Which World Cup soccer players do you think would be good at American sports?

[meow2u3]

Here are mine:

Tim Howard (USA): He'd make an excellent punter for the NFL.
Eduardo (POR): Put some ice hockey gear along with a stick and a glove and he'd make a great hockey goalie, even giving Martin Brodeur a run for his money.
Robinho (BRA): He'd be a good field goal kicker for the NFL.
Cristiano Ronaldo (POR): he'd make a great left fielder, given the way he dives. He'd be diving to make web gems.
Vincent Enyeama (NIG): Put some pads and a football helmet on this guy. I think he'd be a great NFL defensive back. They don't call him "the Cat" for nothing.
Nicolas Anelka (FRA):: Point guard for the NBA. Basketball has more than its share of crybabies; he'd fit in perfectly.

Add yours.

[KamaAina]

1. Landon Donovan (USA): soccer

Who says soccer isn't an "American sport"? We're in the round of 16, and France and Italy aren't.

[wilt the stilt]

2. It's the other way around

what basketball/ football players would be unbelievable soccer players?

Allen Iverson
Derrick Rhodes
John wall
Dwayne Wade
Adrian Peterson
brian Westbrook
Tiki barber

I could go on and on.

Here's a small story on a couple of really good athletes. Bobby Butler(NFL 12 years) lives down the block. Both of his boys are star athletes in college. One is the top receiver at USC and is destined to be a pro. the other is the top basketball player at Fordham.

Both were the top soccer players in the community until they stopped playing at eight years old. The great athletes in America do not play soccer.

As the say "show me the money"

[meow2u3]

3. I was talking about baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey

In other words, I was talking about soccer players from around the world becoming two-sport athletes.

[wilt the stilt]

4. My point is that I don't know

if any of the soccer players could make in other sports. By and large most of our soccer players are not our top athletes and probably wouldn't be able to compete in those other sports. Soccer players in the U.S. are suburban white kids and that is not the top of the athletic world.

[caraher]

5. I see what you're trying to say, but you're wrong

The fact is, for virtually every other nation in the field the other players ARE among the top athletes in their respective nations, and the US team has more than held their own against them. And I'm not sure where you get off dismissing them as inferior athletes by stereotyping the team as "suburban white kids." I don't know whether they're from the 'burbs, but without thinking very hard I can point out Tim Howard, DaMarcus Beasley, Jozy Altidore, Maurice Edu, Edson Buddle... all big contributors, none of them white. I'm also not thrilled with the implication that whites are not found among the top athletes.

Maybe you should meet a few of the "suburban white kids" who are "not the top of the athletic world" competing in the 2010 World Cup.

Tim Howard:



His lack of athletic versatility is well-documented at the official USA team web site:

Was considered one of the best basketball players in Major League Soccer and can easily dunk a basketball … Starred on the North Brunswick H.S. basketball team, where he beat former Duke All-American Jason Williams (then of St. Joseph’s of Metuchen) in the Middlesex County Championship game in 1997

From Wikipedia:

Tim Howard was born in North Brunswick, New Jersey, to Matthew Howard, an African-American, and Esther Howard (née Fekete), a native of Hungary. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and Howard lived with his mother, a project manager for a cosmetics distributor. His father, a long-distance truck driver for a health care firm, nonetheless maintained a presence in his life.

Yep. Typical unathletic suburban white kid. Here's another:

Jozy Altidore



Son of your average white suburban parents fleeing the Duvalier regime in Haiti... From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1249454/Haiti-hero-The-heartwarming-story-Hull-star-Jozy-Altidore--EXCLUSIVE.html">the Daily Mail:

Altidore's parents, his dad is an engineer and his mum a nurse, met just a fortnight after they had landed in the United States independently to start new lives...

'My parents were both about 23 and they met on a bus in New Jersey,' he reveals.

'Neither of them could speak any English and they just helped each other and fell in love, I guess.

'Haiti wasn't the greatest at the time. It was hard for them to leave home but they both knew, as thousands did, that life would be extremely difficult if they stayed. Many families were ripped apart and they were fortunate to come together and have a better life in America. My parents are my inspiration. When I was growing up, they worked so much and sacrificed a lot for me. I didn't see my mum much for three or four years because she was always working to help us.'

DaMarcus Beasley



Yet another spoiled white kid incapable of playing "American" sports who "Played varsity basketball his sophomore season at South Side" High School in Fort Wayne, IN. His parents work for a manufacturer of axles and other auto parts, and Beasley chose to play soccer because he simply preferred it to "American" sports:

The boys started playing soccer after their father unfamiliar with the sport brought home a soccer ball when DaMarcus was about 5. Soon the Beasleys were hooked. Their friends didn't quite get it though.

"They asked 'Why are you playing soccer? You should be playing basketball or football. Soccer is a girl's sport' " Beasley said. "I got that all the time. But that's what I liked to play. It was fun and we were good at it."

It's one thing not to like soccer and to acknowledge its second-class status in the US. But to suggest this team is bereft of world-class athletes - some of whom are white and/or from suburbs - is simply ignorant.

[redqueen]

7. Clint Dempsey grew up in a trailer park.

Much of the 'soccer sucks!' crap is based in ignorance. An opinion is one thing... trying to 'prove' it is... I dunno... idiotic is the word I'd use.

[wilt the stilt]

8. When it comes to speed sports

if you don't think the the black athlete is better you are nuts and I am one who is always calling out the white kids in America for giving up competing in basketball. The average white kid in America gave up basketball by and large in the nineties. That is why most of the NBA white guys are foreign(Nash, Dirk, Genoboli). No one told them they couldn't compete.
That being said most of our top top athletes go to the money sports.

I live in Georgia where all kids are professional athletes. Three of the top picks came from Georgia in the NBA` draft.
Al Fariouq Aminu came from my kid's high school. Three players from Norcross High in the last two years are in the NBA. Bobby Butler's(12 year NFL) kid is going to be a high draft in the NFL. He is the top receiver at USC. They all came from Norcross high as did these other players.

Delino Deshields(12 year major league player and was to be the point guard at Villanove) daughter is playing basketball at Norcross high as did Brian Jordan's daughter(15 year major league`player and all pro NFL player) and Derrick davis'a(NBA`star) daughter.

Delino Desheild's son was just drafted number 8 in the major league draft and had a full ride the` LSU for football.

These are kid's of actual professional athletes. Look up Norcross high.

THEY ARE ALL NOT PLAYING SOCCER.

All you people go to the local high school and the local soccer leagues and see where the top athletes are playing and what sport they go to once they start to mature.

Tim howard may have been a very good basketball player. Can you imagine if players like a Dwayne Wade or Adrian Peterson all went to soccer and skipped basketball and football. Can you imagine how good soccer would be if these top athletes only played soccer.

The competition would have made them unbelievable. The really top athletes go where they can make the most money.


show me the money.

[Lars77]

6. Here is an overview of the racial makeup and class background of the US squad

http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2010/05/17/team-usa-and-the-state-of-the-soccer-nation/

[HuckleB]

9. Have you watched the US team?

Hello?

Try again.

[wilt the stilt]

11. are you making the argument that

our top athletes play soccer?

[HuckleB]

12. Nice attempt at spinning your way out of your BS.

LOL!

[trumad]

13. I have

and while these are great athletes... I wouldn't call them our best....

The run and kick a ball---that's it... oh sorry...sometimes they use their head.

Oh and they are great actors... they have the flop down pat.

[Onceuponalife]

10. I think most of them would make great Olympic divers.