Gabriel Pirlo 🇺🇸🇵🇱🇺🇦🇮🇹

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

Every 4 years there’s an army of guys (always guys) who know *nothing* about what top-level football requires confidently tweeting that *if only* LeBron would kick a ball, we’d beat the rest of the world handily. It’s so ignorant & so, so arrogant.

Another reason soccer is not popular here. Ties. They suck. In our country there is a winner and a loser. Why even have a game/match if no one wins?! And yes there are occasional ties in our NFL in the regular season and those suck as well.

Mauricio Pochettino said that ‘American sports reward losers’ when asked about the style of play in top European nations vs. in the U.S. 😯🇺🇸 QUESTION: “We know how England, France, Spain play… Players from countries with a strong tradition have a recognizable style. What is the style of the US team? What kind of football do the Americans want to play?” ANSWER: “Their culture is playful. They want to play. We told them, “Guys, playing soccer is one thing, competing is another.” They’re two completely different sports. They grow up in a culture of playing. Why? If you start in MLS and you haven’t won a game in three months and you’re at the bottom, what’s the consequence if there’s no promotion or relegation, no international competition? American sports reward losers! But soccer is different: if you reward those who don’t win… If you don’t have goals, you don’t fight. If I lose, what happens? Nothing. They just fire the coach. Also, the American player is disciplined. But with a sense of complacency that isn’t good in soccer. It took us a year and a half to change that mentality.” [EL PAIS]

Messi is still the 🐐

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

Mauricio Pochettino said that ‘American sports reward losers’ when asked about the style of play in top European nations vs. in the U.S. 😯🇺🇸 QUESTION: “We know how England, France, Spain play… Players from countries with a strong tradition have a recognizable style. What is the style of the US team? What kind of football do the Americans want to play?” ANSWER: “Their culture is playful. They want to play. We told them, “Guys, playing soccer is one thing, competing is another.” They’re two completely different sports. They grow up in a culture of playing. Why? If you start in MLS and you haven’t won a game in three months and you’re at the bottom, what’s the consequence if there’s no promotion or relegation, no international competition? American sports reward losers! But soccer is different: if you reward those who don’t win… If you don’t have goals, you don’t fight. If I lose, what happens? Nothing. They just fire the coach. Also, the American player is disciplined. But with a sense of complacency that isn’t good in soccer. It took us a year and a half to change that mentality.” [EL PAIS]

Zlatan has had enough of Lalas 😭

Totally disagree with this. The quality of a national team is simply a function of the number of people who seriously try to play the sport. So the population x the percentage of people who get a legit shot to make it. That percentage is just way lower in the US than in most countries around the world. Our top athletes are playing football cornerback and slot receivers, basketball point guards and baseball. Nothing wrong with it but don’t act like our soccer deficiencies aren’t a direct result of top athletes playing other sports. It is.

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

I shall make a mildly good-faith attempt to explain to those who don't understand why "if only our best athletes played soccer" is so frustrating...

Norway fans are doing a “Viking Row” up the escalator at Boston’s South Station before heading to the World Cup Adding this to the list of things I’ve never seen before and probably never will again

Totally disagree with this. The quality of a national team is simply a function of the number of people who seriously try to play the sport. So the population x the percentage of people who get a legit shot to make it. That percentage is just way lower in the US than in most countries around the world. Our top athletes are playing football cornerback and slot receivers, basketball point guards and baseball. Nothing wrong with it but don’t act like our soccer deficiencies aren’t a direct result of top athletes playing other sports. It is.