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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]we will get better when our best athletes are trained to play from age 4 on up. Im taking our best athletes not our rich well off kids . Imagine if John wall only played soccer from age 4 til now and was taught ing a top level club from u9 til now ? His speed strength and size would be world class. just add the fundamentals and boom a top 5 world class player. [/quote]

Please, not the "best athletes" myth again. It's idiotic on its face. [/quote]

Whats idiotic about that Messi was trained playing soccer from very young age . in the USA the best athletes are almost never trained serious in soccer period . if you took our best athletes and just shoved soccer training down their throats from age 4 on we would have some of the best in the world. instead we have so many other options for our athletes at a low cost soccer is not a viable option. our pay to play at a crazy high price produces a very below elite athlete . look at the numbers overall not the rare 1 in a million chance kids . some of the best athletes in the world come from the ghettos of the USA. imagine if those kids that go on to play in the NBA or NFL were trained in soccer at the same rate as other countries. We continue to cater to the affluent white parents who's DS and DD are given the equivalent to participation trophies and fed the your a great athlete in soccer and just keep paying and you will be on the A travel team and told how much promise you have . Like it or not suburban soccer moms and dads. unless its in the genes. your kid isn't a top notch athlete. only in your eyes is DS/DD great. for every 1 kid who has athletic talent in Potomac. There are 12 kids in PG county or SE DC. sorry to bust your rich white dream. but give the kids in the lower income area the same access to training in their own neighborhood and watch out.[/quote]

What other sport was Messi seriously going to play? He is not a world class athlete. [/quote]

your missing the point ... we could be a top world force if we gave the training and access to our better athletes. look at Spain for example. they were so far behind the use in basketball . so they target their best tall athletes and trained basketball from young age. now they are a world force like the USA. same could be done with soccer here. its just not pushed to the urban areas where so many use elite athletes com from. [/quote]

The best athletes myth IS idiotic, and the surest way to identify yourself as a newbie when it comes to this sport.   Messi, Neymar, Modric, Busquets, Hazard, Iniesta, Xavi, Di Maria ... exactly which US sport would these guys be playing professionally if they were born in the U.S.?

The one demographic in the U.S. in which soccer is not already wildly popular as a youth sport is among African-Americans in low-income urban areas.   When people bring up "what if our best athletes played soccer", that's usually what they actually mean.  Would it improve the state of American soccer if the game became more popular and accessible in those communities?  Absolutely.  Is the fact that the game is not yet popular and accessible in those communities a significant factor in why we as a country are not doing better at producing players and competitive national teams (on the men's side)?  Absolutely not.  Is pay-to-play in general a significant factor in closing doors and limiting opportunities for too many talented players across all ethnic groups?  Yes, I believe it is.   That said, the main reason we are not better at this is our system doesn't do a good enough job developing the millions of talented players we do have.  (We have more kids playing soccer than Uruguay or Croatia has total population).  Adding more talented players to our flawed system would not significantly alter the output.  If anything, we usually have an advantage when it comes to athleticism against international competition, but their superior technical skill and tactical IQ easily overcomes it.

The original question in this thread was about why so many latino kids are good at soccer.  The answer is simple.  The same reason so many English kids are, or Dutch kids, German kids, French kids, etc....  Because growing up immersed in the game - playing all the time to get many more touches, playing with and emulating older relatives who are good at the game, watching games with your family on TV - is going to create some advantages when it comes to competing against kids who were first introduced to the sport at "soccer tots" at age 5/6, and then played 2-3 x week 5 months a year in a rec league for a few years.  Kids from a soccer/football/futbol culture are going to be better, period.  We have plenty of kids like that in this country - both latinos and not - but obviously the percentage of latino families with that type of culture is very high.

To the posters who expressed faux concern that their kids would grow up learning to stereotype "hispanics" because of their perception that a disproportionate number of "hispanic teams" played dirty, don't worry.  They will.  They'll grow up just like you.

When my kid was younger he played on a mostly white team that often went up against a team made up of the children of mostly Honduran and Salvadoran immigrants.  The team was very good, and also knew how to use their bodies to win and protect the ball.  This was new for the kids on our team, and they often got bumped off the ball because of it.  The parents were quickly up in arms about how that team was playing dirty, overly aggressive, etc.....  The parents expressing those views were simply ignorant - about the game.  There was nothing wrong with the way the other team was playing.  They were physical, but it's a physical game.  Our kids just needed to learn to adjust to it.  It was good for them, and in time they learned to use their bodies appropriately as well.

A couple of years later my kid ended up on a team that was mostly latino.  He quickly noticed the difference in the way his team was treated - by referees as well as opposing parents.  As far as the ref bias, I never said anything about it, but he noticed it.  Among parents, in addition to the over-the-top histrionics every time one of their kids got knocked down, he heard things like "they don't even speak English", and "it's ok, they'll be cutting our grass someday."   I wish I was making that up.  I really, really do.

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