Raymond Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 There's also not a strong infrastructure for girl's baseball (they end up playing softball) or basketball over here. The best female athletes in school tend to play soccer and volleyball. I do not know where you live Kwan, but there is a massive infrastructure for women's basketball. AAU, High School Programs, and really big college programs. TBH, basketball is much bigger than volleyball and soccer IMO. Yeah, I can understand the regional differences. You wouldn't find the same programs you'd find in New York as compared to Texas or Florida. I'm from Florida, so most of the infrastructure there is geared towards fielding good soccer players and volleyball players, then softball, then at the very bottom, basketball. Really? Texas is all basketball, and I would assume all urban areas are basketball heavy too. Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Here in the Bay Area near SF all the new investment seems to be Soccer. Our local school just finished a huge new soccer training ground. Its like 8 small training pitches side side by side. Very cool. Baseball seems to be making something of a comeback as well, probably due the Giants successes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas_Mike Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 There's also not a strong infrastructure for girl's baseball (they end up playing softball) or basketball over here. The best female athletes in school tend to play soccer and volleyball. I do not know where you live Kwan, but there is a massive infrastructure for women's basketball. AAU, High School Programs, and really big college programs. TBH, basketball is much bigger than volleyball and soccer IMO. Yeah, I can understand the regional differences. You wouldn't find the same programs you'd find in New York as compared to Texas or Florida. I'm from Florida, so most of the infrastructure there is geared towards fielding good soccer players and volleyball players, then softball, then at the very bottom, basketball. Really? Texas is all basketball, and I would assume all urban areas are basketball heavy too. Interesting. Basketball??? Where did you get that from. In North texas soccer is big, a little elitiest due to money being involved when you move up from rec to competitive but even so I believe it still is the number 1 played sport for under 18's. It is also very well organized with plenty of named coaches. My son played for Gordon Hill of ManU fame and there are plenty of other ex players around. However when it comes to high school and college, American football is king and that is the sport I would say is all Texas. Friday night high school football, saturday college football and then the NFL on Sunday. Big money, big crowds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymond Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 There's also not a strong infrastructure for girl's baseball (they end up playing softball) or basketball over here. The best female athletes in school tend to play soccer and volleyball.I do not know where you live Kwan, but there is a massive infrastructure for women's basketball. AAU, High School Programs, and really big college programs. TBH, basketball is much bigger than volleyball and soccer IMO. Yeah, I can understand the regional differences. You wouldn't find the same programs you'd find in New York as compared to Texas or Florida. I'm from Florida, so most of the infrastructure there is geared towards fielding good soccer players and volleyball players, then softball, then at the very bottom, basketball. Really? Texas is all basketball, and I would assume all urban areas are basketball heavy too. Interesting. Basketball??? Where did you get that from. In North texas soccer is big, a little elitiest due to money being involved when you move up from rec to competitive but even so I believe it still is the number 1 played sport for under 18's. It is also very well organized with plenty of named coaches. My son played for Gordon Hill of ManU fame and there are plenty of other ex players around. However when it comes to high school and college, American football is king and that is the sport I would say is all Texas. Friday night high school football, saturday college football and then the NFL on Sunday. Big money, big crowds. We were talking about Women's sports. Obviously football is king in the south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers13 Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Thing is in other countries not only is soccer the most exposed sport so everyone wants to play it, it's also more accessible. A lot of the inner city kids in America (which make up a large amount of pro american sports players) don't have fields or anything while their idols are NBA stars who come from similar backgrounds, so they'd never pursue soccer or consider it. Also, and this is going to sounds racist even though it's an observation, in my experience people of African descent tend to be more athletic. They make up a disproportionate amount of say, the NBA or belgian or english national team as compared to the population in the country, and African Americans play soccer at a much lower rate than white Americans in the U.S. which to me can't help the U.S. national team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers13 Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 its wasnt guzans fault the defence of usa is just shity, funny tbh my country is smaller as 1 state of US and still beat them. Well its not really their game. I used to work in the states and played alot of football when i was there. One thing i noticed was that in general the girls technically were alot better than the boys when we played. That's surprising. Why is that? I think its because the girls all play soccer when they are able to walk and they play all through school. Guys have baseball, basketball and american football to name a few. Soccer is way down the pecking order. American football I can understand but I don't see why girls wouldn't pick baseball and basketball over the other sports. Many do pick basketball and baseball (well, softball, usually) and volleyball.They are comparatively free to choose what they want to play, and many, having played soccer since childhood, and there having been strong role models in the women's game for some time now, stay with the sport. Boys, on the other hand, very rarely get to choose. Their sporting activities are on the whole taken MUCH more seriously by the adults around them, so the instant they show some kind of athletic inclination, they're quite literally dragged out of whatever sport they might be playing and thrown into whichever of the school's programs is the money/prestige-maker, which is essentially never soccer. They will often face pretty significant social repercussions if they do stick with soccer (or other non-mainstream sport), especially if they're seen as talented. Coaching tends to be abysmal-to-non-existent, too. "Hey, the PE Teacher's assistant isn't busy Saturday, get him to handle it." It's pretty stupid. My high school bucks the trend because we sucked so much at all other sports that playing soccer actually was seen as the prestigious thing. But that had more to do with the fact that we literally went years without winning a game in American football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 African Americans play soccer at a much lower rate than white Americans in the U.S. which to me can't help the U.S. national team 1. Don't see any reason why living in the inner city would discourage you from playing soccer football, certainly doesn't deter young kids living in the slums of Rio or Sao Paulo from playing footie. 2. Even if only white Americans were interested in soccer football, the size of the white population in America would suggest that they would still do pretty well, a la European countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted May 31, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2013 1. Don't see any reason why living in the inner city would discourage you from playing soccer football, certainly doesn't deter young kids living in the slums of Rio or Sao Paulo from playing footie. 2. Even if only white Americans were interested in soccer football, the size of the white population in America would suggest that they would still do pretty well, a la European countries. I'd suggest it's the same as down here (Australia). Football is just not our main sport - Aussie rules footy (southern states), Rugby League/Union (eastern states) and Cricket (nationally) make up our biggest sporting interests, with football a distant 4th. As such, our best athletes gravitate towards those sports. Any real talent left over for football - both players and managers - go abroad to better competitions, thereby condemning the local leagues to lesser quality, continuing the lesser column inches in the media and poor overall national results compared to smaller countries where football is the number 1 sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 (edited) Given how big football is in the UK, I'm surprised that a lot of its former colonies don't seem to care much about it. India doesn't even have a professional football league. Edit: India does have a professional league. Still, the point stands - very little interest in football exists there. Edited May 31, 2013 by legov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I thought the main girls sport in America is cheering for the boys. Maybe I watch too much FNL. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreeVillan Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Do you guys wanna start your own thread? It's a bit boring to read you see. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Ok. Benteke rocks. Bentekkkkkers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan_007 Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Yeah so Benteke?? so hot right now! couple of nice finishes against the USA, or shall we keep talking about womens sports in the states? yaawwwwnnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KjParton Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 So that Benteke chap eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Hopefully he's learn't the offside rule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfTimePost Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 That was the first genuinely interesting conversation to happen on here in months :/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArteSuave Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 What is a Benteke? What has he got to do with youth women's softball infrastructure in the USA? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelboyVilla Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 How did the partnership with Lukaku work out? I know Tekkers scored 2 but did they link up well or are they too similar to play in the same side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 benteke is worth 22m in my eyes, 1m for every year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted May 31, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2013 In that case, we should offload him when he's 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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