Biggest World Cup Overachievers

[Unregistered]

Hopefully you'll find these numbers entertaining! How does a country of three million, less than the state of Oregon, put together a world class national team yet we complain incessantly that soccer is all about numbers and OR can't compete nationally because we're too small!

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data...-cup-countries

[Unregistered]

Careful now, you are sure to get lash back from the people who find comfort in their excuses. Would hate to admit that the youth soccer model here, and a majority of the coaches that lead it, are actually HURTING more than helping. Nope, that would just make too many people feel uncomfortable.

Good find, though. Truth hurts.

[Unregistered]

Careful now, you are sure to get lash back from the people who find comfort in their excuses. Would hate to admit that the youth soccer model here, and a majority of the coaches that lead it, are actually HURTING more than helping. Nope, that would just make too many people feel uncomfortable.

Good find, though. Truth hurts.

Tough to be down there at the bottom with Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico. That said, the accomplishments of some of the smaller countries, for example Switzerland which has only 200,000 registered male players, is truly impressive. There are good arguments to be made that vast countries have their own difficulties in locating the best players for a team because it's so diffuse. Big countries like Germany and Brazil can make more mistakes than we can because they have way more good players.

[Unregistered]

Tough to be down there at the bottom with Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico. That said, the accomplishments of some of the smaller countries, for example Switzerland which has only 200,000 registered male players, is truly impressive. There are good arguments to be made that vast countries have their own difficulties in locating the best players for a team because it's so diffuse. Big countries like Germany and Brazil can make more mistakes than we can because they have way more good players.

Winning games vs developing players.

College vs academies

Money hungry entities vs inclusive ideals

Parent ignorance involvement vs stfu

Poor training practices vs 50 years of knowing how to train

More games vs less games

[Unregistered]

Winning games vs developing players.

College vs academies

Money hungry entities vs inclusive ideals

Parent ignorance involvement vs stfu

Poor training practices vs 50 years of knowing how to train

More games vs less games

Vodka vs tequila

[Unregistered]

Tough to be down there at the bottom with Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico. That said, the accomplishments of some of the smaller countries, for example Switzerland which has only 200,000 registered male players, is truly impressive. There are good arguments to be made that vast countries have their own difficulties in locating the best players for a team because it's so diffuse. Big countries like Germany and Brazil can make more mistakes than we can because they have way more good players.

So why do Germany and Brazil have "way more good players"? How did they afford themselves this large margin of error?

[Unregistered]

title misleading

Hopefully you'll find these numbers entertaining! How does a country of three million, less than the state of Oregon, put together a world class national team yet we complain incessantly that soccer is all about numbers and OR can't compete nationally because we're too small!

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data...-cup-countries

this is getting nit-picky i know, but the title should read biggest overacheivers according to fifa rank or points. not at the World Cup. england is ahead of us by fifa rank, but they have 0 points at the world cup, so they can't possibly be rated as higher achievers than USA at this world cup.

[Unregistered]

Hopefully you'll find these numbers entertaining! How does a country of three million, less than the state of Oregon, put together a world class national team yet we complain incessantly that soccer is all about numbers and OR can't compete nationally because we're too small!

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data...-cup-countries

You do realize that the team draws players who actually reside in other countries. Don't we have some German players on our team? Our coach, after all, is German. We have a player who is a US citizen, raised here nearly his entire life, but he plays for Iran. It is impressive that smaller countries match up against larger countries, but lets not forget where some of these players come from. It's World Cup and you represent a country, but sometimes the connection of a player to that country is pretty slim.