Reply to Landon Donovan was right

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Landon Donovan was right"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Every sport in USA is structured as hell, almost year-round play. There's no incentive to go out and play in the street when you have gaming inside and air conditioning.[b] American youth is sucked up by four way more popular sports before a boy thinks of soccer after the age of 8.[/b] Girls gravitate to it because only basketball takes athletes away. Don't blame just the kids either... i see the sidelines heaving with heavy-set parents who very likey never usher their kids outside because they too sit on their phones all day.[/quote]

i think everyone is trying to find fault when there is no fault.  Soccer is just a fringe sport in America, it's just the way it is.

The facts are most boys would rather play basketball, baseball or football and it's likely because that's what one of their parents grew up playing or watched or whatever reason.[/quote]

I agree with this.  Our best athletes in the US are not choosing soccer.  If we took our best athletes in the NBA and NFL and they played soccer throughout their lives, we would dominate. [/quote]
It's not just that our best athletes are in the NBA and NFL. It's that all our best athletes are TRYING to be in the NBA and NFL. That 5'6'' kid whose body type would work great for soccer, but maybe not for basketball because they aren't very tall, is still playing basketball but their playing career ends in high school. Imagine if that 5'6'' kid didn't spend the first 15 years of their life trying to become a basketball player, and had started with soccer instead. Those are the players that we're missing out on because soccer isn't popular. [/quote]

I call BS on this. More kids are playing organized soccer at some point than any other sport. The stats are over 3 million according to multiple sources - just above basketball. And twice as many as American football. The 5'6" kid gets pushed out of both sports and quits sports all together. His odds of going pro are slim in soccer, but they are microscopic in basketball. The problem is that at some point a short-sighted youth coach wanted to brag to his buddies about winning the U9 league and decided that the diminutive player didn't give him the best chance. This was Landon Donovan's whole point that started this thread. [/quote]

+1000

I maybe need to go to Texas and Louisiana to see more kids on a Fall or Spring weekend playing football over soccer.

Because that sure ain't happening in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast [/quote]
I do see way more kids around here informally playing basketball and football than soccer.  Every other driveway has a basketball hoop in it and kids play in the driveways after school on weekends. I see kids playing football at recess and at the schools on weekends. Again, these are informal pickup games. The only soccer I see being played is organized club games. Which is just supporting the case that basketball and football are part of the culture. Kids wear NFL jerseys, follow basketball players on socials. It's ingrained in the culture the way soccer is in Europe and South America. Is anyone making a case that soccer is part of the culture in the US in the way football and basketball or even baseball are?[/quote]

Soccer jerseys are more popular in my kids schools. 
So if we're going off non scientific personal observation

As for your kids playing informal football everywhere. Please make videos and post the links.[/quote]
You must be living in some kind of weird soccer bubble. Even if that’s true, you must know that your experience is very exceptional in this country. [/quote]

So one personal observation is more valid than another?[/quote]
Everyone knows soccer is more popular in the US. All those stadiums filled with 75-100k people are watching soccer every week, not football. All those fantasy league drafts this week were for soccer, not football. Supermarkets have many chips & salsa & beer displays all over the place for the big soccer games starting this weekend. Lots of kids watch their high school soccer games, they don’t go to friday night football games. Walmart and Target have way more DC United team gear for sale than Commanders and Ravens and VT. But these observations could just be one perspective inside my soccer bubble.[/quote]

What does any of that have to do with the observations of more soccer being played by kids on Saturday and Sunday around the DMV during Fall and Spring than football?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics