This is a topic that comes up all the time in the soccer world, quite frankly bores and frustrates me because people are never right. The top two arguments I hear are:
- It’s a pay-to-play system. Top talent can’t afford to play.
- Our best potential soccer athletes choose other sports.
Both of these arguments are not entirely wrong. US Soccer would benefit if all soccer was free. We would also benefit if every athlete chose soccer (duh – but this is not realistic in any country). However, these are a smaller part of the problem. Maybe this is a local bias on my part, but there are no great soccer players that don’t get a shot. Between club scholarships and teams that are desperate to win, the best players can play. The idea that Pele’ in the backyard just didn’t get his shot on a top club is not reality. The Pay-for-Play gripers are mostly parents of crappy players bitching about stuff. If you are a great player, you will have many routes to playing soccer. The MLS academies are free. Get better, you will get found.
Of course having athletes like Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and Saquon Barkley choose soccer would help our chances of having an elite national team. But we aren’t the only country with that problem and we have a huge population. We get plenty of crazy athletes playing soccer.
Culture is the real problem. What is soccer culture? It’s when the sport takes up all the oxygen in a country. Every birthday party, every beach day, every family member – all involved with soccer in some way. This offers 24/7 options to play and improve. The median player is way better in these countries. The rewards of reaching the top on the country are higher etc. It’s a tidal wave of extra edges that you can’t fake. If my kids want to play pick up soccer – it’s almost non existent. A soccer game doesn’t break out at Uncle Leo’s 40th bday party. You hear of kids in the inner city playing basketball from 10am to 10pm everyday. You don’t hear those stories with soccer and they happen in other countries. When a country is obsessed with one sport – they overperform their population exponentially. Lithuania and basketball is an example that is close to me. They beat the Dream Team in a game with the population the size of Houston. Culture is king and the other problems are cups of water in a 5-gallon bucket.
justinsadauskas 