To me, soccer is way too subjective. Everyone of those players could get roles in Hollywood productions. And the refs blow the whistle for half of those performances. Way too subjective and games hinge on those things. Ask Mexico. And why do you think Howard had so many saves? Um, could it be that the rest of the team wasn't playing defense?
1. Have you ever watched a basketball game? Flips and Flops all over the place. College football players faking injuries to stop fast paced offenses. To add to that the refs are no worse than SEC football refs or NBA basketball refs. 2. No defense, sounds like the PAC 12 and Big 12 football conferences. Hell Oregon and Wisconsin have 3 or 4 games a season where they hang 70 on opponents. In order to enjoy soccer you gotta leave your engrained American biases at the door. Because really it's just another sport played by athletes that are in my opinion better shape than most NFL'ers. Maybe not stronger maybe not faster, but better shape. Michael Bradley before the Belgium game had already covered 23.6 miles in 3 games. Lets put that in perspective. A running back that rushes for a 1000 yard season covers .536 miles. YIPES.
Take our best athletes, the Lebron James, Richard Shermans, Patrick Petersons, Tyrann Mathieu's .... and have them play soccer everyday growing up instead of dreaming of football or basketball glory. The US would fucking dominate the rest of the world.
This was funny as hell Nicely done. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/07/tim-howard-wikipedia-united-states-secretary-of-defense
See I'm not sure, maybe the guys with builds like Ty or Pat Pete probably. But Lebron James? Isn't he like 6 foot 8? Could they handle a ball with their feet, with the technicality of the Euros and South Americans? I mean maybe, but it's speculation at this point, hell I hope it happens in the future.
Lebron is bigger, but Lebron is fast and powerful. Compare him to say Jozy Altidore. Jozy is one of the strongest and biggest soccer players I've seen. I have to think if he's healthy we stood a much better shot against Belgium. Lebron makes Jozy look small and weak. And Lebron still runs a 4.6 40 yard dash. I couldn't find a number for Jozy, but he's quick so it's probably around a 4.3. So what you give up in speed you have to make up in strength. TM7 and PP7 both would be insane (as would Sherman). They have the strength and the speed to get where they want when they want. I have to think TM7 would be one of the best soccer players we've ever seen had he grown up playing it, I say that because his football abilities are limited by his height ... in soccer that's not a limitation.
I just see someone as big as Lebron being extremely awkward playing soccer. Hell maybe, i really wish more top athletes would stick w soccer.
Man you making me gush over Lebron is turning my stomach, but just watch the guy athletically besides from a basketball point of view. He's not got the grace of Jordan or Kobe ... but he's very coordinated. He's already a master flopper so he's got half of soccer down They said he could play WR in football in high school ... so we know he can run routes, and the first season of the Big 3 before Wade transformed into the Tiny 1 you saw a lot of full court passing/vision between those two. All that kind of stuff would translate well into soccer acumen. But you gotta start soccer young ... and unless you're in Texas, or SoCal ... soccer isn't big. In Ohio they laugh at the poor kids who have to play a euro sport like soccer.
LeBron is the same height as Jimmy Graham. Being 6'8" hasn't hampered his football abilities. If fact Graham played college basketball at Miami and didn't play football. I suspect that LeBron would be great at just about any sport he tried with the possible exception of baseball. Being a great athlete doesn't always translate into the ability to hit a major league curve or fastball. Hakeem Olajuwon at 7 feet was considered a great soccer player in Nigeria before he came to this country. More top athletes are not going to stick with soccer until they can make as much money at soccer as they can at football and basketball.
