7 new international signings

[atomic]

On 1/28/2020 at 11:10 AM, DrungoHazewood said:

Yes, and I think it's presumptuous and flawed to assume that Icelandic people are so genetically superior that they naturally produce soccer players at a rate 1000s of times that of the US, or even other European countries for that matter.  

America Samoa has small population but plenty of players in the NFL.  You don’t think they have a genetic advantage in American football?  
 

[sportsfan8703]

On 1/28/2020 at 11:04 AM, jarman86 said:

This thread was entertaining.  So Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson tried soccer and failed horribly.  It is far from an easy sport.  Soccer is popular over in Europe because they have soccer pitches/basketball courts in every neighborhood.  All kids need is a ball.  Baseball you need equipment and a field, and the rain in northern Europe minimizes the season(same reason why prospects here generally come from warmer drier climates).  Further challenge is, there aren't free sports programs, so most kids have to pick one sport and stick to it.  Since soccer is a heavy influence in European culture it takes precedence.  Its on in every bar, 7 days a week, almost 24/7.  

To suggest Lebron could dominate soccer in a matter of months shows complete and utter ignorance.  If he quits Basketball and focused on soccer for a couple years, maybe he could be on a tier 2 US soccer team.  Height is more a goalie/defender role.  

As to baseball in Europe, the money and interest aren't there as other countries.  Netherlands and Italy are the two biggest baseball countries, with the Netherlands having the most talent.  Having been to multiple games there, the talent gap is there.  In part because the weather (rain and climate).  The players on the National team make $2,000 a month and the rest of the players on the team generally have to pay for free or $250.  So it is a hobby sport more than anything.  MLB has been somewhat proactive in Europe, but I think they are not willing to deal with the challenges.  Other players like Dovydas Neverauskas had opportunities through his family in Lithuania and acknowledged when I spoke to him the difficulties of finding teams in Europe.  

Soccer... the sport of the future since the 70’s. 

You really don’t think Lebron at CB, just playing defense, couldn’t push around 5’7” strikers?  Hahahaha. He’s bigger and just as fast as them. 

[Spl51]

16 minutes ago, atomic said:

America Samoa has small population but plenty of players in the NFL.  You don’t think they have a genetic advantage in American football?  
 

Yikes.

I really hope you don't seriously believe this.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

15 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Soccer... the sport of the future since the 70’s. 

You really don’t think Lebron at CB, just playing defense, couldn’t push around 5’7” strikers?  Hahahaha. He’s bigger and just as fast as them. 

Allen Iverson could have been the best soccer player in the world during his prime. 

[interloper]

9 hours ago, Spl51 said:

Yikes.

I really hope you don't seriously believe this.

He needs to be banned.

[atomic]

1 hour ago, interloper said:

He needs to be banned.

Ridiculous.  The Kalejin Tribe in Kenya sets almost every marathon record.  Small population groups can have genetics that help them excel at certain sports.  I am not going to win a marathon or be a soccer star no matter how hard I train.  

[DrungoHazewood]

12 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Allen Iverson could have been the best soccer player in the world during his prime. 

Just like he could have been the best defensive shortstop of all time, but we'll never know.

[DrungoHazewood]

12 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Soccer... the sport of the future since the 70’s. 

You really don’t think Lebron at CB, just playing defense, couldn’t push around 5’7” strikers?  Hahahaha. He’s bigger and just as fast as them. 

Ah... now I get it.  You don't like soccer you've decided it's easy and any good athlete would automatically excel at it. 

I'm sure Lebron would be able to push around much smaller players.  Buts since he's never played soccer at even a moderately high level he would have no earthly idea how to do it well or legally, and without years of training he'd look like someone who has no feel for the sport whatsoever.  It would be a much more involved version of Herb Washington, who was a world-class sprinter and a very mediocre 31-for-48 base stealer because he had no idea how to play baseball.

I'm reasonably confident that Lebron would have been a very good soccer player if he'd played soccer from a very young age.  But to transition to the sport in his 30s and almost immediately be the best center-back in the US is comically ridiculous.  You're essentially saying the Tyreek Hill or Lamar Jackson could start in the NBA this year.  It's nonsense.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

Ridiculous.  The Kalejin Tribe in Kenya sets almost every marathon record.  Small population groups can have genetics that help them excel at certain sports.  I am not going to win a marathon or be a soccer star no matter how hard I train.  

You just need to be very careful.  There's a fine line between small pockets of people with a combination of environment and genetic traits that help them in a few narrow cases, and generalizing your way into early 20th century eugenics type nonsense.  Saying Icelandic people are genetically predisposed to be vastly better at soccer leans heavily towards the latter.

[sportsfan8703]

12 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Allen Iverson could have been the best soccer player in the world during his prime. 

Nah.

11 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Just like he could have been the best defensive shortstop of all time, but we'll never know.

Nah.

But Lebron would be a beast at just playing CB and bullying 5'7" strikers.  He can play "CF" when his team presses in basketball.  It's the same principals.   

[interloper]

4 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

You just need to be very careful.  There's a fine line between small pockets of people with a combination of environment and genetic traits that help them in a few narrow cases, and generalizing your way into early 20th century eugenics type nonsense.  Saying Icelandic people are genetically predisposed to be vastly better at soccer leans heavily towards the latter.

Yeah. Exactly what I was thinking. Not the first time atomic has beaten the disgusting eugenics drum on this message board and I'm not falling for his "I'm the victim" schtick when he's called out on it. Guy's a menace if you ask me. 

[Enjoy Terror]

You all are nuts for thinking that genetic diversity has anything to do with eugenics. I can't believe I'm in agreement with Atomic on this one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27287076

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26231489

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27287074

There is no question that genetics play at least as much of a role in athleticism as environment. It would then make sense to believe that communities would have developed with specific genetic traits and cultural  push towards those activities to which they are genetically favored. 

This has nothing to do with eugenics.

 

 

[atomic]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

You just need to be very careful.  There's a fine line between small pockets of people with a combination of environment and genetic traits that help them in a few narrow cases, and generalizing your way into early 20th century eugenics type nonsense.  Saying Icelandic people are genetically predisposed to be vastly better at soccer leans heavily towards the latter.

Iceland is the second tallest nation behind the Netherlands.  But they are broader than The men from the Netherlands.  Nothing to do with Eugenics. Just a lot of athletic people there. 

[Number5]

How about Canadians?

 

Seriously, stereotypes are just wrong.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, atomic said:

Iceland is the second tallest nation behind the Netherlands.  But they are broader than The men from the Netherlands.  Nothing to do with Eugenics. Just a lot of athletic people there. 

But not even remotely enough difference from a random population of humans to account for their short-term performance.  And if they were somehow insanely genetically predisposed to soccer how come they just figured this out in 2014-2018, give or take?