.

And I did mention that many athletes elsewhere have played other sports as well. That would include the Americans who have played in the Premier League. And players from elsewhere, too.

If you want the experts' take (you don't, because you obviously consider yourself THE expert among us heathen unwashed, but just in case), take a look ...

http://changingthegameproject.com/is-it-wise-to-specialize/ 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3658407/ 
http://www.humankinetics.com/acucustom/sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/12188.pdf (note the INTERNATIONAL citations)
etc., etc. ...

And frankly -- as we've started to specialize more and more, our national teams have gotten worse and worse. Check the results -- not just men's World Cup but women's competition and youth competitions both male and female.[/quote]

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