The 'soccer takes no talent' is especially funny, seeing as its one of the most talent based sports in the world Ita easily accessible for everyone, height and size really doesnt matter that much, like in american football and basketball theres is clear barriers to entry and how good you can get, if youre shorter or smaller Talent is the one thing that can seperate you from the rest in football (soccer), Messi for example is 1.69m tall, not the quickest or strongest yet he is still the greatest footballer ever to strap on a pair of boots
You are underestimating how good you have to be athleticism-wise to become a pro soccer player. Look at the best players right now Rafael Leao, Alphonso Davies, vini jr, mbappe, saka, and many more are very fast. Height doesn't matter as much as in those sports but it does matter. You can't be 5'5 and be a GK, CB, FB, or CF without being very fast. Soccer is changing very fast the best players have to be both talented and athletic. Players like Messi are exception not the rule.
*After Maradona Just my opinion, we all value these things differently i guess. What blows my mind is that they both are Argentinian. Not a country with a huge population but apparently there's something in the water. Or maybe we should all drink Mate like them 😁
@@celsus7979 maradona had good PR... his career achievements (goals, trophies, etc) arent that impressive compared to others that are WAY less known... like he only played 187 matches in the seria A ffs, thats nothing for a star of maradonas equal
@@noting7678 Shorter players have a lower centre of gravity and typically are quicker over the first 10 yards than tall speedsters. Ian Wright was told he was too small to be a number 9, he became one of the very best 9s in England by adopting an "Italian" style of centre forward play. Michael Owen is maybe the best English example of a player that was lightning fast over 20 yards that could then change direction at speed due to his low centre of gravity. ATM we are in a mode of increased size and power of players but it's all cyclical, when the next shorter more mercurial genius with a ball breaks through we'll again see a team built around him and other teams trying to replicate that team's methods.
@@noting7678 We are going through a trend of athleticism in football, but it's just a trend. It has happened before. I had a moment in this past week CL games when I felt sad because everyone was talking about how amazing this round was while I had watched the games and thought how lackluster they were without any 'magical' players around. I even felt relief when Modric entered as a sub in the Real Madrid vs Manchester City game. But I know it's just a matter of time until players with skill make their way to the top again.
Brad Freidel has one of the highest number of appearances in Premier League history, he played a lot of his career at Tottenham too. Other Americans that had good Premier League careers that I can think of off the top of my head are Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey.
Clint Dempsey actually finished his EPL career at Tottenham before moving to the Seattle Sounders IIRC. (Kasey Keller, that mulleted goalkeeper who was mentioned in this video, also finished his career with the Sounders--although by that time he was sporting the quintessential USMNT goalkeeper hairstyle--and I would like to see Luke react to his last game before retirement.)
Zealand grew his channel a lot because of the very popular Football Manager, before he eventually began to mix in these sorts of videos in between. It would be so epic to watch you try it, especially with your background as a coach! Your reactions is awesome tho. And try to ignore the bullies who tries to get you to dislike the sports you grew up with, they are as ignorant as Dana White is to Soccer. The bigger your channel gets, the more hate and envy it will get. Love from Norway
I have been playing CM 01/02 since it came out and still at it. I never tried FM cause that old game has something special about it apart from its flaws. If modern FM is anything like it, DON'T TRY IT LUKE, you'll be dropping out of college for sure 😁
@@celsus7979 Oh, just try the latest FM. It'll be on sale once this season ends. Treat yo'self. I agree CM 01/02 was great. I've played the series since CM2. It's partly why I really did drop out of university. I still buy a copy of FM every few seasons though, just to try and complete an unemployed to world's greatest manager game.
God, yeah, I have never seen an American do one so well, even professional actors, I had no clue he was an American, it's like a reverse Hugh Laurie on House
The other cultural difference if that adults play sports way more recreationally in Europe than they do in the US, once Americans leave college they seem to stop playing organised sports apart from a few beer leagues or office softball tournaments; whereas in the UK at least many people will continue to play football, rugby etc for many years. It all ties into the community origins of teams too I think
That's not true at all. There are TONS of adult recreational sports leagues all over the US. I've played football(soccer) and basketball in adult leagues for years. They're organized and get pretty competitive. Not sure what you mean by "apart from a few beer leagues". "Beer League" is just a catch all term for adult recreational sports leagues in the US that encompasses everything from casual to highly competitive leagues.
@@zo7034 It's not an anecdote. It's simple fact. There are adult rec leagues all over the US in multiple different sports. Feel free to look it up. There are literally a few thousand of them.
@@davebcf1231 While I appreciate that you are pointing out that you do in fact have adult amateur leagues, I think the amount compared to the population is what is the main point.
@@davebcf1231I’ve lived in the US (midwest, west coast and in the east - albeit not long in either), I’ve played sport in the US and the culture is just not the same (as the video kind of covers those amateur teams are under the same umbrella as the the professional teams) - there’s absolutely plenty of sports played at amateur level but it’s nowhere near to the extent that I’ve found in the UK. Of course that’s my anecdotal experience and I could be wrong. The US is very good at converting that to success at elite levels though, better than anybody. For overall participation by a country in sports few can beat Australia, there it seems like absolutely everyone plays some sort of sport.
Damn, not a mention of Landon Donovan. Usually he’s top of the list among recognizable US names, particularly for his antics against Mexico. Secret Base has a good video on that. Tim Howard was that goalkeeper who scored a goal from a goal kick. In true Everton fashion it was the only goal we scored Bolton won that one 2-1 😂 I didn’t know about the effect of Title IX as well, and that 25-30 year period that helped the women’s game, it’s that same amount of time that has passed since World Cup 94, and we are seeing the most talented crop of US Men’s player ever. As much as I love the old grit and grind of the 2002-14 core of players, our current generation will bring us to new heights.
greatly overrated player, when he came to europe, he didn't even made the first team in Leverkusen, played his first season for the 2nd team and only went up as a way to raise the Bayer brand in the USA, he was loaned to Munich and Everton for similar reasons. he played in 22 games in two seasons for everton in all cometitions, played 7 games for bayern munich in his short stay there and 9 games for Bayer04 in all 3 seasons... so why should anyone talk about a living advertisement statue? any other player with only one average season at a midtable premier league club counts as forgetable.
@@DaxRaider You have to understand where the USMNT was at that time. During his generation, there were something like two USMNT players playing for UCL clubs, none playing for clubs that were legitimate threats to make a deep run in the knockout stages, and one of them was playing for then-perpetual group-stage minnows Anderlecht. We only had three Americans playing in the EPL _in total,_ two for mid-table clubs and one for a relegation battler. Many of our players were drawn from MLS (which doesn't look like much in an era when we have players playing for Juventus, AC Milan, etc. but was a lot more important when we didn't have enough Euro players for a starting 11 and our players had only a decade before been drawn from the college teams). A key player for one of the better MLS clubs at the time, who played alongside David Beckham on a week-to-week basis, was actually more important to the USMNT than it might appear.
For me, Donovan was the most talented American. He had more than enough talent to succeed in Europe, and he did so in Germany but intermittently. A Spanish RU-vidr dedicated a video to him and the reason why he didn't win was surprising. Apparently he was never able to adapt to Europe, the guy felt more familiar in the US and that's where he liked to be. It is not something strange, it depends more on the personality of the footballer than on his talent, and Donovan did not lack that. There are similar cases in Brazilian or South American soccer players who experience something similar, who end up being authentic legends in their clubs but not in European soccer.
As someone who played Soccer as a main sport in the US , I also played Football ,Basketball, and baseball . The way the community would look at soccer was as a boring kick about sport and not a sport that took skill, grit, dedication, it made me hate all other sports , I was good in all sports I played and Soccer was always more fun , competitive and just Enjoyable
I think after watching a few games and actually trying to play with some friends it instantly became my favorite. Or at least tied with American football. It’s far from a boring kicking game. It’s beautiful
I totally feel this. My childhood was the exact same vibe, playing a bunch of sports but gravitating towards soccer. The condescension was hard to deal with especially when I was younger, it became really difficult to have to validate your love of something to people who just didn’t want to be open towards it at all. Definitely made me bitter.
As someone who had these opinions you mentioned all the way up to age 29 I think I know why Americans think this way. 1. It’s considered a child’s game, almost every kid played soccer growing up but once you left elementary school a lot of schools didn’t offer it in middle and high school especially in smaller towns. They did offer football, basketball, baseball, track, CC, and wrestling so we naturally assumed these are the real sports and soccer is a child’s game. 2. Lack of exposure on TV or online yea sportscenter would air highlights of great goals from Europe here and there but there was never any dialogue about the teams, the leagues, the players, so for my whole childhood I assumed Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Inter Milan all played in the same league and had no reason to think any different. It’s just not covered here and still to a large degree isn’t.
@@cjboyer4355 With so much migration generation on generation it's only a matter of time before Football overtakes American Football. Weirdly there was a plan to build a Cricket stadium in New York City, I always thought that was a bit odd even though Cricket is the second most played sport on Earth.
Anyone who thinks Football is a soft sport never watched Leeds play in the 70s or Wimbledon in the 80s. Google "Vinny Jones Paul Gascoigne" and look at what Vinnie was doing to Gazza that day, the expressions on both their faces are iconic, but not for the right reasons. I even remember him getting sent off for a foul about 2 seconds after the whistle blew for kick off, fastest sending off ever I think.
You gotta react to Maqwell on the USA’s failure of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. This is something Zealand haven’t covered, and this video really shows how quick USMNT recovered.
Yeah, the thumbnail of this video was of a moment not even mentioned in the video: A 19-year-old Christian Pulisic distraught after the USMNT was knocked out of 2018 World Cup qualification. p.s. I haven't seen the Maqwell video; does he mention the goal that shouldn't have counted that gave Panama the win over Costa Rica? The USA would've still had an interconfederational playoff if that hadn't happened.
@@noting7678 you cant, its a cultural issue. In america the dollar will always rule above all, making football pay to play is the normality and will always be.
@@Jeffisboreddnot necessarily. They need to change the model and think of young players as investments that could later be sold for profit like european academies do. Look at dortmund and ajax they have made so much money from developing and selling top talent
I think our geography makes it hard for us to compete internationally. Europe is the middle of the soccer world and even if soccer viewership doubles or triples young players are still going to get the best competition in Europe. Even Brazil and Argentina who have more viewership than we ever will send their youngsters to Europe.
@@jaegybomb I dont think geography has anything to do with it. A lot of Americans favrouite foods orignates from Europe. Most your transport originates from Europe. The same Olympic games and boxing that the USA absolutely dominates originates from Europe. The real reason why America is a disappointment in football is due to how deep the Dunning-Kruger effect is embedded into your culture. Americans have this perception of football being a simple sport for sissys that takes no athleticism, skill or tactics. Its the same reason why NFL kickers get so much undeserved abuse. Due to the Dunning-Kruger effect being so ingrained into American culture, the S tier athletes are in the olympics. The A tier athletes are in solo sports, NFL and NBA. The B tier athletes are in the MLB. Which leaves the football talent pool with C tier athletes at best.
Really enjoying learning about the different sporting cultures. I hope you can do more of these "American sports for non Americans" type of videos. Wish you all the best with your RU-vid dream!
One of the reasons I like Zealand so much, is he can be both… sometimes play the clueless American gaming personality with all the jokes in the world, and sometimes slow down like this to both research and present very informative videos.
You didn't deter me with your rambling, lol. In fact, you gained a new subscriber lol. We need more Americans like us to realize the history, issues, potential, and possibility that we have in this sport. Please keep making videos on "soccer" haha, we will be watching.
Luke! I’ve got no doubt that you’ll be as big as Zealand (or bigger) one day if you carry on making thoughtful and interesting videos about cultural & sporting differences. It’s fascinating stuff! Love it!🤓
The main issue that many people outside of america have with the pay to play system is that not only are you cutting off a large amount of talented players whose families can't afford to pay for them to play football but it's also the fact that people are paying top dollar for mediocre coaching/training when in comparison to the rest of the world. Paying hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars PER MONTH just for your child to play football in america to be taught the game by coaches often times nowhere near as qualified as the youth coaches in Europe is insane. Youth programs in america are more concerned about making a profit off of the families as appose to the actual development of the players and ensuring that they have the tools required to make it at the next level. Most academies/youth programs in europe are a lot more affordable to the average family. Football is often looked at as the world's game where anyone from any walk of life can play it. The pay to play system makes that impossible and turns the sport into those who can afford to pay can play.
Most people couldn’t run the 7 miles that the men average in 90 minute match. And eye hand coordination is one thing. But,eye-foot Is another! in my opinion, if you can play soccer well, you’d be good at any other sport you tried!
Also, I love Zealand, but his comparison of the viewing figures for the women's teams was pure numbers of viewers and not adjusted for population. So yeah only 17 million people watched England women win the European Championship, but that's out of a population of 55 mill in England.
Got some numbers from the European Broadcasting Union's website. German broadcaster ARD peaked at 21.8 Million, which is just over 25% of the entire population of Germany.. Globally, the final was watched live by at least 50 Million people. Earlier rounds were bringing in record viewing figures for women's football in their respective countries as well, countries like Austria, Sweden and Netherlands all having 10% or more of their populations watching, with audience shares (how many people watching TV were watching the football) in excess of 50%.
His take on MLS is spot on. I was so excited to have a home team to support in St. Louis CITY SC, finally a town with such a deep history in assoc. football dating back to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in 1917 with St. Louis’ Stix, Baer and Fuller FC, STL Kutis FC and Saint Louis Simpkins-Ford and all played on a pitch i passed every day i walked to school… But MLS is all a Corporate Superleage franchise based system… ecch. St. louis CITY SC is a great team but closed to me simply because of ticket prices. I’d rather eat and enjoy a USL League 1 team but there are none here now, thanks to MLS.
As an Englishman who’s team is Norwich City we are lucky to have a great American striker named Josh Sargent, the guy is currently on great form and scoring goals for fun. I’m quite positive he will turn out to be 🇺🇸 number one striker. He has impressive talent by far. He could even take us back to the premiership for next season as the playoffs beckon with the final at Wembley 🔰👍
Good luck in the play offs! Some of the best pressure matches revolve around promoting and degradation, it's something the US will have to introduce at some point.
Sargent has honestly never impressed me, he seems like the type of player who does very well in moderate situations but fails to show up in the big moments
Yeah the key to developing is to get as many kids as possible involved with the sport. Playing it recreationally as friends, involved in local teams, local leagues and then you pay attention, take notes and recruit the most promising youngsters for the bigger teams. Like just recently during the European Championship, Spain fielded Lamine Yamal, he turned 17 a day before the Final match. A High school kid playing in the most important match on the European continent. That's how you build strong teams..
I really appreciate the perspective you give Luke. How by not being blinded by preference for only one or the other, you can more accurately describe how Rugby, American Football and Football differ, what's great about each, etc.
Women's football is the opposite of men's football all over the world, not just in the US. Football was seen as the men's game, and Women's football as unfemine. While the US created a collhe infrastructure, in the rest of the world there was a lack of interest. The US women's team competed against amateurs at world cups. Thus recently changed, but the game at large is still in its professional infancy.
The big differences for me are that US professional sports teams are franchises, they're more disconnected from their communities whereas in Europe they usually grew out of community teams. There's not even a team for every state in any professional sport in the US, whereas counties and cities have multiple football teams in Europe. This is why College / High School sports are so much bigger in the US - they fill that community gap, they allow you to cheer for a team more connected to you and / or your local community. And that's the other big difference with US sports of course - having academia be the path to academic sports. In the UK I played rugby for my secondary school (middle and high school), we were county champions at points, and I boxed and played lacrosse at University (although not a great deal of either really) and the only time anyone really watched us other than the occasional family member or friend was when we hosted boxing events. If you're playing sport at a university you're generally already too old to have a professional career if you're not already playing professionally (although that varies by sport). The playoff vs league / relegation and promotion structure plays a big part too I think. But I still watch more American football and baseball (and hockey) than I do football. Cricket and Australian Football are up there as my top sports too. I do enjoy football but I didn't grow up with it, my family was a rugby family and football sadly was looked down upon - and I was rubbish at playing it but pretty good at rugby. I've definitely grown to appreciate it more and more over the years but it's quite weird coming to it as an outsider in England.
You just said "...If you're not already playing professionally." Does your school's rugby team allow people who have played professionally to join? Official school sports in the US generally require a player to have amateur status (something that I know also used to be a part of the club culture in Europe in the olden days, when professionalism in sport was highly looked down upon).
@@philipmcniel4908 it’s essentially a non-question, you wouldn’t be at university if you were a professional athlete. In terms of the actual rules, I have no idea - I don’t think it would be as much of an issue though because sports aren’t a source of revenue for the universities or a semi-professional (in practical terms even if they are officially amateur) televised thing (beyond the Oxford Cambridge boat race).
Other sport is about physiques but football is about IQ and how smart you are. Regardless of ur height and ur weight as long as you have that football iq and you have crazy reflexes then it can workout. Only if Americans realise how hard it is to play professional football.
If he was a American Football Fan .Teams don't get Demoted or Promoted so no competition. A Fight for Survival in a League generates has much passion, as the Top Teams to win the Premier league. To Win a League as Champions and move up into an higher league is a Fantastic Feeling.
Part of me likes the demoting and promoting system but it's super laissez-faire right now. Money is everything. While in the NFL there are salary caps so the small cities actually have a chance. And I find that extremely ironic because you would think it would be the opposite. The Premier League really needs to fix their parity problem. Maybe you can still have the relegation system but with better parity.
Great video but it brought up some painful memories of November 19th 1989 when my team Trinidad and Tobago needed one point to make 1990 World Cup for first time but USA denied us by beating us 1 nil. I never cried at sporting event but i cried that day. I hated America and Americans for this. It took us 16yrs to make our first and only W/cup in 2006. Keep on learning and growing and love the Beautiful Game.
i think relegation is the most importent thing in a league, because it makes the lower leagues way more impactful and importent. in germany we reintruduced the relegation of at least 1 team in our formerly closed icehockey pro league in 2022, a huge step even 1 team is way to little but its better then nothing. and i really love that ... even ... my city was the first team to ever get relegated :( :( :( :( we were the damn champ and now we got relegated to 2nd league xD and i still am for relegation. because we now have something to fight for, to go back up
@19:50 don't forget about Landon Donovan! He was the first to ever play for a super big team back then like Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich! Also nowadways I really like Weston McKennie who also had his rise in germany at Schalke.
It is an interesting thing that it's always talked about how USA doesn't care about football whereas it's very rare to see something about why other countries don't care sbout American football. It would be interesting to know. I come from a country where I've never myself or seen someone else watch American football like ever and I don't really know why that is
Subscribed the channel and liked the video. I'd love to see you do what you want to do in the future, going to europe and creating those kind of content and stuff. Good luck, buddy.
Argentinian here. The US national team right now is probably the strongest it's ever been, do pay attention to this year's Copa America. The video is very informative and so is your reaction. Good job!
Growth of the USL league system will revolutionize American football system as it will bring a more impactful atmosphere for the community which can bring the whole country to a new level in football
You have to start with getting young kids interested in football. Parents, buy a football , and play with your kids in the yard when they are toddlers. Arrange informal games in the local park, using coats as goal posts, whether it's 4 a side, or 11 a side. Start a small Sunday league. Great oak trees grow from small acorns.
Very good video! Thanks to channels like yours and zealandon's I'm understanding the reasons why american sports are so focused on themselves and so isolated from the rest of the world by the way they work. To me, as an catalan football fan, I can't even imagine not having relegation or promotion. It is the base of the sport in itself. Clubs have academies, were they form and create new talent.
Zealand is an amazing mix of timing, talent and expertise. I learned so much from him about Football Manager, but I am discovering how talented he is as a journalist and broadcaster. I hope to see him outgrow his niche, because he is greatly entertaining in performance and thoughtful in his reporting. I also appreciate the realization that there is a sport, and I would argue 4 sports (american football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey), ahead of soccer/football that draws the talent out of the US, thus restricting the growth of soccer in the US. And even if you're playing soccer, stop flopping. Get up and finish the play.
Bro you should start your own sport analysis, not just a reaction video. With those kind of smart thoughtful comments and analysis, I have no doubt your channel will be huge.
I think it'd be good for you and the channel to react to videos about the history of football and how the original sport played in universities evolved and became Association Football, American Football, Rugby League and Rugby Union, which aren't exactly the same sport either. Also, you should watch more rugby if you want to see a really brutal and physical sport, even more than American Football, which is already very physical. Videos about the history of the sports could be very good content.
you should look into the history of women's football in the UK. Long story short, women's football was more popular than men's until 1921 when women were banned from playing football by the FA. The ban was lifted in 1971
Dana: "Soccer is the least talented sport". Baseball: Sit in a dug out wait ages before you can play, swing the bat 2 to 3 times, either walk back to dugout or run 25 meter a pillow on the ground. Basketball: If you're not above 6'5, you can't play. *Such talent* American Football: cover yourself in padding(that stuff women use to look better), hold the egg never pass the egg. Complain I'm calling it an egg. Only kick the egg when it there's no danger from opponents. And still call it Football. The only reason you call it American Football is because you know you're the only country that plays. Everyone else does either rugby or actual football.
If you want to break it down into one issue why the USMNT sucks then it's player development. Basically in every other country in the world, kids can go to a local club just around the corner and play soccer (almost) for free. All you need are shoes but if you're poor the small community clubs often give you shoes too. And these clubs develop the kids because they have a high incentive to do so, especially from age 12 upwards, due to the FIFA solidarity payment. Every club the player played for between age 12 - 23 get a percentage of 5% of ANY future transfer fee until the player ends his career. Miroslav Klose for example, the all-time World Cup scoring record holder, played for almost his entire youth for SG Blaubach, a small club that was in div 5 or lower for his entire history. They got 4.5% of the 15 million Bayern paid to Werder Bremen for Klose. This one single transfer financed their youth program for decades. The FIFA solidarity payment rules counts for the USA too but there are just no transfer fees being paid. Kids go to highschool, then to university and then to the MLS. If they make it to the MLS and doesn't have to get a normal job. And these kids have to fight for their spot in the youth academies. In Germany just 1 out of 450 kids that went to a youth academy make it into pro soccer. And pro soccer means division 1 - 3. 1 out of 350 will get a contract they can live from which includes many but not all players in division 4. And this just ins't the case in the USA. I won't say that players in the MLS don't have a competitive mindset but it's different to anywhere else in the world. The USA, Mexico and, for some extend, Japan are the only major countries in the world where soccer is pay to play. There just isn't a network of small clubs like somewhere else, which means kids have to by driven around by their (soccer) moms to be able to play. Which of course is expensive and just middle class families can afford. And their isn't a youth scouting system like anywhere else. If you want to get your kid into a better club, you have to make highlight videos yourself and send them to a scout. Who then demands a fee for forwarding the footage to his contacts. Poor families can't afford that. Development for kids is mostly done in private and for profite performance academies, which cost a ton of money. And again, the coaches and scouts at these academies demand money to get you in contact with teams. Even normal middle class families can't afford that without going into debt for their kids dream to become a pro soccer player. And then you'll need to pay for university if you don't get a scholarship. At the end most of the players that arrive in the MLS are (youn) men that had their way up to the MLS being paid by mom and dad. These kids are great athletes but lack the competitiveness and their tactical knowledge is mediocre compared to other countries. Soccer in other countries are better to be compared to the NFL or NBA, where kids from the ghetto can get into because there are a ton of scouts and other people that make a living from developing these kids and get them into pro sports. And there is also a lot of local pride involved that also brings money to institutions that develop players. Everyone knows the universities and highschools NFL and NBA players spend their youth at and schools advertise with it, which brings money to these schools. But who cares which highschool the average joe MLS player attended? No one does. And this won't change unless you implement a grassroots local club network where normal and poor kids can play too and the clubs/schools are rewarded for their player development but not just a few scouts and owner of performance academies.
liked and subscribed because of your little rants! shows you are a true sports fan haha UK football supporter here and i hope you guys get to the levels in europe :) kasey keller played for my team Leicester many years ago and is always remembered as a legend for us! cant wait to see more from you
Clearly the main difference is a cultural difference. If Americans wants to be good at football they have to build a cultural phenomenon around football
the fact that the Dallas Cowboys matches are watched by more pople in USA than the women's world cup is normal because it is the women's world championship plus each el clasico is watched by 150 to 225 million people, which is 2 times more than the super bowl for Americans who read this el clasico is the game between barcelona and real madrid
I’m 46. I grew up in a part of Atlanta where soccer was huge. A guy from my neighborhood scored for the USA in the 2002 World Cup. In spite of that I was always given slack for being a soccer player.
19:48 Always gotta recognize the Secretary of Defense, Tim Howard. I remember that after his world record 15 saves against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup, they briefly changed wiki page to actually being listed as the United States Secretary of Defense. I think Tim is the best keeper the US has ever produced to this day. Others will say Brad Friedel, who is a great in his own right, but what other keeper has that world cup record and has scored a goal from one side of the pitch to the other in the PL? No other I tell ya. 😂
It's ironic and funny because we also used to condescendingly despise other sports like Gridiron (rugby with pads and no endurance) and basketball (no leg strength and no endurance) for the same reasons you gave for football. In any case, we've learned to respect other sports (by trying it) and to recognize their best qualities.
I can tell you my story in regards to soccer/football. I'm an immigrant to US. Have been living here for almost 33 years. Soccer is the main sport in my native country, however, i also played and learned all the American sports and have developed a big appreciation for American football. However, there's just nothing like soccer, just nothing. It's not just a sport but a phenomenon that binds people across the entire world. It's pretty much like some sort of global language and global culture and a basis on which you can develop relationships with people in pretty much any part of the world. The only somewhat similar feeling i get from American sports is in college football. That's it. I don't bother following the NFL as it's just a corporation with it's group of subsidiaries playing in a completely closed off system. I understand your feelings support for the cowboys but it's also hard for me to convey to you completely how it feels to support a club from your own community that carries the essence of that community, the cultural nuances. It's like the club is part of the DNA of your community and you are a part of your club's DNA. Again, the only somewhat similar feeling I've found is in college football and that's because i went to a university with a very prominent football program. In fact, it's one of the top programs in the country. Anyway, my two cents.
some American players who are well respected for you to have a look at; Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Kasey Keller, Tim Howard: goalkeepers who've had long careers in the Premier League, Friedel and Howard were outstanding at their peak. Brian McBride: one of Fulham's better players for a fairly long time, played as a striker alongside Louis Saha in the mid-2000s. Claudio Reyna: one of Man City's standout players in their time as a mid-tier club, before the oil money and waaay before the dominance we see now. Steve Cherundolo: probably the most underrated. Full-back who spent his entire 15 year career in the Bundesliga with Hannover 96, was club captain, and a mainstay of German top-flight football. He was so consistent and played at the top level for so long, when I went to look up his career, I was half-convinced he was still at Hannover.
Similar to England in the 2000s with Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard. I don’t mean the quality of the players, but how the managers, players and fans view football. Their culture have to learn that physicality, athleticism, hardwork and passion do not mean talent. Being direct is not better than being step by step and methodical.
Brad Friedel and Roy Wegerle both played for my team Blackburn Rovers. Wegerle had a touch of class and could score some beautiful goals and Friedel is the best keeper I've ever seen playing for the Rovers. Some of the saves he pulled off seemed almost impossible and he could guarantee at least 10 points a season from his saves.
I'm Scottish. I and all of my friends played football every chance we could get. We arrived early at primary school to play football in the playground. At weekends we played formal amateur club or school matches, went to watch professional or semi-professional games at all levels, from village teams all the way up to internationals. We played bounce games at the local park until it got dark. It would start with maybe three against three with jackets for goalpost, then more people would arrive and join in until the game moved to a full sized pitch, often ending with more than eleven a side. When there was no one around to play with, we'd practice skills by hitting a ball against a wall or garage door. Football was in our blood in Scotland. You can't replicate that America, not in 50 years at any rate. If you expect to win at the elite level any time soon, you're kidding yourselves. Play, compete, lose, learn and enjoy the process. Stop expecting the moon on a stick because you're a big country. Take your wins when you get them, but accept your losses too. That's how you progress - organically, not by spending millions of dollars on it and expecting to be world-beaters tomorrow.
Memories of a few jackets and a few kids from the neighborhood. Waking up to the sound of kids playing, a field behind our house. Jump out of bed and join, come home at 12 to eat and drink, play on till dinner and football again till it was dark. Best memories of my childhood. I loved it with a passion. Greetings from the Netherlands.
In American throwball the worst side gets to choose the best players, that means teams at the bottom actually have an incentive to loose and there is no jeopardy for loosing sides in the form of a relegation. Football leagues are more competitive because the bad teams at the bottom still have something to play for.
the federal government can make push , If they start promoting the creation of local clubs for kids to compete in a local league, it starts with some funding , and then , when the community is involved in the clubs , the Gov leaves and let it take the natural path of growth , and then , when the kids start growing , the promotion of a second division , and later a third division of football , and a national federation system which replaces the MLS in function , the name may be the same , with promotion and demotion each years between leagues . and that is it .
Zealand is a brilliant channel. He has another account called Zealandism where he just chats about a recent footballing story. Whether they are the sort you’d react to on the channel or not I don’t know but they’re great if you want to watch in your spare time
It’s funny you should say that in the U.S it’s often a case that the kids that couldn’t make it in other sports or were too weak ended up playing football (soccer) here in the U.K. it’s sort of the opposite most stories you hear are kids wanting to join their school football team but not being good enough, fast enough or technical enough so they drop into Rugby Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of kids that grew up with a lot of love for sports outside of football and genuinely go into them because it’s their first love but I would say it’s incredibly rare in the U.K. to find someone that ended up playing football because they weren’t good at something like Rugby or Cricket, yet often you’ll come across Rugby and Cricket players with dreams in football they gave up on I think the U.S’s biggest issue in regards too football is from what it sounds like, is that you all start too late, in any other country in the world the chances are they have a ball at their feet shortly after they are able to walk, 6-8 years old is around the time kids start playing regular in some form, whether that’s at school on a lunch break in the playground, during P.E, after school as part of a training activity. It’s also the frequency, I don’t know about other countries (I suspect simile) but in the U.K. it is perfectly normal for a kid to turn up to school early, have a short kick about with their friends before the day starts, then have a game at lunch either on their playing fields, on the playground or anywhere there’s space to set up some form of a game, they might have a P.E class where they play that day depending on what sport they are doing that time of year, they then go home have dinner and go out with their friends to either play football in the street/in an alleyway, against a garage door/over in a local park or green space and they do this each week day, the weekend comes they watch their team play either at a game or on TV if it’s televised and they then might play football for a local team on the Sunday as part of “Sunday league football”. I don’t think the U.S has that culture and yet I would guess people in Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, France and so on will all have very similar stories
Baseball predates Rounders actually. Baseball was played UK in the 1700's and earlier in some forms whereas Rounders came up about 100 years later also in the UK. This is documented in various publications of the time. Some modern soccer pitches are marked out on old baseball grounds. For instance, the original ground of Derby County FC was called The Baseball Ground.
There is kind of the same vibe in Finland towards football. Ice hockey is the number 1 sport, and football is considered girly sport and often laughed about, but it's much more closer to that 1a 1b scenario. Lot of immigrants play football here, but very few immigrants play ice hockey. There is some sort of hatred between the two fanbases. Football fans are attacking ice hockey because of fighting, and because football is the global number 1 sport and they feel it should be treated the same in Finland. While ice hockey fans laugh about flopping in football and call it kickball, but that is just hardcore fanbase. Many professional hockey and football players have played both sports, and chose in age of 15 or so which one they prefer.
As I'm English, I'm not a fan of American sports, I've Love our Football though, but like many Americans like don't watch out sport, I've never taken the time to look into your sports, so no-one is wrong, what we grow up with we love, I mean I am from Nottingham and all my family and I mean all are Nottingham Forest fans but me..... Well since I was 7 I am a Liverpool fan, oh it gets fun here sometimes😂
Thank you for saying this. A lot of times I see Americans and anyone outside America bashing one another for their sports (which is very childish considering that cultures are different and not everyone has to like your favorite sport). As an American I’ve always loved American football and will never stop, and you may be just as passionate about another sport, and that’s great! Either way we all have our own interests and cultures so who cares
I think the US Football team has come a long way since the team's of the 90's, as a nation, you take football more seriously now, once your domestic league attains a higher standard rather than being a place where ex-premier league stars can make a final buck your National Team will improve as you'll have more talent to draw from. Great video Luke. 👍🏻
In every American city there are poor kids playing basketball in pick up games. Soccer doesn't want them. Soccer makes money from suburban soccer moms and their daughters and sons. Soccer moms like US soccer the way it is. But if you ever got the kids who go in to the NFL and especially the NBA, playing soccer you'd be invincible.
The 2026 World Cup is a huge opportunity the USMNT need to seize to grow the sport in the Country. The MLS already has the 8th largest average attendance in the world. No reason why they couldn't be 4th or 5th on that list if the USMNT has a good tournament and captures the minds of the average American.
The video from Zealand was really dope. I think the way out for the American Association Football to improve is to make it a desirable career, just like other sports are. In Brazil, football is the way out of poverty for many children and families. Thats also the case for the french living in Paris periphery who are from immigrant families. The same case can be seen in American Football (the eggball) or anyother american sports such as baseball and basketball. I think that must be the first focal point. The level people play in major league is due to the fact that for most, this is a matter of having a good life or not for them and their families. Just like basketball players see the possibility of going to college. There is no way an american kid will bet all in association football when the opportunity cost for it is to give up more secure options for their future (like american football, baseball, basketball or even try their luck academically). I think 26 american teams in the MLS is a job pool too small for being attractive. Specializing in one sport is a life bet.
Also, I totally agree with you about the brutality of the American football sport. It's something for me that always gets me baffled how this is promoted (specially for kids!) as normal. Trying not to be culturally insensitive, but I wouldn't like to have a kid of mine participating in this sport. All sports and martial arts have their risk, I get it. However the risk of concussion at the American football is unparalleled in any other that is a truly major.
I think American football and football are both amazing sports. I grew up in Europe, that's why I have a football obsession. But when I started to get into American football I recognized that the surface level criticism you mentioned indeed exists here. I think both sports have their elements which make them unique and to hate them just because it's not a part of your culture is just stupid. So being open amongst new things does really help you and I'm so happy that I discovered the world of American sports
It’s funny you should mention looking at ‘soccer’ as a girls sport. When I was at college the same was thought about American Football by those into rugby. “What do you mean you need pads and helmets to play a field sport!” However, since getting into the NFL, I’ve realised that the hits are a lot bigger than rugby and there seem to be far fewer rules restricting what’s allowed - you can practically spear tackle in American Football, right?
It really up to the individual athletes of what sport to pick. If you are a good all round athlete that could play anything well, it up to the coaches that the person listens too. Most of americans most talented male athletes will go to Track & Field, American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, even thought their chance of making it to a professional level is very slim. It just the way of the american system funneling it's most potentially talented sports people into their home grown sports from a very early age. The American culture would have to change substantially so that Soccer is seen as the same standing as American Football, Baseball and Basketball, then Soccer could complete fairly for the most talented athletes that the other sport would also like him to play.
"Pay To Play" to British people when it comes to football equates to chipping in for a minibus, or paying subs towards getting kit laundered. I honestly don't believe American soccer will have solid foundations until there is some sort of regionalised or national pyramid system with clubs providing coaching for young people. Leagues can be amature or semi-pro even, there are leagues and mini-pyramids all over the UK that are amature where players have full time jobs or are students. Private academies are not good, someone on YT has done a great video about similar problems in Australia.
A few corrections ... first I am not sure but most of the US national men's team are playing professionally in Europe, maybe not in the best of the best teams, but in the best leagues ... Second yes the US football is much more brutal .... but high level professional football is not ballet. In fact I am sure that if there is statistics the percentage of players that retire prematurely because of injuries in soccer is probably bigger than in US football . The problem is that the most contact between players happens in the legs, which are the main tool of the players. Also soccer collisions usually happen on much higher speeds. Near my school there was a fire fighting station that played semi-professionally and we loved to watch them play ... the made us stay behind a fence because otherwise it was dangerous ... and when we looked at the "full contact" game where semi-professionals played it was really really rough. Still if you want to do a "well-researched video" try going from that angle I told you ... I am almost sure that the percentage of early retirement because of injury in soccer is much higher than what is in US Football. It is up to you to find such statistics.
25:55 never heard that to be honest, i hear the opposite, at least here in Italy, that it is just more violent Rugby and that people have to wear protection because it is too brutal.
Turkey, although plays in the European confederation is geographically situated in West Asia and finished in 3rd place at the 2002 World Cup, so you could say that the USA is not the only team outside of Europe and Sth. America to finish third in a World Cup.
The single most important factor is the MSL's closed league system, which removes any real urgency to win. Everywhere else, the danger of relegation to a lower (and less lucrative) league makes every goal and every league point crucial, as even a single goal not scored could see the team missing out on a title, or qualification for international tournaments, or relegated with a large loss of club income, and players being let go because they can no longer be afforded. Similarly, the rewards for promotion are huge: my own club team (Leyton Orient) have moved between England's first and fifth tiers in my lifetime (currently holding their own in the third) - this generates extreme engagement and passion in supporters. I have watched US league soccer: it looks like a training exercise when all the coaches are absent - no urgency, no passion, no great exertion. Until this changes, the USA will not generate a large enough pool of skilled home-based players to form a credible national side - the few good USA players playing in overseas teams cannot carry all the load.
we dont, we love to joke about them though. I think most of us agree that they are our closest cousins. Its more about being "pro American" than "anti British". Association will only continue to get more popular in the US
That's weird. We don't like your politics and feel the people are very insular and cut off from the rest of the world. But I feel that because of social media, that's slowly changing.
Even though I am English (in England) I knew that title 9 from 1972 was the major factor for the progression of Female football (The World Game) in The U.S. That is why they became World Champions. Coming back to your grid iron game ... Around 1880 the English Upper Class game of Rugby Union was brough to the U.S. and Canadian Colleges. You played that game of Rugby Union ... however over some 20 years you changed the rules of play and turned it into your grid iron game! The English Upper Class snobs called it "Rhaggah" At the same time, The World Game of FOOTBALL came to North America as well ... yet it was NOT just The English Upper Classes bringing to your Collages nick naming it as "Soccer" as the governing body was called The FOOTBALL Association = soccer By that time the working class from Europe and Central - South America came to North America playing The World Game of FOOTBALL.
I find fascinating how Americans value athleticism so much in team sports. TBH, in football I couldn't care less about athleticism. Obviously the players have to be in good shape to play it, but I won't stand up in awe because a player is strong nor fast, I will when a player gives an incredible unexpected pass, or dribbles a couple of players. The place to value athleticism is athletics, not football. P.S: If you want to do a background check on American football players check Donovan. He was the tip of the spear of a good generation of the American national team, and well respected internationally. I don't remember if Donovan even came to play in Europe, but if he didn't it wasn't because he couldn't.
Were. And, frankly, rightfully so. As stated here. Now? The rest of the world started to heavily invest in the game. But because they had the foundation in place to make use of that investment they've not only caught up, but have more than started to surpass the US. In time, I suspect the gap will increase. But I really would love to see the US men become a genuine top ten nation. It'd be great for the world game.