51–60 of 112 posts
Having an elite soccer team requires talented players, one of the most important talents is elite running speed. To have elite running speed you need to have a higher torso/leg ratio, basically long legs and a high center of gravity. There are regional differences around the world with torso/leg ratios. China is on the lower end, much of Africa is on the high end.
Seems pretty weak and unsupported. It can be summed up as "China doesn't excel at soccer because of authoritarianism and because the sport is not well understood by anyone and central planning doesn't help". Ok, if you say so. Where's the evidence?
> China doesn't excel at soccer because of authoritarianism and because the sport is not well understood by anyone and central planning doesn't help It's hard not to be mean to someone who calls it soccer :-), but this betrays an obvious lack of familiarity with the history of this sport. USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia all had very strong national teams, pretty much until they were dissolved. Clubs from the comm…
> ... Champions Cup ...
People in glass houses, my friend :D
There is a better explanation. Being talented individual is not enough. They have to play against other equally talented individuals in the highest level professional leagues from the age of 18 to develop tactically and technically. China needs a professional soccer league with top level foreigners or they need to send their best to European leagues. They can do it but it can take several generations. Soccer is the m…
Having an elite soccer team requires talented players, one of the most important talents is elite running speed. To have elite running speed you need to have a higher torso/leg ratio, basically long legs and a high center of gravity. There are regional differences around the world with torso/leg ratios. China is on the lower end, much of Africa is on the high end.
ugh. explain Mexico then. Not a quality post here.
Seems pretty weak and unsupported. It can be summed up as "China doesn't excel at soccer because of authoritarianism and because the sport is not well understood by anyone and central planning doesn't help". Ok, if you say so. Where's the evidence?
Totally agree. Just to pick a specific example and add on a bit: Germany reorganized their nationwide soccer development system in the mid-2000s to be much more centralized, and that's widely considered to be one of the reasons they have risen in prominence recently (they are the current reigning World Cup champions, for instance).
Hmmmm....
From TFA: "West Germany ... won the World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990, and reached the final in 1966, 1982 and 1986."
Why United States doesn't dominate soccer?
Pay to play: for youth development, the player's family has to be fairly well off. This is pay for either an academy, or going to a D1 college team, paying for travel, etc etc
Limited coaching talent: not very many soccer coaches play or even watch soccer regularly. This leads to an emphasis on agility and strength rather than skills and strategy. Agility and strength work out pretty well if the team you're facing has the same focus, but if you're playing against a team that has drilled and nurtured intelligence it will end badly for you.
Having an elite soccer team requires talented players, one of the most important talents is elite running speed. To have elite running speed you need to have a higher torso/leg ratio, basically long legs and a high center of gravity. There are regional differences around the world with torso/leg ratios. China is on the lower end, much of Africa is on the high end.
They are investing heavily, buying loads of European youth football trainers, scouting their own youth at great rate and building their league up pretty fast.
You heard it here first: they will host the World Cup football in 2030 or 34 and will be contesting for the highest rank.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's similar to the US. I think a lot of it just comes down to the number of kids that grow up playing a sport i.e. the talent pool. In the US lots of kids try playing soccer but most focus more on baseball / basketball / football / hockey. Whereas in countries where soccer is the main sport the talent pool is larger and you have tons of talented kids who've been playing for two decades
Yet, the US dominates in women’s soccer. Maybe there are fewer options for them to play other sports (football specifically)?
In the US, I hear, soccer is reasonably popular as a female sport, so the talenf pool is larger.