Every HS in American has a soccer team and top pro soccer players make gazillions yet countries with less people than NYC wipe the floor with us? @Gladwell should write an Outliers style book on it. There's got to be something.
The US not being able to field a real soccer team is fascinating to me. I understand the argument that our best athletes play other sports, but that just feels incomplete. Like would Messi be playing football or basketball if he was American? He's like 5'7" 150 lbs. no?
I'm not saying there's another Messi out there, but like there's just no way I'm buying that we have no good athletes committed to soccer... Is it culture? Resources (can't imagine that the case)? Hockey is no more American than soccer, and we figured that out. What's missing?