Wait are you saying Ronaldo is bigger than LeBron James?
Meanwhile in the real word
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2014/06/30/lebron-james-tops-worlds-most-powerful-athletes-2014/
edit: obviously I don't agree Mayweather>Ronaldo
Ronaldo is on the list.
Meanwhile in the real word
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2014/06/30/lebron-james-tops-worlds-most-powerful-athletes-2014/
edit: obviously I don't agree Mayweather>Ronaldo
A Forbes list that cites beats deals and shit :heh you sound like a 50 cent stan
American insecurity y'all :whew they even know Ronaldo earns more and gets more love on social media :umad
Fuck stats, I'm talking physically Lebron is Godzilla and Ronaldo is a woman.Perhaps but I'll tell ya this. Lebron is 5 times the athlete Ronaldo is, and that's not even up for debate.
Sure, if you want to go by combine stats or some shit. I don't care.
Ronaldo will have a longer and more lasting impact on his sport than Bron. Bron has already been on the decline. He wont win another ring. Meanwhile Ronaldo has more titles under his belt, is about to hit 30 and shows little sign of slowing down. Deservedly won player of the year too. Is that gonna happen with Bron Bron this year? For sure
American insecurity :yeshrug
:umad :kobeyuck I don't judge men or athletes by their bodies butspoiler (click to show/hide)(http://www.stayfitbug.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/christiano-ronaldo.jpg)[close]
Again, great soccer player. Mediocre athlete in any other sport at best.
Lebron: Best Basketball player, could have NFL career, etc......
Besides here in the states more people would recognize Messi :yeshrug
plus didn't I hear Messi crumbles in big games? That's certainly LeBron-esque.
(http://i.imgur.com/rVtN8WL.png)
plus didn't I hear Messi crumbles in big games? That's certainly LeBron-esque.
(http://i.imgur.com/rVtN8WL.png)
Meh, in my opinion soccer is 60% who much your owner can pay to buy players, 35% luck, and 5% skill..which makes it must equivalent to baseball in my book.
Watching the world cup was like dribbling hot liquid into my eyes.
Meh, in my opinion soccer is 60% who much your owner can pay to buy players, 35% luck, and 5% skill..which makes it must equivalent to baseball in my book.
Watching the world cup was like dribbling hot liquid into my eyes.
Your opinion doesn't mean shit. Here's a fact; Soccer is the only sport in the world where if you want a chance to be decent you have to go to dedicated school (academy) for it and work on your skills from a young age. No fucking around at AAU, no Nike camps, no chilling at college and getting your dick sucked at the drop of a hat for being a starter. you have to join an army and clamber your way through it to the top or you get shitcanned. and even then you might not make first team at a good club. That's how skill and performance demanding soccer is.
:umad
Sorry dude, Esch got you on that one, international football isn't easy
Mmm'kay because you're right, I did nothing at college but get my dick sucked. I mean practice and go to school? Nah. Working out 6 days a week, dealing with injuries, etc....hell no it was straight getting my D hoovered 24/7.
Get right the fuck out with that bullshit. :ufup
Not saying you didn't work hard or didn't deserve your spot. but you had things academy players dont: you could live a normal teen life and shit. Imagine being scouted at age 4-6 and then basically taken off to a sports monastery that's part of a pro team, and if you dont succeed you literally wasted 10-20+ years of your life. You graduated with a degree and education. A failed academy player has nothing. It's like signing a pro contract with no salary when you're 6. but if you don't get that skill development you can't succeed.
Ask Wrath / Death Ghidorah. He got an offer as a kid when he was young for the AS Roma academy and his brother got one for Arsenal. But they had to turn it down because of the risk and low level of reward.
Or you can read about it yourself, this is one of the world's best academies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Meh, in my opinion soccer is 60% who much your owner can pay to buy players, 35% luck, and 5% skill..which makes it must equivalent to baseball in my book.
Watching the world cup was like dribbling hot liquid into my eyes.
Your opinion doesn't mean shit. Here's a fact; Soccer is the only sport in the world where if you want a chance to be decent you have to go to dedicated school (academy) for it and work on your skills from a young age. No fucking around at AAU, no Nike camps, no chilling at college and getting your dick sucked at the drop of a hat for being a starter. you have to join an army and clamber your way through it to the top or you get shitcanned. and even then you might not make first team at a good club. That's how skill and performance demanding soccer is.
Meh, in my opinion soccer is 60% who much your owner can pay to buy players, 35% luck, and 5% skill..which makes it must equivalent to baseball in my book.
Watching the world cup was like dribbling hot liquid into my eyes.
Your opinion doesn't mean shit. Here's a fact; Soccer is the only sport in the world where if you want a chance to be decent you have to go to dedicated school (academy) for it and work on your skills from a young age. No fucking around at AAU, no Nike camps, no chilling at college and getting your dick sucked at the drop of a hat for being a starter. you have to join an army and clamber your way through it to the top or you get shitcanned. and even then you might not make first team at a good club. That's how skill and performance demanding soccer is.
That seems more an issue of public infrastructure than anything else. The US has countless high schools with the money to support top notch football programs, especially in the south and midwest. States like Alabama, Iowa, Ohio, etc become farming systems for college programs. Countries in South America simply don't have the money to support a similar system so it's more centralized. Same applies to much of Europe.
Top notch football programs work on skills from a young age too. I'm sure AiA can attest to that. If you're an o-line prospect in Iowa you're going to have a variety of things drilled into you from 8th to 12th grade, and your skill determines whether you go to a legit HS or a regular one.
Like I said, not saying you didn't work your ass off or getting in via the NCAA route isn't tough . It's this part:QuoteHowever the degree you earn is worth well more than the career you may have post college. And what worries me about the 99% who never play professionally in soccer....what happens next? You are undereducated and washed up.....how many resort to drugs/die early? That's what I want to know.
that makes the prospect of even trying to become a pro soccer player terrifying.
But it's better than the NCAA system as far as skill development and player creation as far as soccer goes.. Its one of the reasons pro soccer players from the USA fail to make the cut. They don't have the touch or the cultivated vision. They just started playing 10 month seasons, etc.
That seems more an issue of public infrastructure than anything else. The US has countless high schools with the money to support top notch football programs, especially in the south and midwest. States like Alabama, Iowa, Ohio, etc become farming systems for college programs. Countries in South America simply don't have the money to support a similar system so it's more centralized. Same applies to much of Europe.
Top notch football programs work on skills from a young age too. I'm sure AiA can attest to that. If you're an o-line prospect in Iowa you're going to have a variety of things drilled into you from 8th to 12th grade.
Nope. south america and Africa have academies too. Plenty of them turn out good talent too; Santos, River Plate, Mimosas etc.
NCAA and college soccer players aren't good enough. which is why the first generations of american academy products are starting to get taken seriously abroad (DeAndre Yedlin, Agudelo, etc). And all MLS clubs are in the process of making academies.
preemptive :umadI don't know who they are. :yeshrug
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/16be7fae7461530ed360912408d80f1ec14bd929.jpg)
I was gonna say, high major programs work pretty similarly. Career ending injury, unless this is your final year were pulling your scholarship. You aren't panning out as a prospect, we have 3 guys coming in next year so you're 'suggested' to transfer.QuoteHowever the degree you earn is worth well more than the career you may have post college. And what worries me about the 99% who never play professionally in soccer....what happens next? You are undereducated and washed up.....how many resort to drugs/die early? That's what I want to know.Although to be honest a big school like Michigan or Texas would do the same thing. Oh you're hurt and out for a year? We have 5 guys coming in, have a great life.
i can't see the US allowing an academy to pull a kid out of schooling at age 8 though? I mean it's a great thing because I'm a proud guy and want to see American's go dominate internationally....I just think we don't allow this to happen on the level required.
they get actual schooling at the academies in the mornings too lol. Like graduating a shitty, easy high school.
And yeah it is necessary. Not just to see Americans do well in the big 3 leagues, but also to raise the talent pool in MLS. For every kid that graduates from the LA Galaxy academy and doesn't play in a big league he might go to MLS, then retire and do local youth coaching (which is super flawed in America and one of our biggest problems in the sport)
,Imagine being scouted at age 4-6 and then basically taken off to a sports monastery that's part of a pro team, and if you dont succeed you literally wasted 10-20+ years of your life. You graduated with a degree and education. A failed academy player has nothing. It's like signing a pro contract with no salary when you're 6. but if you don't get that skill development you can't succeed.
QuoteHowever the degree you earn is worth well more than the career you may have post college. And what worries me about the 99% who never play professionally in soccer....what happens next? You are undereducated and washed up.....how many resort to drugs/die early? That's what I want to know.
that makes the prospect of even trying to become a pro soccer player terrifying.
That seems more an issue of public infrastructure than anything else. The US has countless high schools with the money to support top notch football programs, especially in the south and midwest. States like Alabama, Iowa, Ohio, etc become farming systems for college programs. Countries in South America simply don't have the money to support a similar system so it's more centralized. Same applies to much of Europe.
Top notch football programs work on skills from a young age too. I'm sure AiA can attest to that. If you're an o-line prospect in Iowa you're going to have a variety of things drilled into you from 8th to 12th grade.
Nope. south america and Africa have academies too. Plenty of them turn out good talent too; Santos, River Plate, Mimosas etc.
NCAA and college soccer players aren't good enough. which is why the first generations of american academy products are starting to get taken seriously abroad (DeAndre Yedlin, Agudelo, etc). And all MLS clubs are in the process of making academies.
It's quite different for US basketball btw. Kobe Bryant made a great point recently about AAU ruining US players from a young age, where athleticism>skill. LeBron is very skilled now but it's clear he could have used some skill refining in HS or college (if he had gone). Whereas Kobe spent years in European basketball camps before coming to the US for high school and dominating. D
So basically you just reiterated what I said: the issue isn't the NCAA, it's the lack of serious and accessible soccer programs during developmental years.I'm not talking about the NCAA. I'm talking about HS development of talent. It's simply a fact that the US has better public infrastructure and funding in those regards breh. There are academies in South America and Africa but surely you must admit that a poor kid in the US would have easier access to a top HS football program than a poor kid in Brazil does getting into a top academy.
The problem with US soccer has nothing to do with the NCAA, it has to do with HS. There just isn't a serious enough focus on it in this country, and there isn't a farming system like there is for football in the south, midwest, etc. I'd expect this to change as soccer becomes more popular, but they're simply too far behind football to catch up in the long term. HS/state budgets are limited and have no incentive not to focus on football over soccer.
If I had to bet I'd say the west coast has the best chance of beginning the process of farming soccer talent. Texas makes sense on paper (immigration) but football dominates the state too much.
Actually Brazil is seen as a nonsensical outlier as far as exploiting their talent. for their per capita punch they fight waaaay above their weight. they get kids playing Futsal and shit at early ages etc. You would have had a better pick with some outlier minor country in the sport, something like Nicaragua.
Lmao you don't know what the problem is with american soccer breh, you don't watch it or read about it at ANY level. So stop. :neogaf why would you even try this?
Actually there is a very serious attitude toward youth soccer here, and high levels of participation . The problem is that its completely ass backwards. Coaches focus on results rather than tactics and technique. There's a high cost of entry into select programs. In other countries pro academies privately foot those costs instead of parents and the state. And the scouting game is nuts. you also have to realize that domestic and euro clubs have scouts in every country looking for talent. Even here. That's how Haji Wright is in Germany with Schalke and Gedion Zelalem got picked up for Arsenal. Even though they were playing high school or us academy ball.
oh my fucking god dude.
Kobe had a more complete game coming into the league. LeBron developed his game over the years and became what he is now; dude is a way better shooter and dribbler now than he was as a rookie. LeBron's talent was more athleticism than skill at the time. This isn't Kobe v LeBron antics, I'm talking about skill development and the difference between AAU and Europe.
Compare Dwight Howard to just about any good Euro or 1-2yr college big man. Skill wise. Howard got by thanks to height and athleticism, now he's in the NBA with a ceiling due to not having a post game.
So it's the HS development system and the NCAA.
So it's the HS development system and the NCAA.
Esch can say that but the real truth is soccer just isn't that popular in the USA. If we loved soccer like we love football/basketball we'd already be world cup contender.
So it's the HS development system and the NCAA.
Esch can say that but the real truth is soccer just isn't that popular in the USA. If we loved soccer like we love football/basketball we'd already be world cup contender.
Soccer is very popular here. There just isn't an infrastructure in place for it to thrive and develop talent. And by infrastructure I mean scouting, top HS programs, the academies Esch spoke of, etc. All that shit exists for football instead, and it'll remain that way until there's a financial incentive for schools to shift.
agassidude smashed Brooke Shields. clearly, tennis >>>>
I prefer Messi simply because dude seems more relate-able to me. Dude just looks like he rode the short bus as a kid. Not saying I rode the short bus but I feel we'd have more in common, whereas Ronaldo seems like a pretty boy asshole.