@Gravenb3rch@SLED277@TheeJonFields@isthatscully "Shortly" here means 20-30yrs because that's how long it would take to get the 3yr old elite athlete trained up in soccer. No one is saying we could just switch a football player to soccer and dominate.
@gatocabron49@OGiroud_90 "Suck" is the wrong term here. I played a bit of tennis in my youth, I was a club level hack (4.0-4.5 if you know ratings) I'm not good at tennis but I don't suck. You suck at tennis if you struggle to get the ball in play. Bolt's not good at soccer but "he sucks" is incorrect.
@loveit2333@isthatscully Of course not, obviously the advantages of height are far greater in basketball than in soccer, but it does have advantages. At my peak I was 6'2" 215lbs and played basketball and I promise you that 6'4" 220lbs defender is not going to enjoy a shoving match with LeBron.
@KentMurphy Honestly, that was the right call. It might have been the right call if they were only up 1. Pretty good chance Bonds ends the game on any strike you throw him.
@loveit2333@isthatscully A nudge still works it's an issue of math, specifically F=m*a. As objects get heavier you have to apply more and more force to have the same result. A subtle "nudge" from a 5'11" 170lb defender isn't going to have much effect on a 260lb LeBron.
@loveit2333@isthatscully LeBron also happens to be 260lbs and built like a tank. Giving him "a little nudge" is not going to be as effective as you might think.
@kugiti5@HEAT3108@isthatscully@TheeJonFields Soccer is the most popular sport because it's cheap and easy to play. You need a flat space, a ball, and a few friends to kick around with. Football, by comparison needs a lot of things to happen and is really expensive to play.
@AndreDkage@boldpath@DanCalcio@isthatscully Because they're much better players. No one is claiming athleticism is all you need, obviously a significant amount of top tier training is also required. The point is that world class players have both- and need both. In the US they're not drawing the athletes to the sport.
@AndreDkage@boldpath@DanCalcio@isthatscully Look at it this way. If you've got 2 players with exactly the same soccer skills- passing, shooting, dribbling, etc- but one is 4" taller and 10% faster then the taller and faster one is going to be better right? There's no downside to being faster and there's obvious advantages.
@AndreDkage@boldpath@DanCalcio@isthatscully Why wouldn't the physical advantages be there? Why would a guy who can run a 4.2 40 be slower if he'd played soccer instead of football? Do they not practice sprinting in soccer?
@GrathNorman@TheeJonFields@isthatscully It wouldn't take years, it would take dollars. The US doesn't have to reinvent the wheel here, they can just copy what everyone else is doing and throw some money at the top coaches and voila- done. They still wouldn't draw the best athletes though so it would kinda be a waste.
@AndreDkage@boldpath@DanCalcio@isthatscully You're not understanding the point. The argument isn't take an NFL cornerback and put him on a soccer pitch and he'll be great, it's IF he'd grown up playing soccer instead of football he'd have been great.