A few years ago there was a big concern about concussions/head butting when it came to soccer and adolescents. Not sure what became of that movement.

At any rate, once the World Cup is finished the world will reset itself at least in the USA.

Sid Farkas said:

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Soccer just isn't embedded in American culture like it is in most of the rest of the world. Football and basketball aren't skill sports the way soccer and say baseball are. (You can't just decide to pick up soccer or baseball or golf at a later age, and esp in a place where the skillset isn't endemic in the culture).

You gotta start young, live the sport (the way we do fb. hoops and baseball), and have intense competition all around you. Traditionally our male soccer players are college boys and not barrio-bred soccer heads. Our athletes living in lower class strata live in a hoops & fb culture. Except for a few latin american neighborhoods, there isnt a whiff of soccer till you get out to the burbs.

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Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Johnny Manziel and Tom Brady disagree.

Tone2002 said:

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A few years ago there was a big concern about concussions/head butting when it came to soccer and adolescents. Not sure what became of that movement.

At any rate, once the World Cup is finished the world will reset itself at least in the USA.

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I'm not 100% sure how widespread it was, but I do know that several leagues banned players under a certain age from using their heads to play the ball, in an attempt to mitigate those risks. Surprised me when I went to watch my nephew play and the referee blew his whistle on what I thought was a completely innocuous header.

In my experience, youth soccer trainers aren't immune to choosing fast, physical kids over smaller ones who may have better skill with the ball at their feet.

The thinking, of course, is that the fast kid will eventually gain the needed skill, but the slower, smaller kid will never be fast or big.

Unfortunately, the kids who mature early often lack the discipline to really work at a sport like soccer because their speed and size keep them on the top teams regardless of how they develop.

It was a given that our club's last teams were populated by kids who were born late in their age group, while the top teams were typically born in the first three months. If you spend your whole youth career on the top team with the best trainers and best competition, you're likely gonna come out on top.

Just another POV.

Pacifico said:

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Sid Farkas said:

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Soccer just isn't embedded in American culture like it is in most of the rest of the world. Football and basketball aren't skill sports the way soccer and say baseball are. (You can't just decide to pick up soccer or baseball or golf at a later age, and esp in a place where the skillset isn't endemic in the culture).

You gotta start young, live the sport (the way we do fb. hoops and baseball), and have intense competition all around you. Traditionally our male soccer players are college boys and not barrio-bred soccer heads. Our athletes living in lower class strata live in a hoops & fb culture. Except for a few latin american neighborhoods, there isnt a whiff of soccer till you get out to the burbs.

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Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Johnny Manziel and Tom Brady disagree.

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I said "the way soccer and baseball are"...but I'll engage..I'll grant you QB. That's it. otoh, fb and hoops are littered with guys who decided to play in late youth just because they're big and/or run fast.

Not a chance anyone does that in soccer or baseball - with perhaps one exception: soccer goal tender.

Edit: Mike Evans didnt play football till Sr year in HS

He didn't play high school football until senior year, but he'd been involved in football for years before that.

But yeah, soccer is very specifically a skill sport that requires a lot more fine combined fine and gross motor skills than football, baseball, and basketball. Basketball might be the most comparable, but soccer is more fluid and played on a much larger field.

I absolutely despise how much I love Jameis nowadays. He’s the best and I hate it. pic.twitter.com/pjcPrrtMO8

— AU_Propaganda (@AuPropaganda) June 20, 2026

Im old enough to remember the controversy over his college visits and his crab legs.


Now…dude is nailing this World Cup and will be an outstanding sports correspondent soon.

Jameis has found his calling.

I'm on Team Jameis.

Looked genuinely motivated

#usaskrong

Sid Farkas said:

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Jameis has found his calling.

I'm on Team Jameis.

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hes got alot o marcus spears in him. Infectious personality

EclipseAg said:

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In my experience, youth soccer trainers aren't immune to choosing fast, physical kids over smaller ones who may have better skill with the ball at their feet.

The thinking, of course, is that the fast kid will eventually gain the needed skill, but the slower, smaller kid will never be fast or big.

Unfortunately, the kids who mature early often lack the discipline to really work at a sport like soccer because their speed and size keep them on the top teams regardless of how they develop.

It was a given that our club's last teams were populated by kids who were born late in their age group, while the top teams were typically born in the first three months. If you spend your whole youth career on the top team with the best trainers and best competition, you're likely gonna come out on top.

Just another POV.

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This is covered in depth as it relates to Ice Hockey in Malcolm Gladwell's book - Outliers

Sid Farkas said:

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YouBet said:

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Sid Farkas said:

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It's hard to hate Australia, but I'm pulling it off...

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On the contrary, they are a far-left wing totalitarian state. I find them easy to hate.

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yeahbut they gave the world AC/DC.

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Australia was successful at launching the Rock and Roll career of some Scottish immigrants. Bagpipes and all.

Martin Cash said:

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2 goals in the first half? What an offensive explosion!

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Not so fast my friend.

One of the goals was an "own goal" by Australia.

HollywoodBQ said:

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EclipseAg said:

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In my experience, youth soccer trainers aren't immune to choosing fast, physical kids over smaller ones who may have better skill with the ball at their feet.

The thinking, of course, is that the fast kid will eventually gain the needed skill, but the slower, smaller kid will never be fast or big.

Unfortunately, the kids who mature early often lack the discipline to really work at a sport like soccer because their speed and size keep them on the top teams regardless of how they develop.

It was a given that our club's last teams were populated by kids who were born late in their age group, while the top teams were typically born in the first three months. If you spend your whole youth career on the top team with the best trainers and best competition, you're likely gonna come out on top.

Just another POV.

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This is covered in depth as it relates to Ice Hockey in Malcolm Gladwell's book - Outliers

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Yeah, good point. Reading that book is what made me begin looking at birth years at our club years ago.

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American youth soccer over-selects the big, fast, early-maturing kid. It under-develops the smaller, more skilled, later maturing one.

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This is my nephew. He's an elite player comparatively speaking but has always been smaller than other players on the field. His advantage is that he has a borderline genius IQ and has elite technical skills for his age. Averages like 3-4 goals per game whenever he's on the field. Pretty absurd. He's playing on some FC Dallas feeder club team and commutes to Dallas 3x per week from east Texas.

However, he's lately gotten really into golf and may quit playing soccer to play golf. Will be kind of a shame if he does but it's his life. He's actually driving 10 hours out to see me with my brother to get some extra golf clubs I no longer use so he's pretty damn serous about it.

YouBet said:

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Quote:

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American youth soccer over-selects the big, fast, early-maturing kid. It under-develops the smaller, more skilled, later maturing one.

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This is my nephew. He's an elite player comparatively speaking but has always been smaller than other players on the field. His advantage is that he has a borderline genius IQ and has elite technical skills for his age. Averages like 3-4 goals per game whenever he's on the field. Pretty absurd. He's playing on some FC Dallas feeder club team and commutes to Dallas 3x per week from east Texas.

However, he's lately gotten really into golf and may quit playing soccer to play golf. Will be kind of a shame if he does but it's his life. He's actually driving 10 hours out to see me with my brother to get some extra golf clubs I no longer use so he's pretty damn serous about it.

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My nephew is similar, He's attacking all the time when he's on the pitch and fears nothing, but hasn't shown interest in golf since we introduced it to him.

You know that the positive attention that the men's team is getting is just killing Rapinoe.

K2-HMFIC said:

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I absolutely despise how much I love Jameis nowadays. He’s the best and I hate it. pic.twitter.com/pjcPrrtMO8

— AU_Propaganda (@AuPropaganda) June 20, 2026

Im old enough to remember the controversy over his college visits and his crab legs.


Now…dude is nailing this World Cup and will be an outstanding sports correspondent soon.

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I guess soccer makes rapists cool

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However, he's lately gotten really into golf and may quit playing soccer to play golf. Will be kind of a shame if he does but it's his life.

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When he's older with a real job in the world he's going to get more deals and things done on a golf course than he ever would on a soccer field.

Golf is the absolute best and most important sport you can teach a child.

ts5641 said:

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The patriotism surrounding the US men's team and the the 250th celebration is going to break the left. Absolute horror for them to see people celebrating America.

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why are you so miserable?

BMX Bandit said:

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Interesting perspective

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The "Best Athletes" Myth Is a Lie. Here's America's Real Soccer Problem.

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https://t.co/x9E06LGrxP

— Paul Spacey ⚽️ (@PaulSpacey) June 13, 2026

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I have seen others make these arguments and I have seen a lot of people lean on the "Messi is 5'7" deal when trying to refute the idea other sports poaching athletes limits our ability to compete in soccer.

Erling Haaland is 6'4, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is 6'5, Cristiano Ronaldo is 6'1, Virgil van Dijik is 6'4...most soccer players are closer to 5'10 to 6'0, rather than tiny like Messi.

It is odd to me how much people push back on the idea that if soccer were bigger here and we were driving better athletes and resources into the sport, we would perform better...it seems pretty obvious to me.

That isn't to say that any exceptional athlete could have pivoted to soccer and been a star, but I have a hard time believing if you took Anthony Edwards, Tyreek Hill, Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, and every other elite athlete with a build that could work for soccer none of them would turn out to be exceptional

8 year old grandson scored 7 goals in one game!

USMNT's biggest issue over the years has been skill with the ball and creativity without it, not athleticism or speed.

The same issues traditionally holding back our team would shackle NFL-quality guys, even if they had grown up training and playing soccer.

As others have mentioned, in many ways it's a cultural thing in that our young players don't live with a ball at their feet.

EclipseAg said:

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USMNT's biggest issue over the years has been skill with the ball and creativity without it, not athleticism or speed.

The same issues traditionally holding back our team would shackle NFL-quality guys, even if they had grown up training and playing soccer.

As others have mentioned, in many ways it's a cultural thing in that our young players don't live with a ball at their feet.

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Good way to put it.

Haaland is good solely because he is built close to what an NFL receiver is built like. He's hard for them to handle, with little ball skills to speak of, at 6'4" 200 pounds and a 23 mph top speed. That's just an average mph for top NFL receivers when you account for the fact they have pads on. Nico Collins would be able to duplicate what Haaland does easily had he played soccer for the last 20 years. Haaland already doesn't do much but run fast and bully his way in.
Striker and defender have low barriers for entry. Some of the other positions out there need more creativity and awareness.
Messi is like the Altuve of soccer. He is a rare exception.

YouBet said:

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Quote:

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American youth soccer over-selects the big, fast, early-maturing kid. It under-develops the smaller, more skilled, later maturing one.

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This is my nephew. He's an elite player comparatively speaking but has always been smaller than other players on the field. His advantage is that he has a borderline genius IQ and has elite technical skills for his age. Averages like 3-4 goals per game whenever he's on the field. Pretty absurd. He's playing on some FC Dallas feeder club team and commutes to Dallas 3x per week from east Texas.

However, he's lately gotten really into golf and may quit playing soccer to play golf. Will be kind of a shame if he does but it's his life. He's actually driving 10 hours out to see me with my brother to get some extra golf clubs I no longer use so he's pretty damn serous about it.

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Or… maybe he just really likes his uncle YouBet.

Ha. That would be even better.

HidalgoCounty said:

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Haaland is good solely because he is built close to what an NFL receiver is built like. He's hard for them to handle, with little ball skills to speak of, at 6'4" 200 pounds and a 23 mph top speed. That's just an average mph for top NFL receivers when you account for the fact they have pads on. Nico Collins would be able to duplicate what Haaland does easily had he played soccer for the last 20 years. Haaland already doesn't do much but run fast and bully his way in.
Striker and defender have low barriers for entry. Some of the other positions out there need more creativity and awareness.
Messi is like the Altuve of soccer. He is a rare exception.

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JFC this is a terrible take yes Haaland made it be one of the best strikers in the whole word with poor ball skills....only on texags.

No in hell would Nico Collins be the top premier league goals if you just dropped him in..Goodness

🚨The USA and Iran COULD play each other in the round of 16 of the World Cup pic.twitter.com/w7n4Lvklb9

— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) June 21, 2026

If there is a god…please let this match up happen…

It was great to see the whole crowd at Lumen Field join in singing the national anthem.

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Nor do I. It's implicit.

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I mean you watch football. The QB sticks his hand up another man's ass to grab his ball.

Too boring to watch. 1-0, 0-0 games. People scream when a ball is kicked and the players flop when someone barely touches them. smh. I'll cheer for America though.