Dr_thri11 t1_ixgtzyg wrote on November 23, 2022 at 9:50 AM

Reply to comment by Dr0110111001101111 in Supermarket Rewe drops ads with German soccer association over armbands row by fattyfoods

The amount of time and effort elite basketball and baseball players put into their sport is pretty similar with camps and summer leagues. Football is a bit different because it's so physical so playing more than the standard season would wreck your body, though the guys bound for D1 programs certainly start working out like it in highschool.

Dr0110111001101111 t1_ixguxd1 wrote on November 23, 2022 at 10:03 AM

I agree that American soccer players train/develop similar to how American baseball/basketball players develop. The difference is that there are far fewer countries that have as much interest in those sports, so america can stand out better. Soccer is far more universal, so you have something closer to uniform exposure over the whole world.

With that said, look at a team like the Yankees. Only about half of them are actually American. Japan took the gold in the 2020 olympics. Don't confuse the MLB's ability to import talent with the notion that this country produces superior baseball players. Baseball would be unrecognizable without central america.

Dr_thri11 t1_ixgvc7l wrote on November 23, 2022 at 10:09 AM

Can you see how having 4 other sports and soccer being a very distant 4th places siphons off the elite athletes though. You can't tell me that a country of 330 million wouldn't consistently field a better team than most of Europe and South America if it was far and away the most popular sport. But it's not, it's been kind of an afterthought the most elite athletes in the US have 4 other sports they tend to pick first.

Dr0110111001101111 t1_ixgx182 wrote on November 23, 2022 at 10:34 AM

I definitely think it would make us far more competitive, but I definitely wouldn’t assume that would guarantee elite status just because of population size.

You made a great example with Uruguay. Tiny country, consistently competitive. Meanwhile soccer is huge in India (compared to USA) but they rarely even get a team to qualify.