::[OFFICIAL] FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 Thread:::

[Thierry Henry]

 
That's because it's a "middle-upper" class sport according to the ignorant fools in my hood. In order to find the best football education, you have to go out to the suburbs. I was lucky enough to have a Mexican neighbor who taught me how to play the sport at 11 years old. We used to play on the streets with all the kids from our block, the rocks we would find on the floor would be our makeshift goals.

Alternatively if you live in places like NYC, Miami, Toronto, LA with lots of latin or caribbean immigrants you will have more access to a football playing population

I live in inner city Miami and it's kinda like that. Depending on the demographics of the neighborhood, the sports will differ. American football is played on the streets or in the parks religiously out here. Basketball spiked when LeBron decided to sign with the Heat, any park with a court is guaranteed to be packed now. If you go out into the suburbs, it's a different story. They have the nicer well kept parks and I see everybody out there playing soccer.

Me and a group of friends play soccer every Sunday night. They are all Hispanic tho from Honduras Guatemala and Argentina. We just take 4 trash cans and make goals out of them

where do you play?

 

[Coupé It]

Me and a group of friends play soccer every Sunday night. They are all Hispanic tho from Honduras Guatemala and Argentina. We just take 4 trash cans and make goals out of them

 

[imlive365]

I live in inner city Miami and it's kinda like that. Depending on the demographics of the neighborhood, the sports will differ. American football is played on the streets or in the parks religiously out here. Basketball spiked when LeBron decided to sign with the Heat, any park with a court is guaranteed to be packed now. If you go out into the suburbs, it's a different story. They have the nicer well kept parks and I see everybody out there playing soccer.
where do you play?

Park in broward off 95 and marina mile

 

[imlive365]

 

[based mod]

I have been going to half dozen games or so a season since 2010. I love it. Affordable and we have an awesome stadium built for soccer. It's a small 18000 person stadium, but every game is packed.

thats awesome! i love packed games! cant wait for our stadium to open up.
Idk which image is real but i heard this one is what our stadium will look like, i love the design alot
View media item 1058467

That rendering

 

[Thierry Henry]

I live in inner city Miami and it's kinda like that. Depending on the demographics of the neighborhood, the sports will differ. American football is played on the streets or in the parks religiously out here. Basketball spiked when LeBron decided to sign with the Heat, any park with a court is guaranteed to be packed now. If you go out into the suburbs, it's a different story. They have the nicer well kept parks and I see everybody out there playing soccer.
where do you play?

Park in broward off 95 and marina mile

would love to play with you guys but broward county is kinda far for me. I'm pissed that I haven't been able to play for the past week because of these thunderstorms >:

 

[socluis90]

I used to be an LA Galaxy season ticket holder for a few years and have been going to games since I was a kid. Its nice to see MLS come from playing in empty, oversized NFL stadiums with football lines to soccer specific stadiums owned by the teams and filled to capacity.

A lot of mistakes were made by MLS early on (shootouts smh), and those initial markets still suffer from that reputation. Teams like Portland, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto, and RSL got a chance to do things right from the beginning and have been able to keep a respectable image as a pro sport team in their cities. KC is the only original MLS team that turned it around for the better.

I think Galaxy has failed on getting to the real soccer fans in this area. When Chivas USA rebrands and gets a new owner they are going to do things right and pick up all the "knowledgeable" soccer fans in the area. Galaxy has a big fan base here but their whole marketing strategy seems to be geared more for the Anaheim Angels than a professional soccer team. That's why they can sell out a regular season game no problem but can't sell out a playoff game with two weeks in advance.

Regardless the sport is growing in the country, WC success or not, but what needs to improve is the infrastructure of our youth academies and the recruitment of better foreign players to the league.

Personally I can't get excited for any EPL or Bundesliga teams like people here do. Its hard to be a fan of a team you have no personal ties to or can't watch play in person. I enjoy watching the games and quality of play on tv, but my mood is not affected by who wins/loses those Madrid-Barca and Chelsea-Man U. I'd much rather be in the stands supporting my "crappy" team. At least I have a personal connection to the team and league which ultimately leads to the success of the USMNT. Thats just me though.

 

[ice city fc]

 
would be very interesting if USAs best athletes played soccer. 

 i dont think soccer will ever take over here until the US soccer athletes start getting paid comparably to the NFL/NBA/MLB.

 

It's not really about our best athletes playing soccer, even though the thought of a John Wall or a Percy Harvin picking up the game at an early age and being developed in a professional environment through their teenage years is exciting.

There's a good book called Soccernomics written by a couple of economist, it examines in great detail what factors contribute to national team success. Basically it comes down to three things, 1) a country's population size, 2) a country's GDP, and 3) soccer culture/infrastructure. Population and money are pretty straight forward, culture is the X factor. 

Look at all the countries that have regularly  made it past the round of 16 in the past 30 years. They're all top 10 in GDP and top 15 or so in population.  The one obvious exception being the Netherlands, but that's not surprising given that every country in the world has more or less modeled or adopted their infrastructure and development practices in the past 40 years.  You could point to Argentina as well but again, infrastructure and culture are the X factors. 

With America being a nation of 300 million the quantity and quality of athletes available will never be a problem. We're top in GDP but our federation's annual budget of less than $50 million is a fraction of what other federations spend. The German federation spends over 85 million EUROS a year on youth development alone. That $50 million budget USSF is working with? That's more or less split evenly between the nation's Men and Women's programs. A good deal of it also goes to recreational programs like AYSO. 

The money is slowly starting to flow. MLS recently finalized it's new national TV deal, it's up 200% from the old deal that was entered just a couple of years ago. FOX got into a bidding with ESPN over the English language broadcasting rights for the 2018 and 2022 world cup, they won and ended up paying $425 million. Univision is paying $600 million for the Spanish language rights. ESPN paid $100 million for the English language rights to the 2010/2014 World Cups. FIFA gets their cut but a lot of that money goes to USSF/SUM. There are other indicators everywhere, like the $1.2 billion dollars spent by MLS teams on soccer specific stadiums since 2000. 

Fancy new stadiums and facilities fall under infrastructure but more importantly we're talking about things like the success of the domestic leagues and stable lower divisions. Full-time soccer academies where young players can learn their craft. Experienced and educated coaches to teach them. Scouting networks to identify talent. Parks and facilities for kids to play at. Etc.

Other countries have spent years developing their soccer infrastructure and we're playing catch up. The thing is you can't build infrastructure without money and there's no money without demand for the sport, so it all comes back to culture which takes time grow.  That's why it's so frustrating to see and hear certain attitudes about soccer in this country, particularly about MLS.   Maybe it's a product of the "I want it now generation" but a lot of fans don't seem to grasp the fact that infrastructure and culture take entire generations to build. In the case of culture it has to be grown organically. Infrastructure cost millions and millions of dollars but it can't be bought outright, it's built slowly brick by brick. 

Honestly it's been amazing to watch MLS and soccer in this country grow over the course of my lifetime. It's too bad some people can't appreciate what's being built here. Like I said earlier soccer culture and the development of our infrastructure is in its infancy. MLS had its inaugural season in 1996, the league itself isn't even twenty years old, it's just now learning how to walk without falling down and scraping its knees.

What will it take for the MLS to improve their product? And realistically, is it attainable?

A. $$$ - continue to increase revenue from TV deals and sponsorship.

B. Infrastructure - continue to grow the league through expansion, continue to grow and implement the USDA academy system, continue to partner with and help to develop USL Pro.

C. Perception/Reputation - raise the level play by continuing to develop better players, continue to important prime talent from the rest of CONCACAF, continue to raise the salary cap. 

Like a lot of people have mentioned MLS really is the key to the whole thing. What's often overlooked is that MLS doesn't need to come close to the NBA or MLB in terms of popularity to achieve its goals. If MLS grew to a point where it was on par with the NHL, it's revenues and financials would be on par with La Liga and Serie A. 

Sorry for the disorganized and longwinded post, but it's something I spend a lot of time thinking about.  

 

[imlive365]

would love to play with you guys but broward county is kinda far for me. I'm pissed that I haven't been able to play for the past week because of these thunderstorms >:

We usually have around 10-13 heads on a good night. But we usually play around 12am that's the time everybody gets off. If anything just lemme know. And I know it's been crazy round here. But even its it muddy or raining we still usually play lol

 

[SoleByThePound]

Gotta love U.S. soccer fans.

 

[socluis90]

Gotta love U.S. soccer fans.

Saw that earlier. I pray that they edited the audio of the original questions after and kept the original responses. Most responses were very generic, like the old switcharoo threads on General.

If not then biggest facepalm ever lol.

 

[GrQQvy_Que]

That was awful lol soccer in America is farther off then I thought

 

[red80]

Video doesnt prove anything except that the average american doesnt care much for sports. There's also basketball and football versions that are just as embarassing especially the Laker one from people in LA.

"Do you think the Lakers will win the stanley cup?" 

"i think so!"

 

 

[DeadsetAce]

there is no way that video is legit. questions def are re-dubbed

 

[SoleByThePound]

there is no way that video is legit. questions def are re-dubbed

You are giving people too much credit.

 

[DeadsetAce]

there is no way that video is legit. questions def are re-dubbed

You are giving people too much credit.

i don't doubt the fact that americans in general don't know much about soccer. but some of it just too much

the guy knows someone broke their nose and stayed in the game but thinks it's landon? no thanks. not buying that. if he specifically said, "Landon is the man. He stayed in the game after breaking his nose", cool that's legit. but it's too generic a response. Socluis is right. i've seen sports talk radio stations do the same thing.

 

[ajiiiplatinum]

Me and a group of friends play soccer every Sunday night. They are all Hispanic tho from Honduras Guatemala and Argentina. We just take 4 trash cans and make goals out of them

Guatemala? Argentina? Damn those must be world class pick up games

 

[imlive365]

Guatemala? Argentina? Damn those must be world class pick up games

There's also a Cuban and me I'm white only one guy from aregentina he's actually not that skilled lol

 

[bentrill]

Thought i was the only soccer fan that has no interest in other leagues around the world. The only team i have showed somewhat of an interest is barca, when they got Ronaldinho. Them 03-08 years 

MLS and Liga MX all the soccer i need right now. 

 

[atmos]

 
Thought i was the only soccer fan that has no interest in other leagues around the world. The only team i have showed somewhat of an interest is barca, when they got Ronaldinho. Them 03-08 years 

MLS and Liga MX all the soccer i need right now. 

bro those were the best years, with samuel eto'o, young messi, thierry henry, etc. oh man 

 

[firepower]

According to FIFA's Castrol Index, David Luiz is officially the best player of the tournament so far...

1. David Luiz (9.79)

2. James Rodriguez (9.74)

3. Karim Benzema (9.7)

4. Arjen Robben (9.66)

5. Jan Vertonghen (9.62)

6. Neymar (9.59)

7. Thiago Silva (9.56)

8. Ivan Perisic (9.53)

9. Johan Djourou (9.5)

10. Thomas Mueller (9.4

 

 

[evolution fight]

only one guy from aregentina he's actually not that skilled lol

welp, no surprise there...















not srs

 

[rook]

According to FIFA's Castrol Index, David Luiz is officially the best player of the tournament so far...

1. David Luiz (9.79)
2. James Rodriguez (9.74)
3. Karim Benzema (9.7)
4. Arjen Robben (9.66)
5. Jan Vertonghen (9.62)
6. Neymar (9.59)
7. Thiago Silva (9.56)
8. Ivan Perisic (9.53)
9. Johan Djourou (9.5)
10. Thomas Mueller (9.4



 

Interesting...no messi tho? lol

 

[Black Lotus]

According to FIFA's Castrol Index, David Luiz is officially the best player of the tournament so far...

1. David Luiz (9.79)
2. James Rodriguez (9.74)
3. Karim Benzema (9.7)
4. Arjen Robben (9.66)
5. Jan Vertonghen (9.62)
6. Neymar (9.59)
7. Thiago Silva (9.56)
8. Ivan Perisic (9.53)
9. Johan Djourou (9.5)
10. Thomas Mueller (9.4



 

Alcohol,,, loads of it XD

 

[rook]

Dbl