American soccer- lack of talent

[wilt the stilt]

William Rhoden article on soccer

until we get the African American athlete playing soccer we will only be okay. Soccer is basically a white kid suburban sport. not exactly your best athletes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/sports/soccer/29rhoden.html?partner=rss&emc=rss




Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, the sport faces two major challenges in the United States. The first is how to continue to attract great athletes.

Gulati said that a high-profile championship by the United States national team would, and still could, inspire young athletes to cast their lot with soccer.

“There are so many cases along the way in all sports when professional athletes say, ‘I was turned on because I saw this moment,’ whether it was Hank Aaron’s home run or Pelé’s bicycle kick,” Gulati said.

American soccer’s struggle to attract great talent is baffling because there are so many young people looking for something to do. The United States is one of the most powerful nations, one with phenomenal human resources.

[madinmaryland]

1. So the old meme about AA athletes being better physically the white athletes?

It's hard to believe this is being brought up.

Not blaming the OP, but the author of that artical.

[wilt the stilt]

2. if you don't think that the black athlete

is better you must not have played a lot of sports. I am almost 60. i played basketball until I was 46. I played against all types. I find it unacceptable that white kids in America have given up on basketball. The Europeans compete in the NBA. I copied my game after john Havlicek. I was an excellent defensive players and african americans hated when i guarded them in the half court. I was quick and I bodied them.
That being said they are just better athletes. you have too be a fool not to know that. Where are all the great white running backs in the NFL?

[Longhorn Liberal]

12. That is pure racist BS

No one ethnic group "are just better athletes" than any other. What are you going to say next, that whites are just better scientists and leaders?

I like to think the athletic disparity is caused by economic factors. The black kids growing up in Brazil, Europe, the United States, or where ever are simply hungrier to prove themselves than white kids are. Young white kids from the middle-class are told they can be anything, their options are wide-open, black kids living in poverty are told otherwise.

Where are the white running backs in the NFL? Where are the white running backs in college? In high school? In middle school? Let's look at the opposite side of that coin, where are all the black quarterbacks in every level of play? (Less of a problem recently but the position is still "white")

Positions are segregated from pee-wee on up. Blacks are receivers and running backs, whites are quarterbacks and linebackers. Fat kids are linemen. Everyone knows that. And so it is.

[wilt the stilt]

20. sure

funny thing is when I was playing a lot of Bball and 50% of the players were black they all thought the same thing. When you say that it is decided at the youth level who is going to be the running backs I think you are wrong about it being based on color.. It is based on speed. Every tryout has speed as a component of the tryout. I coached baseball for 8 seasons and speed was always one of the criteria. simple as that. As a matter of fact in tryouts of sports the fastest kids become the ends and the running backs.

My kids go Norcross H.S. in Georgia. The last 3 years we gave sent out Jodie Meeks(54 pts. with Kentucky) Ganie lawal( GT) and AlFariq Aminu with Wake Forset(ACC rookie of the year). I've attended almost every game.

Many years ago I was sitting with a guy at a baseball game where my brother was playing and he told me that sports in Georgia was professional. I didn't understand what he meant by that. Now that i have been involved in sports here I have I understand what he means. Kids are moved into sports at an extremely early age and the coaching and participation in unbelievable. The kids are "pros" from an early age.

As a matter of fact one of my best son's friends is a former NFL defensive back who played 12 years and was an all pro.
These kids are at my house everyday and slept over 2 days ago.

Don't you accuse me of being a racist I am Asian American and I lived through the sixties. My dad was from St. Louis and he wasn't even allowed to swim in the public pools in the thirties. so basically screw you as I have faced far more racism than any of you and when my parents tried to buy a house in the sixties they had to go to the bank of Harlem to get a mortgage as this was the only bank who would finance them

Before Jimmy the greek said what he said O.J. simpson said the same exact things in n interview in Rolling stone. OJ simply stated that Blacks were just better athletes for these particular sports.

Most of you guys just never played much sports is my conclusion.

[redqueen]

21. Address post 11, genius.

[wilt the stilt]

22. we don't attract our best athletes.

political correctness bullshit and what racism did you endure?

[redqueen]

23. *roffle*

What utter shite.

[wilt the stilt]

24. right

at what age did you stop playing sports and what African American friends do you have or are you a middle class white kid who grew up in the burb's? I grew up in the back of a laundry with the black neighborhood next to me.

[redqueen]

25. Oh the only races are black and white, is it?

I'm mixed race, since you think it matters so much.

Here's the real issue: what the hell has it got to do with soccer? :rofl:

Enjoy your nonsense, shit-stirrer... I'm out.

Well... maybe if you start talking about soccer I might get interested in this discussing this idiotic thread again. Maybe.

[wilt the stilt]

26. here mr. expert

who redefined moves in the NBA? any knowledgeable person knows that

[spoony]

16. Jimmy the Greek, is that you?

lol

[SKKY]

27. Ah, so when Steve Nash won Back-to-Back NBA MVP Awards...

...what was that? This Black v. White thing is silly in the extreme, and is a discussion best left to Spike Lee movies.

[redqueen]

3. Except that wasn't in the article... it was the OP's comment. (nt)

[redqueen]

4. There are plenty of black kids playing.

And that article is stupid. If the USMNT had won, it wouldn't magically make people like the sport. Sure it might inspire a few more people... but to parlay that into some kind of transformational moment for the sport as a whole in the US... bollocks.

[wilt the stilt]

5. not compared to basketball and football

[redqueen]

6. So... what... you think we should force them?

[wilt the stilt]

7. no

i just stated that until America can attract them we will only be ok.

[redqueen]

8. bollocks

[BulletproofLandshark]

11. How many blacks played for the Azzurri in 2006?

Exactly.

[madinmaryland]

9. The lack of talent in US Soccer is simple.

There is no interest in it. How much soccer is covered by the national broadcasting channels? Other than the major worldwide coverage, even ESPN doesn't give much coverage.

How do you keep kids interest in something like that, when they have no one to aspire to or any team to root for? There more coverage of symphony orchestras than there is soccer.

[redqueen]

10. What would really help is if the sport wasn't treated like a red-headed step child.

There is no justification for the Nationals getting their own stadium while DC United stays homeless.

That's a frickin insult is what that is. Shameful and idiotic.

[madinmaryland]

13. From my own personal experience, I had never seen a soccer game on

tv or had attended one. I didn't actually see a soccer game on tv until I was nearly 30, when espn (i think) started showing it, unless it was abc's wide world of sports. As a result, I am not really interested in soccer.

What I am saying, is that noone in this country has really had much exposure to soccer, and until people get exposure to soccer, it will never take off.

just saying.

[redqueen]

17. It's not about you.

DCU is one of the best teams in the MLS. The fans there love them, even if you don't care about them. They aren't "no one"s. There are thousands of fans, tens of thousands. If there was a stadium for them, the attendant buzz would draw even more in.

Giving a shit team like the Nationals a stadium while one of the best teams in the MLS stays homeless is fucking idiotic and indefensible.

[SKKY]

28. There's no interest in it, yet more kids play soccer than any other sport?

Hmmm. Interesting.

[Condem]

14. Until we get some African-American athletes interested in swimming..

..we're fucked. How bout hockey? Tennis? Yachting? Volleyball? Golf? Shut the fuck up, Rhoden.

[spoony]

15. Possibly the most ignorant thing I've read in the sports forum

And that's saying something. I'm sure it will come as a surprise to a number of the US team's players that they are, in fact, lame suburban white kids:

http://www.ussoccer.com/

[Ganja Ninja]

18. The real problem with talent development in American soccer is

that we don't have a structure the way European soccer does. We need a minor league for soccer. The high school-collegiate system we use to develop American football players isn't enough for soccer. How many college baseball players come out and go straight to the big leagues? The European's take their young players and develop them like we develop minor leaguers. It's a full time job that the young player is dedicated to from his early/mid teens. That coupled with the fact that we don't have as many well schooled and experienced coaches is our main problem. It really has very little to do with race.

[redqueen]

19. A relegation system would help too, IMO. (nt)

[SKKY]

29. STOP IT WITH THAT DAMN RELEGATION CRAP REDQUEEN!!!

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! :P

[redqueen]

30. Hahahaha... never!

In fact I just sent an e-mail about it to the USSF *and* a snail-mail letter to Mr. Gulati himself.

So there! :P