2012 - 2013 Football Thread! - Page 311

On March 04 2013 11:42 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Please tell me this Portland versus New York game will be on youtube later, this is a soccer game!

On March 04 2013 20:57 Ysellian wrote:


Was a MLS match on youtube? Pretty cool actually, wish the times were favorable.

edit: Watching the highlights from Portland vs New York. The first goal came from when the keeper went to pick up a back pass, is this allowed in the MLS or is that the reason he let the ball lose for the goal?

On March 04 2013 07:55 Akamu wrote:
Kobe himself has said that if him and Lebron and other stars had been given a soccer ball instead of a basketball when they were little kids that the US would have already won a world cup. IDK about that but it's interesting to think about.

But what a great weekend for soccer. Real Madrid is looking fantastic going into the match with ManU. MLS kicked off and SKC and especially Zusi was fun to watch. And finally the monster man that is Gareth Bale continued is reign of terror. I really hope Tottenham can keep him.

On March 05 2013 01:03 Stratos_speAr wrote:


The Pacific Northwest really likes their soccer.

On March 05 2013 00:06 UdderChaos wrote:

I think kobey is an idiot then. Your potential in sports is dependent on two things, one is your natural born body type, the other is your natural brain (by this im talking more subconscious, ie reflexes, hand-to-eye coordination). Some sports have a good balance between these, while some only require really one of them. An example of the body type only sport is swimming. One person is naturally biologically born better at swimming than another. Nurture and drive can allow someone to realize their potential, but there potential is usually capped as an athlete in swimming dependent on their genes (and perhaps early nurture to some extent). In the heat for the Olympics you may see various body types, just like in a random sample of the population (who are very athletic of course), that is because humans are different and everyone in the heats are close to reaching their potential. But once you reach Olympic level, pretty much everyone has a body type that is the same, short legs, long body. This is because if you are not born with this genetic body type that suits swimming your are at too much of a disadvantage, the drive and nurture side of your ability becomes outweigh by natural ability.

Exceptions to this idea do exist, but are usually down to outliers, for example usain bolt when it comes to running. He has much larger legs, and a bigger stride than most runners, this is probably more a result of the "accepted" body type of a runner being wrong, or perhaps a certain threshold of athleticism that needs to be reached for longer legged runners to start outrunning shorter legged runners, which none have reached because the longer legged runners who are good are a more rare body type, or maybe usain is just a freak of nature, with his body being in the 99.999999999% percentile.

Now something like football is unique. It is a sport that requires you to have athleticism, but to be the best in the world there is no accepted body type. Kristof van Hout is 6ft 10, and then you have Élton Jose Xavier Gomes who is about 5 ft. In football its not just the range but the variance of height, there doesn't seem to be one height that's best, unlike basketball. Body type is the same, sure there are no massive body builders in football but most other body types are acceptable, you don't even have to be that fast to be a footballer. This is why kobey is an idiot. A sport like basketball, the per-requisite for playing is being very tall. Essentially if you could draw up an equation of potential in sport, once your natural brain/ sporting intelligence reached a certain level your height would MASSIVELY limit your ability. Players like Earl Boykins would probably be the best NBA players in the world if they were the same height as the average other player, they are to make up for the height difference in skill. My point being that Kobey wouldn't be the basketball player today if he was the height of an average American (5'10). Also the height barrier shows that body type is very important in basketball. While in football there is no unified body type, which suggests strongly that footballing potential is massively capped by natural foot to eye coordination and other brain functions that make you a good footballer (positioning, vision ect) Now Kobey may have position and vision in a very high percentile but his foot to eye coordination when having a ball at his feet would not be good enough even for the division 2 in England i suspect. This is why when usain bolt tried to register to the united squad they quietly let him down, because it doesn't matter how fast or athletic he is, if you cant control a ball like a god your nevr going to be an amazing football player.

On March 05 2013 02:32 sc4k wrote:


Some fair points. But you are being obtuse if you seriously think that everything that Kobe said was crazy. Especially the whole 'and other stars' bit. Especially people like Allen Iverson, the more 'normal sized' ones. God damn, they have insane skills and athletic ability (that jumping!). And height is not the be all and end all in bball, although it is v important. I initially made the remark because I was imagining a team of 6ft 5 behemoths just playing like Stoke, and scoring entirely from corners lol. But as a legit team, the US would easily be the most dominant in the world. A staggering combination of physical prowess, height and size, and playmaking quality.

Seriously, imagine if US were as obsessed with football as Brazil. How many countless sports does the US have that filter away talent? Brazil ploughs it all into one sport. Even if you account for the lower levels of opportunity in Brazil...it's just awe-inspiring to imagine all that sport talent in the US being used for football. I could imagine an entire team of Pélés, Pirlos and Ronaldos. Especially combined with the state of the art physical development and youth sports programs that the US has in abundance. They would be off the charts amazing. The amount of incredible talent that there is in the NBA, the NFL and baseball is mind-boggling.

On March 05 2013 05:47 sc4k wrote:
Firstly I'm British so I don't know where all this 'you' is coming from.

Secondly, it's also a matter of the population you can draw on. I'm not convinced that the Chinese or Indians have a similar level of potential to the Americans. The relatively small black population of America is supremely talented at sports (and is over-represented in almost all sports- which may be socio-economically driven but I am not sure about that), but beyond that, the white population's average height is more than India and China...and I would dare to say their general suitability for physical sport is significantly larger. Although this is all estimation and what you have said about the two up-and-coming countries might be true. Russia's population is smaller than the aforementioned countries, and its weather conditions aren't really conducive to kickabouts, so I would assume that's its biggest problem. It probably has a large untapped talent base, but then you can easily say that about the entirety of Africa.

Thirdly, I am not convinced at all that football is a unique sport. It might require different skills but skills can be learned. While it does require creativity in the key roles (basically attacking playmakers), many of the positions are just about learning positioning, learning the patterns of attack, and using your physical skills properly. But it's not like the American sports don't require playmaker brainpower (ie. quarterback position, point guard position).

There is nothing whatsoever that leads me to doubt that a top level cornerback in the NFL could not easily play full back. No doubt WR's could play winger. No doubt NBA players could be keepers, centre halfs, commanding defensive midfielders or imposing target man style strikers. And in terms of playmaking, I can't for the life of me imagine why a player like Allen Iverson would not be able to play soccer perfectly (like a spanish playmaker), had he trained in it.

True Usain would be pretty beast at cricket. Now that you've brought it up, all of the good NBA players would be good at cricket. The USA would completely massacre at cricket lol. They are basically a larger talent pool of the west indies combined with a shitload of incredible batsmen (baseball).

Here's an article from bleacher report which discusses what positions current US athletes might play in, if they played soccer:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1269391-usa-soccer-if-americas-best-athletes-played-soccer-the-starting-11-right-now