Is the Future Bigger Faster Stronger?

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You must have been a football. Player...very short minded... You need both big and small...

That's what she said.

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If it was Lalas then very little :-)

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All Abby was is a backboard...that skilled players played pool off of...yeah they won...but a terrible homage to the beautiful game...aka ugly futbol...

I'm sure you played the game much better and your dd is a highly shilled player on a team of like minded players. Sorry our USWT doesn't measure up to your pararmators of what good soccer is supposed to be. We should trade those good medals in for skills training sessions since the rest of the world is so far in front of us.

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That's what she said.

You know, in certain circumstances that joke is funny. However that was 20 years ago. And in more appropriate circumstances. Check back when your humor develops.

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I'm sure you played the game much better and your dd is a highly shilled player on a team of like minded players. Sorry our USWT doesn't measure up to your pararmators of what good soccer is supposed to be. We should trade those good medals in for skills training sessions since the rest of the world is so far in front of us.

You are missing his point and the point of others. This is exactly the problem we are in, we are light-years away from where we need to be. Let's look at this years US team, we were just as big but not as fast and certainly not as skilled. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled with advancing out of group, but we were eliminated where we should have been.

We, in my opinion, as a country need to figure out what a truly skilled player is defined as. For me, unless it is in GK and CB (but only to combat long ball soccer), I don't believe size should matter, it should only matter on their effectiveness. We really need to have significantly more skilled players being developed and identify them on skill not size at the young ages.

Imagine if our midfield was a group of players like Nagbe. Do you think we would have been dominated in the same manner? I don't even think a tall forward is a necessity but that depends on your style of play.

Develop the skill and the wins will come. Players who can master the ball and are extremely intelligent tactically who can play quickly would change US soccer.

About the women's game, we were winning behind athleticism but now other countries have developed their technical game to match our physical game which is why our dominance has now been greatly diminished (aka Japan).

A player with skill, quickness and tactical speed/knowledge will always beat a player with size and speed unless you are playing "send it" soccer.

[Unregistered]

You know, in certain circumstances that joke is funny. However that was 20 years ago. And in more appropriate circumstances. Check back when your humor develops.

It made me chuckle. Bravo to the poster.

[Unregistered]

You are missing his point and the point of others. This is exactly the problem we are in, we are light-years away from where we need to be. Let's look at this years US team, we were just as big but not as fast and certainly not as skilled. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled with advancing out of group, but we were eliminated where we should have been.

We, in my opinion, as a country need to figure out what a truly skilled player is defined as. For me, unless it is in GK and CB (but only to combat long ball soccer), I don't believe size should matter, it should only matter on their effectiveness. We really need to have significantly more skilled players being developed and identify them on skill not size at the young ages.

Imagine if our midfield was a group of players like Nagbe. Do you think we would have been dominated in the same manner? I don't even think a tall forward is a necessity but that depends on your style of play.

Develop the skill and the wins will come. Players who can master the ball and are extremely intelligent tactically who can play quickly would change US soccer.

About the women's game, we were winning behind athleticism but now other countries have developed their technical game to match our physical game which is why our dominance has now been greatly diminished (aka Japan).

A player with skill, quickness and tactical speed/knowledge will always beat a player with size and speed unless you are playing "send it" soccer.

The WNT suffers from the decision to keep players on the team way beyond their shelf life. I guess that will change when they start to receive Social Security. Just so you can understand the concept, players of equal ability tactically and technically with everything else being equal except size and speed, who would you pick? I would pick speed first, then size. That's all that is being implied. The rest is just filler. Kinda like saying a soccer game should always use a ball. Get it yet?

[Unregistered]

You are missing his point and the point of others. This is exactly the problem we are in, we are light-years away from where we need to be. Let's look at this years US team, we were just as big but not as fast and certainly not as skilled. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled with advancing out of group, but we were eliminated where we should have been.

We, in my opinion, as a country need to figure out what a truly skilled player is defined as. For me, unless it is in GK and CB (but only to combat long ball soccer), I don't believe size should matter, it should only matter on their effectiveness. We really need to have significantly more skilled players being developed and identify them on skill not size at the young ages.

Imagine if our midfield was a group of players like Nagbe. Do you think we would have been dominated in the same manner? I don't even think a tall forward is a necessity but that depends on your style of play.

Develop the skill and the wins will come. Players who can master the ball and are extremely intelligent tactically who can play quickly would change US soccer.

About the women's game, we were winning behind athleticism but now other countries have developed their technical game to match our physical game which is why our dominance has now been greatly diminished (aka Japan).

A player with skill, quickness and tactical speed/knowledge will always beat a player with size and speed unless you are playing "send it" soccer.

There's a balance between size and skill and you need both. Small technical teams can simply be overrun by more physical teams. The US is physically fast enough. Johnson and Yedlin were two of the fastest players at the tournament. The US plays too slow, especially in the midfield. Mostly a poor first touch and overall uncertainty on the ball when compared to other national teams players. Take Pirlo for example; he's not big or fast but he's always a step ahead and controlling the ball never seems a concern. The ball does what he wants it to do.

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The WNT suffers from the decision to keep players on the team way beyond their shelf life. I guess that will change when they start to receive Social Security. Just so you can understand the concept, players of equal ability tactically and technically with everything else being equal except size and speed, who would you pick? I would pick speed first, then size. That's all that is being implied. The rest is just filler. Kinda like saying a soccer game should always use a ball. Get it yet?

Read my post again, it is about results. If what you say is the case, then said person would be more effective because they would have the same skill and tactical ability as the smaller person so they could be more effective in the physical play. My point is that the size shouldn't matter in decision making, the play of the player is all that matters. To this point, if the smaller person is more effective because of his/her size, that should be the deciding factor.

Get it yet?

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??????

Read my post again, it is about results. If what you say is the case, then said person would be more effective because they would have the same skill and tactical ability as the smaller person so they could be more effective in the physical play. My point is that the size shouldn't matter in decision making, the play of the player is all that matters. To this point, if the smaller person is more effective because of his/her size, that should be the deciding factor.

Get it yet?

Clearly you cannot hold a coherent thought for more than a moment of two. Once again, EVERYTHING being equal, the bigger player is the one you want. Simple. You should understand simple, right?

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Clearly you cannot hold a coherent thought for more than a moment of two. Once again, EVERYTHING being equal, the bigger player is the one you want. Simple. You should understand simple, right?

If everything is equal then it doesn't matter because it's equal.

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Size to match the position

Clearly you cannot hold a coherent thought for more than a moment of two. Once again, EVERYTHING being equal, the bigger player is the one you want. Simple. You should understand simple, right?

I think what is being lost in this conversation is that much like every other sport the size of the player needs to match the position. first let's all agree that they need to be fast and or quick. Then depending upon where they play Defense Mid or forward that are desirable sizes to hold position and control the ball. The affinity for the shrimpies to scoot around the bid guys is legitimate but you can afford to have more than two on the pitch in the modern game. (see Columbia)

There is also a such a thing as too big. Unless they are freaks of nature like LeBron or Cam Newton once you get past 6'4" physics begin to hinder lateral ability which is required for every great soccer player.

The point is the game is getting bigger physically with any objective observer of the game can see more players are hitting the weights to build upper body strength than in years past. that same objective observer can see professional teams are adding taller players with more players at or above 6 feet than years past.

The purists may not like it but the trend is only going to accelerate after this years World Cup is analyzed and countries figure out that set piece scoring is as important as open play goals.

[Unregistered]

Regarding physicality (height, weight, speed, quickness, strength), how internally conflicted is soccer?
There is clearly one group of people who think using the 6-foot tall Abby Wambach as a "backboard" for incoming aerial passes is something less than beautiful soccer, maybe even bordering on ugly soccer.
And there is another group that espouses the bigger, faster, stronger philosophy.
If it is the purpose of soccer to provide a sport that only short people can succeed at, then the former group of people need to get FIFA to change the rules. Why get upset with the tall players and the coaches who use tall players? They are simply following the rules of the game as put forth by FIFA. FIFA's Laws of the Game specifically allow players to touch the ball with their heads, shoulders and chests. Ask FIFA to make it illegal to touch the ball with the head. Or maybe even make it illegal to touch the ball with any body part above the waist. Would this result in a game that the former group of people would consider more beautiful? If so, ask FIFA to change the rules.

[Unregistered]

Regarding physicality (height, weight, speed, quickness, strength), how internally conflicted is soccer?
There is clearly one group of people who think using the 6-foot tall Abby Wambach as a "backboard" for incoming aerial passes is something less than beautiful soccer, maybe even bordering on ugly soccer.
And there is another group that espouses the bigger, faster, stronger philosophy.
If it is the purpose of soccer to provide a sport that only short people can succeed at, then the former group of people need to get FIFA to change the rules. Why get upset with the tall players and the coaches who use tall players? They are simply following the rules of the game as put forth by FIFA. FIFA's Laws of the Game specifically allow players to touch the ball with their heads, shoulders and chests. Ask FIFA to make it illegal to touch the ball with the head. Or maybe even make it illegal to touch the ball with any body part above the waist. Would this result in a game that the former group of people would consider more beautiful? If so, ask FIFA to change the rules.

And head-to-ball and head-to-head concussions would plummet!

[Unregistered]

Abosolute morons ~ in the cast of softball dads

Typical American parent thread.

Messi is 5'7

Robbin is 5'11

Neymar is 5'9

Xavi 5'7

Inesta 5'7

Rooney 5'9

Suarez 5'11

If you even know who these players are you would realize one thing. Height makes no difference unless you are a center back and even then US thought they had the next big thing when onyewu made his first wc appearance last and he was a bust.

Skill>intelligence>speed>size.

But because the biggest and fastest make u11 girls team win games, you people still think that is how things are done. Why not take a page from countries who do it for more than state cup wins....

Thanks for TRYING to explain this to the peanut gallery. However you left out historical greats, a couple that are considered two of the greatest of all time. Diego, and Pele.

Maradona 5'5"

Pele 5'8"

Speed in your equation needs to be eliminated in favor of Quickness. That's the movement after the ball is released or shaking a defender. However it could just be semantics.

I think Xavi is 5'5" not 7", he's shorter than Iniesta.

Here's the best reasoning why you don't and won't see an entire team of STUDS as softball dads seem to love. The problem with being big in soccer is two-fold. Changing direction at speed takes much more time with a big body, than with a smaller one. The second, stamina. You will NEVER see a "FOOTBALL STUD" play a full 90 minutes....it just won't happen. The statistics for football is something like an entire game consists of 15 minutes of actual play. Even with just that "football stud" is ready to quit. They just have to support too much mass.

Football/Soccer requires a mix of those elements, not just one or the other.

It's funny and somewhat disconcerting to be reading something that was discussed 40 years ago about the sport. The fact that we have actual soccer people on this board talking about how we don't have the *studs* just shows either the immaturity or the regression of the sport.

If you've never played outside of the west coast, you probably shouldn't be *flexing* your footballing/soccer knowledge. It really just makes you look like a jester. It's a rare bird that hasn't left the area, but developed wisdom through just playing/watching here locally.

Lastly, watching coaches teach movement, when they haven't ever moved within the game themselves is like fingernails scratching on a blackboard. They stop the game to make their *coaching point*, but it ends up being incorrect as they themselves can't distinguish the proper move that SHOULD have happened two moves EARLIER.