Why China doesn’t dominate soccer • Hacker News Board

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#81

Post by tiuPapa » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

GFischer wrote: post #69

WhompingWindows wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iceland's success is probably not reproducible in a larger nation. Due to their numerous indoor fields, which draw on the plentiful/cheap electricity from geothermal power to keep the lights heated and grass growing, and their plethora of coaches (I heard 500 per capita) for their 300k population, it's really not feasible in China.

Here in Uruguay we don´t have cheap energy but we do have a ridiculous number of both professional and amateur leagues and coaches (and a lot of grassland to convert into soccer fields) For a population of 3 million: - Pro league with 30 pro teams (each with a youth system with 7-8 teams) + 80 semi-amateur teams (with promotion to the pro leagues) That's between 10.000 and 20.000 players in the pro system. 100 (or mo…

India has the penetration with cricket. Football has been growing, but I don't see any significant improvement happening before at least a decade.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#82

Post by bluedino » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

dragandj wrote: post #60

moorhosj wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, the US dominates in women’s soccer. Maybe there are fewer options for them to play other sports (football specifically)?

Another reason might be that in Europe soccer is considered a rather masculine sport. Very few girls even consider playing it. Girls usually play volleyball, handball, etc. but a girl that kicks the ball with a foot would be strangely looked at here. In the US, I hear, soccer is reasonably popular as a female sport, so the talenf pool is larger.

Soccer also doesn’t compete with football or basketball for girls like it does with boys

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#83

Post by WhompingWindows » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 6:48 PM UTC

kneel wrote: post #66

WhompingWindows wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is your data? Where is your evidence for this borderline racist claim? Africa doesn't have strong teams, clearly your explanation falls apart with the slightest analysis.

Africa has the fastest teams, that's for sure. There are other factors that go into a team's success other than region, I definitely said speed is an important factor among others right?

Where is your evidence they have the fastest teams? I'm asking for evidence, please, not repetition of claims without data.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#84

Post by peruvian » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:00 PM UTC

nabla9 wrote: post #37

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…

> from the age of 18

18 is too late. I doubt any one in any of the good national teams started playing seriously and tactically at age 18. This is in fact one of the problems with the US - our soccer players start too late.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#85

Post by AtlasBarfed » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:01 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #83

kneel wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Africa has the fastest teams, that's for sure. There are other factors that go into a team's success other than region, I definitely said speed is an important factor among others right?

Where is your evidence they have the fastest teams? I'm asking for evidence, please, not repetition of claims without data.

It's not scientific, or even representative, but watch the recent Senegal vs Poland world cup match.

I think Poland was the #4 FIFA ranked team. Wow was the athleticism gap pronounced for Senegal.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#86

Post by AtlasBarfed » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

abakus wrote: post #12

Why United States doesn't dominate soccer?

This will change because

1) Latino immigration and their inherent interest in soccer

2) Pigskin Football is plummeting due to concussion fears

3) Steady rise in popularity of the sport, especially as a social/hipster rebellion to old guard leagues like the NFL

4) MLS, for better or worse, seems stable and can provide some degree of professional support for players. That will attract more athletes and keep athletes in the sport

I think the US will rise to the level of the less talented Euro nations that qualify, like maybe Denmark or Iceland.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#87

Post by AtlasBarfed » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:10 PM UTC

rc_hadoken wrote: post #44

ggg9990 wrote: post #39

China plays the US for the gold medal in Olympic BEACH VOLLEYBALL. They can dominate anything they want, they just haven’t invested the effort and money into soccer yet. There are more popular sports in China like basketball which they will go after first.

Basketball? Yeah, I'm all for chasing and achieving goals...dreams in this case. But China ain't going nowhere in Basketball any time in my lifetime..or two lifetimes at that.

Average Division III teams used to beat pro chinese teams, but this was back in the 90s. They probably are better now.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#88

Post by bilbo0s » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

endisukaj wrote: post #46

bilbo0s wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may have misinterpreted zhdc1's point. I think they mean to say that if Brazilians and Nigerians have a cultural preference for football, why attempt to force cricket onto them?

I didn't misinterpret it, but even in the article it's mentioned that China's most popular sport is Football. So it's the same as in Brazil in that respect.

That's because they don't count martial arts.

They claim it's an "amateur" sport in china. Which is just this side of ridiculous.

Even basketball is growing faster than football in China. This despite the government propping football up. Which is not an indictment of the Chinese, just pointing out that the people there, left to their own devices, would just as soon do something other than play football.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#89

Post by bilbo0s » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:20 PM UTC

qihqi wrote: post #80

erikb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is like asking why Brazil (pop 208M) and Nigeria (pop 191m) don't field competitive cricket teams. Why? Soccer is by far the most popular sport in China for quite some time now. I think you need to spend a generation or two to also get the systems right, tho.

Comparing to other athletic sport. I doubt it is more popular than LOL or Dota2 or whatever current popular eSport tho. Or even werewolves (langrensha).

Or even martial arts to be perfectly frank.

We don't think of it as a sport, because it doesn't necessarily fit our western view of sport. But you'd be hard pressed to say that football or basketball is more popular than martial arts as an athletic pass time in China.

Re: Why China doesn’t dominate soccer

#90

Post by rconti » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 7:25 PM UTC

peruvian wrote: post #84

nabla9 wrote: post #37

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…

> from the age of 18 18 is too late. I doubt any one in any of the good national teams started playing seriously and tactically at age 18. This is in fact one of the problems with the US - our soccer players start too late.

Our soccer players don't start too late, they stop too early.