Why do Americans hate World Cup soccer and the world is so silly with it?

[Mentavious]

In terms of skill you must understand that our best athletes don't play soccer. In terms of total athletic ability football is first followed by basketball. Soccer isn't even getting our top 200 athletes coming out of high school in any given year. Imagine if 25% of those kids played soccer with the same intensity of those outside of the US from ages 5-18. It would be a different story.

No, it wouldn't. And yes, one dimensional.

A Barry Sanders type is never going to be an elite tennis player, for example. It's a different skillset. And neither would he be an elite soccer player.

An NFL running back is optimized to a very specialized skillset that doesn't necessarily translate to dominating other sports.

I think that's obvious to anyone who follows different sports and observes that they are suited to different body types.

If you have a hard on for vertical leap and sprint speed and define who are your best athletes only on those metrics, you can expect to see your "best athletes" fail to reach the highest levels at a wide variety of sports.

These guys are two sport athletes. Just because they play professionally in one sport doesn't mean they could not have in another.
It's well known that many football players could of had a shot at basketball professionally.

I'm not seeing where football or basketball athletic skills would not translate into success on the soccer field.

I have a hard time believing a guy who can make it into the NBA, NFL, MLB could not be just as good in soccer if they are to play seriously up until the ages 18-20.

 

[Tigre]

These guys are two sport athletes. Just because they play professionally in one sport doesn't mean they could not have in another.
It's well known that many football players could of had a shot at basketball professionally.

OK, two sports.
Football and Tour de France cycling.
Football and 1500m freestyle swim.

Or maybe you were only talking about a small group of sports where a guy can cross over.. because you had in mind a narrow definition of athleticism.

I'm not seeing where football or basketball athletic skills would not translate into success on the soccer field.

I have a hard time believing a guy who can make it into the NBA, NFL, MLB could not be just as good in soccer if they are to play seriously up until the ages 18-20.

The answers are all throughout this thread. For instance, I already described why an NBA player is much more qualified for soccer than an NFL player. Others already talked about excess weight, cardio to run out 90 minutes, hand-eye coordination.

If you want to have a genuine discussion, let's look further at those things.

 

[Excelsior]

 

[Excelsior]

No, it wouldn't. And yes, one dimensional.

A Barry Sanders type is never going to be an elite tennis player, for example. It's a different skillset. And neither would he be an elite soccer player.

An NFL running back is optimized to a very specialized skillset that doesn't necessarily translate to dominating other sports.

I think that's obvious to anyone who follows different sports and observes that they are suited to different body types.

If you have a hard on for vertical leap and sprint speed and define who are your best athletes only on those metrics, you can expect to see your "best athletes" fail to reach the highest levels at a wide variety of sports.

American football players (particularly those at skill positions like runningback) are quite well suited to perform at a high level in multiple sports. It is not uncommon to see American football players perform at a very high level in basketball, track and field, and baseball.

Their skills may not translate well onto a tennis court or soccer pitch, but that doesn't make them "one dimensional". A man with Barry Sander's athleticism might not make much of a tennis player, but he could do quite well on a basketball court (as a point guard), track athlete or baseball player.

 

[Joga Bonito]

NFL players are genetic freaks. Literally in the top .001% of athleticism globally. To put to in perspective Lebron James whom is easily the most physically dominate player in the NBA and likely on earth would barley be able to hack it with most NFL players. You've got wide receivers on NFL benches whom would out lift and out run Lebron James in the off season. It isn't even a comparison. Aside from endurance and possibly skill specific agility with footwork a soccer player would get worked on the football field.

Although I see why you would say that there's quite a few examples of basketball players that eventually concentrated on football and ended up being studs. A few examples include:

• Jimmy Graham
• Antonio Gates
• Tony Gonzalez
• Julius Peppers
• Vincent Jackson
• Julius Thomas
• Marcus Pollard
• Sam Clancy

Most of the guys on that list had practically no football experience besides Peppers and Gonzalez. It's actually pretty common for guys in the NCAA to be playing basketball and football as well. Guys like Donovan McNabb, Antwan Randal-el, and Ronald Curry(basketball All American who became a WR), Charlie Ward and Nate Robinson, were amazing in both when they were in college and Ward actually won the Heisman, before playing in the NBA for a while.

In terms of Lebron, he might be the worst example to use in the whole league, especially when you think about guys like Jimmy Graham and Gonzalez that have similar measurements and are pretty much unguardable. It's not far fetched to think that he would do extremely well as a TE\WR, as he's considered one of the strongest and fastest guys in the NBA. He also made all-state at football in high school when he basically just did that for fun. I believe he ran a 4.6 40(without training for it) which is pretty good for a TE as well and better than most linebackers, especially when combined with his world class leaping ability and agility. NBA players are aren't far off as it would seem, although both NBA and NFL players in their current form would probably struggle as soccer players, since their muscles would need a ton of oxygen.

It should also be noted that NFL scouts are increasingly scouting college basketball players that go undrafted and using them as long term projects, that's exactly how Gates got started. He managed to get a workout in front of NFL scouts, and was signed as an undrafted rookie since the NBA saw his as too much of a tweener.

 

[MidWest]

Glenn Beck pretty much sums up how most Americans feel about soccer.

 

[puckerman]

Americans hate ties. Soccer has a whole lot of them.