OT: If soccer was the #1 sport in USA

[Anti Chalmers]

How good would we be? Considering all the top athletes would grow up to play soccer instead of basketball/football.

[Patches Perry]

Given the training resources available in this country, probably in the top 3-5 and arguably the best at times.

The USA isn't inherently superior, so just because we put effort and focus into it, doesn't mean we're automatically going to be the best. Other countries have been putting effort and focus into it for decades, so at best we could catch up to them. I think it's kind of lame to think that if we just started trying we would be the best at a sport that the rest of the world has been putting blood, sweat and tears into for decades. Not so fast.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

The best

[Triples333]

Just having the athletes is not enough. We need to develop the culture and systems that go along with being a consistently top side. 8 year old French kids will absolutely wipe the floor with most 12 year olds in the states (trust me, I've witnessed it 1st hand). It's not an athleticism thing.

[Tiesto_Lakers]

Realistically they’d be #1. USA has more facilities than anyone.

And I’m not even American.

[ChartFiction]

Probably the best or among the best considering our sports culture, our population, and our resources.

[bringinhinkie]

the youth system in america is a **** show.. as is HS..

but obviously nothing stopping that from changing.. could easily bring in any caliber of coaches/training systems, etc

the women's team is always legit .. and yea, if it was the #1 sport, USA Men would obviously be super legit.. Football is literally religion in some states

[Hellcrooner]

How good would we be? Considering all the top athletes would grow up to play soccer instead of basketball/football.

not very good unless us soccer league would adopt the same rules and traits that the rest of the world does.

promotion and relegation, vertical divisions, no max salarys, no salary cap , free market, every little town has its pro team even if its in a lowly division and etc etc.

and even then it would be difficutl for them to get the best players in the world in their prime to get to compete in the us league, because tradition makes it more paltable to play in spain, england, germany, italy and play the champions league.

if us league does not have the best players usa players dont get to play against top competition and thus they dont become a legit threat in the world cup.


anyway usa soccer has come a long way from being awfull to being a top 30/40 team in the world.

it can improve.

But it will take time and of course as i said adopting " rest of the wolrd" rules in their national league.

obviously if im a father and see that my son has some soccer talent and has no football/baseball/bsket talent im sending him abroad to Europe or SOuthamerica ASAP so he can develop said talent.

[cl2117]

We'd easily be among the best. It's the sheer size of the country along with the fact that we're a melting pot that would give us an advantage over smaller nations.

The hardest part would be digging back out from years of not prioritizing it as a sport and building the right culture etc., but if you're asking where the US would rank had soccer always been the #1 sport in the USA, the answer is unequivocally among the best of the best.

[samfisher83]

All the guys from 5'5-6 should probably trying to play soccer. Those guys don't have a good chance in the NBA, NFL or even the mlb so I don't know if we would be any better.

[Alfred]

They'd probably be the best. They have the most money, a large population and a track record of dominance in international sports competitions like the Olympics.

[Hellcrooner]

We'd easily be among the best. It's the sheer size of the country along with the fact that we're a melting pot that would give us an advantage over smaller nations.

The hardest part would be digging back out from years of not prioritizing it as a sport and building the right culture etc., but if you're asking where the US would rank had soccer always been the #1 sport in the USA, the answer is unequivocally among the best of the best.

The sheer size/population of a contry does jack when related to soccer.
CHina sucks.
India Sucks.
Indonesia Sucks.

WHilst Belgium or Netherlands are frankly good.

And ICELAND is actually becoming a good team.
ICeland.

300mil inhabitnts or something like that.

[Michael Lucky]

Just having the athletes is not enough. We need to develop the culture and systems that go along with being a consistently top side. 8 year old French kids will absolutely wipe the floor with most 12 year olds in the states (trust me, I've witnessed it 1st hand). It's not an athleticism thing.

From first hand experience this is absolutely true. Moved from Belgium to the US when I was 11. I absolutely dominated on the soccer field at that age here. It was shocking at how bad the on ball skills were for kids that age here. Something I could never do in Belgium.

[LeMasta]

It will take a several years before they become one of the best.

[cl2117]

We'd easily be among the best. It's the sheer size of the country along with the fact that we're a melting pot that would give us an advantage over smaller nations.

The hardest part would be digging back out from years of not prioritizing it as a sport and building the right culture etc., but if you're asking where the US would rank had soccer always been the #1 sport in the USA, the answer is unequivocally among the best of the best.

The sheer size/population of a contry does jack when related to soccer.
CHina sucks.
India Sucks.
Indonesia Sucks.

WHilst Belgium or Netherlands are frankly good.

And ICELAND is actually becoming a good team.
ICeland.

300mil inhabitnts or something like that.

You skipped the second part about how we are also a melting pot. We have Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, Belgians, Dutch, French, Nigerians, Australians etc. Not only do we have a ton of people, but we have incredibly diverse people which gives us the best cross-section to create a team.

That's why I said in the 2nd paragraph the hardest thing for us to overcome would be the years not prioritizing the sport and building the necessary culture to turn that talent into a wining team.

[Oscar9992]

Genetics are big part of being good in Soccer... Northern Countries will never be good enough in Soccer.

Brazilians, Argentinians, Spaniards, Germans etc. are always be a top Soccer countries, as they have 'genetics' to play it very well.

Chinese, Indians, Scandinavians, Northern Americans, Russians, most of Brits & White French etc. will never play soccer very well with few exceptions.

[ChartFiction]

We'd easily be among the best. It's the sheer size of the country along with the fact that we're a melting pot that would give us an advantage over smaller nations.

The hardest part would be digging back out from years of not prioritizing it as a sport and building the right culture etc., but if you're asking where the US would rank had soccer always been the #1 sport in the USA, the answer is unequivocally among the best of the best.

The sheer size/population of a contry does jack when related to soccer.
CHina sucks.
India Sucks.
Indonesia Sucks.

WHilst Belgium or Netherlands are frankly good.

And ICELAND is actually becoming a good team.
ICeland.

300mil inhabitnts or something like that.

The whole point of the thread is if soccer became the number one sport in America. It isn’t the number one sport in any of the countries you listed, not to mention our sports culture is much bigger than those countries. Obviously population matters.

[Triples333]

Just having the athletes is not enough. We need to develop the culture and systems that go along with being a consistently top side. 8 year old French kids will absolutely wipe the floor with most 12 year olds in the states (trust me, I've witnessed it 1st hand). It's not an athleticism thing.

From first hand experience this is absolutely true. Moved from Belgium to the US when I was 11. I absolutely dominated on the soccer field at that age here. It was shocking at how bad the on ball skills were for kids that age here. Something I could never do in Belgium.

Oh yeah, not to humble-brag but I was in the top 1-3% both as an athlete and a soccer player in the states. But I'm also multi-national and a French citizen who would spend summers in France often trying to get better. They were just degrees of separation better from a fundamental understanding of the game/team-dynamic along with all the nuanced techniques on-ball. Every year was me crushing in the states, then going there and being completely humbled by kids who were almost always smaller and slower than me.

[ciueli]

It will never happen. We have better sports than soccer here, that's why it's not that popular:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/soccer-corrupt-hyper-regulated-low-scoring-boring/#slide-1

[donnieme]

Easily one of the best and I'm not even from the US. You can even see it from how they apply advanced X and Os on their freekicks that they'd be tactically superior to most nations. Let's not even talk about it from an athletic standpoint. Best athletic pool on earth. One misconception Americans do have is that soccer athletes should look like NFL players which is wrong. The game is played on the ground and favors players with a lower center of gravity and endurance athletes.

Don't think they'd monopolize all the trophies though. It's not like the NBA where the best team always wins. One loss on a bad day and you could be out of a tournament.