Fuck ... but that was a hell of an

[slag]

Yeah, he muscled through guys to set up the first one and score the second.

[TerpEagle]

No Crips in Antwerp.

I'm not a soccer fan, but I get it. Its just amazing to think that the US population is 30x larger, more resources and technology, but we we are outplayed by such a small population. If Howard doesn't stand on his head, that game would have been a blowout.

The issue is their best athletes eat, sleep, and drink soccer. Here, maybe Jackson and Peterson wouldn't be that good at soccer, but a third string college WR who decided to play football in HS might have been the next Messi.

Too bad we'll never know though because he chose to play football, baseball,e tc.

So even though the population here is so much larger on the whole, the actual talent pool - let along the pool of elite talent - is likely smaller and lacking in support.

[slag]

My point is that if blazing speedsters like Jackson or Devin Hester and fast powerful runners like NFL running backs ... and I DO mean NFL All-Pros, not 3d string college football players ... focused and worked to develop world-class technical soccer skills, we'd win some World Cups.

[slag]

PS - I'll tell you a story that illustrates this:

My wife has relatives from Argentina.

Their son attended grad school at UNC and stayed with us for a week just before he moved in there.

One morning I was standing in the kitchen with him waiting for the coffee maker to get done and my son, who was about 4 years old at the time walks in with a rubber baseball in his hand.

He threw it at our guest.

An American would catch that ball with his hand.

This guy?

He IMMEDIATELY moved his hands behind him, took the ball off his chest and "caught" it with his foot.

[TerpEagle]

My point is that if blazing speedsters like Jackson or Devin Hester and fast powerful runners like NFL running backs ... and I DO mean NFL All-Pros, not 3d string college football players ... focused and worked to develop world-class technical soccer skills, we'd win some World Cups.

I know and I don't dispute that. I'm just saying it's not just the players that are the best at American sports who prevent the US from competing with other nations at soccer.

There are likely numerous Americans who are mediocre to good at American sports but might be elite at soccer but never pursue it and therefore never realize their potential because their interest is, understandably, in playing American sports.

My point is that the population of the nation isn't what matters but rather the size of the available talent pool. And ours is small compared to most other countries. It's impressive that with that small talent pool, we still have teams that are competitive.

[Dim Bulb]

Maybe not everyone

Uh everyone in Belgium plays fucking soccer ... you think we'd have a better squad if Adrian Petersen, Shady McCoy and DeSean Jackson played the game?

[noguano]

They played great. Tim Howard was unbelievable. We may have lost, but that will go down as one of the greatest goal tending performances in World Cup history.

[slag]

He played soccer.

[Sect 236]

Uh everyone in Belgium plays fucking soccer ... you think we'd have a better squad if Adrian Petersen, Shady McCoy and DeSean Jackson played the game?

Could you imagine if Shady, with his start/stop and cutting ability grew up playing soccer? He'd do things that would make Messi say "wow."

[Dim Bulb]

He ate soccer balls

He played soccer.

And crapped the laces. Wait. There were no laces.